Craft Space near completion

 Spring in the mountains of Western North Carolina can be a busy time of year.  The countryside is coming to life with flowers, new lambs and gardens begging to be created.  Keeping up with it all can be a daunting task, but we are moving steadily along.  Evening hours are dedicated to making the Craft Space more tidy and with greater accessibility to supplies.  We are almost there!

The rack to the left holds my watercolor, mixed media and sketching papers on top along with alcohol and pigment inks, brushes and supplies to go along with these media.  There is a hanging storage on the left end of the rack that holds acrylic paints and sprays similar to this item available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/TEMUORG-Hanging-Acrylic-Organizer-Supplies/dp/B0DKHLBHYW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2HHV2TUT1KT03&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CNDwu64TaUgOAwNEShFC2oEs1qYDR3pBpp6Ei2AU-HOTrG9IaVLf3j2pTIN7YiOSfxHStqRYCtSDJ7-FMeDEKtSML8Bdnm0SLljDAhVfUpclc4jtjcK5n3GPVvl-5PgI.NjiSES5Km2X_jc9O7Y2YPvvSGds7FKF2S8prFZ2wZd4&dib_tag=se&keywords=clear%2Bpoly%2Bover%2Bthe%2Bdoor%2Bhanging%2Bacrylic%2Bpaint%2Bstorage&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1775952451&sprefix=clear%2Bpoly%2Bover%2Bthe%2Bdoor%2Bhanging%2Bacrylic%2Bpaint%2Bstorage%2Caps%2C160&sr=8-1&th=1

Watercolor and oil paints are also on this rack along with giftwrap, tags, bags and papers as well as sewing supplies located on the lower shelves.  

The next rack has beading supplies mostly but also some items that rather form a transition to the rack that is along the side of the next wall.  This space is dedicated to tatting on the upper shelves and paper crafting on the lower shelves  The large carrying case with the pink top has more beading items including findings that merge tatting with jewelry making.  

Across the room is this:

The lateral file holds my tatting books and reference materials.  The desk over it has a tempered glass top which eliminates any need for a glass mat for applying inks when I am paper crafting and the cutting mat has a grid that allows me to make measurements as needed for determining sizes when considering smaller paper and mixed media items.  Most of my brushes, markers, pens and pencils as well as pallet knives are also in this area.  

One thing I learned about the internet, especially in the early days, was that nothing there was sacred.  If you found it, (IT being patterns, tips, techniques and so on) it was best to print it out and store it somewhere because websites come and websites go and at any time, what you just found might never be accessible again.  The notebooks on the shelves over the desk hold the items that I have found over the years.  Some of them are duplicated, but as Granny once said: "Better to have and not need than to need and not have."

To the left in this photo you can see the screen for our server on which I have stored many of the videos and other information from our business.  Here too are all the electronics for our household such as internet modem, wi-fi router and central printer.  These are not specific to the crafting, but in  today's world, the internet makes almost everything possible.  

In the coming months, I am going to be giving presentations on several crafts including tatting.  Area weavers have asked if I would give a demonstration and teach them the basics of tatting.  For that I have set up my video station in this area as wel so I can create a visual to help them stay on task with the technique if I cannot give one-on-one instruction during the session.  Currently the video set-up looks like this photo:

The table is on casters for ease of movement and the camera is above the space ready to tape the moves that demonstrate the chosen technique, not just for tatting, but for any medium.  Under the table is an asortment of shoeboxes that contain adhesives, punches and embossing powders that remain accessible when I need them primarily for papercrafting.  When the camera is not attached to the table, I can  move the table into the center of the room and add a tabletop overlay for cutting fabric.  This allows for dress-makeing, quilting or painting of larger objects.  (Yes, all of these things are in the works!)  Off to the right is a rack that holds papers and cardstock as well as my sewing machine, notions box and a few items for floral work.  Of course the broom is for tidying up after the day is done.  

This is the result of more than 25 years of dedicated crafting.  While the organization has been coming together, the crafting has gone on.  You do not see a "comfortable chair" in here.  No, crafting can be dirty work that for me, at least, is often best accomplished standing up or sitting on a stool like the one in the photo above.  There is, however more to come about that "comfortable chair."

Changes and Refinement to the Craft Space

 Since our move into the new house, my craft space has evolved from a small outbuilding (hence the "Art Barn" designation) into a larger and better equipped basement room inside the house itself.  It remains "The Art Barn" but is better in every way!  Shelving is larger and more accessable, there is consistent heat and since it is in a sub-terrainian basement, during the hotest weather last summer, the room temperature was never above 72 degrees.  So far humidity has not been a problem.

With a speaking engagement with a local weavers guild coming up in May, I was in need of a desk mount camera stand that could handle video taping from overhead.  It has taken a while to find one (Good ol' Amazon!) and the unit arrived today.  It's not super complicated and since I don't expect to be live-streaming anything and have good edit software at my disposal, I can cut in shots, title slides or audio with explanations as necessary.  The stand can handle my Sony HDR-CX240 with ease.  First run of taping will come over the weekend.   This little device is full HD, lightweight and easy to use.  Like many similar camcorders, the microphone is the weak link in the overall function , but this camera was built for this sort of use.

Now that the tables and shelves are together and in the room, having the ability to tape instructions and demonstrations is exciting!

Tatting for the Fair

 Last fall, my friend served as a volunteer at the Mountain State Fair in Asheville, an event that I have submitted entries for the Tatting competition in years past.  She indicated that there were so few entries in the “Tatting"  catagory of Arts and Crafts that she feared that category would so go away in the not very distant future.  She encouraged me to find something that I could enter in the fair next year.  So I set about it.  

Over the years, I have collected tatting pattern books by various authors.  One such author is Ineke Kuiperij, a lady in the Netherlands whose books came across the Atlantic with my friend and tatting colleague Riet Surtel-Smeulders when she would journey to the US from her home in the Netherlands to visit family, attend Palmetto Tatters Guild’s Tat Days and other area events.  Sadly, Riet passed away in 2025 and the world has lost another grand master of the craft.

I looked through Ineke’s books and found one particular pattern that I felt would challenge my skills and be an appropriate entry into the competition this coming fall.  It is in this book and an image of my chosen ornament is shown on the cover in the upper right hand corner.  

The piece is complex and created in 4 panels.  Each panel has 5 independent sections which are joined as the piece is tatted along.  Beads are added at intervals.  I chose Liz Metalic in size 20 and the color 313 (SandDollar) with Hemitite beads size 4 mm and black onxy beads size 6 mm.  The pattern was written for size 80 thread and I knew this finished piece would be larger, but it was one I wanted to showcase.  

Judging how much to wind onto my shuttles can be a challenge as well and on the 4th section of the 1st panel, I cut it so close that I had to make the last ring a Split Ring even though the pattern did not call for it:

Thank goodness for crochet hooks and split rings!

Christmas is a-coming!

 With Yuletide upon us, creating gifts, tags and other things for the holiday has taken on a sense of urgency.   From my perspective, a hand-made gift holds special meaning.  The person who created it was thinking of the recipients especially and putting their personal energy into that special item while it was being made.  It is almost as if the item holds a blessing for the person for which it is intended.  

Even Christmas items hold a special feeling when they have been created by the home-owner. Our wreath this year began with a base of artificial greenery on a wire frame to which I added some apple wood branches from an apple tree felled during our encounter with Tropical Storm Helene when it came through her 16 months ago.  I added pine cones found locally and decorated with glitter paint, wild, dried flower stalks that I think are from the artemisia family and bits of lichens that I found on fallen limbs from a nearby silver maple.  

The gold mini-poinsettia flowers were artificial, but added some sparkle that was more muted on the pine cones.  The red ornaments were given to me by friend Sharon Tabor, a fellow-tatter and who created the tatting on them.  The bow has both burlap and acetate ribbon.   Hanging on the south side of our main entry, it will bless the house all all who enter by it.

Playing with Alcohol Inks

 About a year before our relocation alcohol inks came into my craft stash.  On my own, I made no progress using these inks.  I had created a few backgrounds but they had not been quite what I had hoped.  Mary Polanco is a YouTube Creator (Mary Polanco Designs) and associated Facebook Group (MPD Community).  She recently posted that she would be conducting a class on the use of alcohol inks and I enrolled.  

The day of class I assembled the suggested tools which included alcohol inks, specialized, non pourus papers, a manual blower and 91% alcohol or commercially prepared blending solution.  In the past, I had added these inks to alcohol gel applied on gel plates and pressed watercolor paper or card stock onto the gel plate rather than putting the liquid ink directly onto paper and floating it around in the liquid alcohol or blending solution.  Somehow I cannot help but believe that using the gel this way gave poorer results.  Here is a sample of what I came up with as a result of the class:

The upper 4 were inks applied to the back side of photo paper and the lower 4 were created using the front side of the same Canon photo pater.  Over all the backgrounds created on the back of the photo paper were much more to my liking.  They were more difuse with special effects that arose from spraying alcohol over the images after they had dried.  I did use a less concentrated alcohol sprayu (80% rather than the 91% or 99% as was recomended.  

Many creaftspeople recommend using Yupo paper when working with alcohol inks, but that is jusst out of my price range.  Photo paper is cheeper and more readily available.  However along the way I have found some Brea Reese brand Waterproof Panels in after-market shops.  Most of the ones I have are smaller (3" x 3") and seem a bit thick for cards, even though they state on the label that they compare to Yupo.  I was very pleased with the results of adding alcohol inks to one of these panel.  

Overall the look of the Yupo knockoff was exceptional and much better than when using the photo paper, expecially on the shiny side. 

Cutting out shapes of the photo paper was easy enough.  The presentation indicated that certain plastic or synthetic papers don't cut as well as other papers.  I was able to easily cut a circle from the photo paper using a circle die.  I glued a diecut sentiment directly onto the circle cut from the photo paper.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of the card created from my efforts.  Next time, T'm sure.  

Meanwhile I tried another technique also suggested in our class:  I stamped an image onto the paper.  I tried first with Versa Fine Permanent Ink in Vintage Sepia.  Because it is a slower drying ink, I attempted to speed up the drying process using a heat gun set on a low heat setting.  The pigment ink didn't completely dry and the effect whas not what I wanted, even after it was die cut.  It wasn't bad, but not what i wanted.  

The images on the left were stamped with VersaFine Pigment ink Vintage Sepia and Trinity Stamps Fern-tastic stamp and die set (top image, left) and a leaf from Altenew's Beautiful Day stamp and die set (lower left).  The  Outline is barely visible and it took a VERY long time to dry.  Even using a heat gun didn't help much and the photo papter curled quite a bit.  I have entertained the thought of using a black permanent marker to trace the lines of Sepia ink in an attempt to improve the finished product, but I have not done so at the time of this posting.  Attmept #2 using the largest pumpkin in Spellbinders Paper Arts's Charming Pumpkins clear stamp set and fussy cutting it out used a die ink (Altenew's Crisp die ink in Permanent Black) was a much better outcome.  All in all, I don't think I'll be using this technique in the future.  

During the Class Video, Mary showed an example of a card that had a cut-out section of regular card stock mounted over the alcohol ink background.  I found that MOST appealing and decided to follow her lead by cutting out some butterflies from my own stash (Spellbinders Delicate Butterflies Cutting Dies).  Alone the cut-out section looked weak.  So I went back and used the cutting dies that created the butterfly wings outline and body.  That went much better:

Of course there was the portion of the cut-out that was removed.  So I also made the butterfly wing outline for the 2 of them by cutting from the alcohol colored photo paper.  They weren't BAD, but one was so light in color that it, too looked washed out.  The other was of enough of a contrasting color value that it was as improvement.  These are seen here:

Based on this, I made other cut-outs of the basic form from one of the alcohol ink backgrounds that had bolder colors and the wing outlines from the darker brown used in the first example.  These turned out to be the best examples of this technique so far.  

 

These should compliment any sort of greeting card that I might make in the future.  

I did want to make one last attempt of die cutting photo paper colored with alcohol inks.  This time I used an intricate rose cutting die by Moments.  The most telling aspect of cutting this out was attempting to line up the cutting die to allow for the greatest amount of color on the rose pedals and the green areas for the leaves.  So the colors were somewhat off and it was a simple matter to dissolve a drop or two of the green alcohol ink into a watercolor mixing well with a few drops of the 91% alcohol mixative.  Then this could be applied onto the cut-out intensifying the colors in the best places.  This was an appropriate way to finish out the item for use on a later card also.  

The rose on the left was cut from the photo paper and re-touched with alcohol ink.  The rose on the right was cut first from green card stock then from pink card stock.  The pink die cut was trimmed to be only the pedals and buds and then that part was glued over the green die cut at the position of the flower and buds.  Either would make a lovely addition to a feminine card for many occasions.  Quite a good run on playing with Alcohol Inks!

A NOTE:  I do not receive any compensation for the items mentioned in this post.  This is merely for my personal recording and as reference to anyone who reads these posts.

 

 I would have never believed how hard it might be to spend time crafting while moving into a new home.  So many details require attention that it is mind-boggling.  The house has 8 rooms plus 2 areas for storage and multi-purposes.  The main living areas where we and our family are spending most of the time were the most important, of course.  Certain "decorative amenities" would have to wait, but those are now being wrapped up.

Having a space to be myself in is important: sleeping, dressing, attending to the activities of daily living and being able to relax, regroup and prepare for the coming day was of primary importance and in my humble oppinion, now complete.  At the end of July, we moved the contents of the last storage building - a 20' x 10' space - into our basement.  Much of the contents were my craft supplies: papers, paints, tatting threads, beads, findings and more were among the contents of that holding.  Also among the contents of the unit were all the networking components which would make the de facto access to the internet, digital storage and files we have accumulated over the years possible.  

So here we are, 5 weeks later and I am still not able to have access to my crafting.  Granted, I COULD set aside all the amenities that make our home liveable and comfortable for friends and family and simply attend to my craft space.  But that would not be condusive to a smooth flow of life in our home.  We had more than 30 years in our previous living space to compartementalize work, family life, recreation and crafting life and so far I have only had about 5 months to accomplish the same things.

Meanwhile, Tat Days is approaching in about 3 weeks and other crafting urges are tugging at my sleeves.  Not to mention the seasonal fruits and vegetables that are ripening and ready for harvest. 

Maybe in another month. . . 

Move in Getting Closer

 I am growing more excited by the day!

Our new home is finished to the point that we are beginning to move in belongings!  I am beginning to sense that my new Art Barn - now a room in the basement - will soon be ready to hold my art and crafting suppies and provide me with the space I need for my creative endeavors!  

This photo was taken while we were still under construction, but it's clear that the structure is and Arts-and-Crafts style cottage that, like the Tardis of Dr. Who fame, is bigger on the inside!  Can't wait!

Here's how it looks at the moment:

The green item behind the stool is a drafting table that is folded down to conserve space.  The words of Mark Knoffler's song "Prairie Wedding" from the Sailing to Philadelphia album / CD (2001): "I know it ain't much, it needs a woman's touch" pretty much say it all!

 Most recently, my Art Barn has reminded me more of an Animal Barn!  When we first arrived, our son had 12 ewes, 2 withers and a ram.  Our camper was set up within sight of his sheep barn and by late into the fall, the ewes began having their babies.  The first was born on my birthday and was dubbed "Early Girl" because it was the earliest that this particular herd had ever had a first-born lamb.

Since then, a total of 17 lambs have been born.  Most of them were single births and likewise most of them were females.  There have been lots of opportunities to photograph them along with their mothers.  I have been able to take the time to create watercolor versions of them basing what I have done on tutorials by other, more accomplished water color artists.  Nuturally the first one is not as good as I would have liked:

 Oh there are all sorts of reasons (it wasn't loose enough; the proportions were off and so on) but it was part of a learniing process.  The next ones were a bit better:

       

Each of these was created more loosly with less attention to trying to make the resultiing images exact.  However, the tutorials I followed were of fleece sheep and our breeds are either full meat sheep (yes, there is a difference although fleece sheep are used for meat especially if the offspring is a male) or crosses between fleece breeds and meat varities.  So I must keep trying and see what I can come up with over the next attempts.

Meanwhile, it is looking like our house is about ready to be moved into, so watercolor, tatting and blogging may have to wait until I get that process finished.  Hopefully that won't take too long, but I know it will be a process.  Catch up with you soor!

Craft and Art

 During the past 6 or 7 months, we have been waiting for our new home to be ready for us to move into, there has been some time for reflection about some of the artistic pursuits I enjoy.  These include knitting, crochet, tatting, sewing, papercrafting, rosemalling (traditional Norwegian painting) and watercolor.  With such an extensive list, it's fair to state that I am not necessarily a master of any of these, although I have been active in many of these since childhood.  

As a tatter, I applied to a local Fine Arts League to enter one of their juried shows while also entering the local area fair's heritage techniques competition.  Twice I was awarded a red ribbon for my entry at the Mountain State Fair, but the Fine Arts League refused to allow my entry to their competition.  Upon asking for an expanation of the rational for declining my entry to such an organization, I was told that quilting is an art form, but tatting is not.  This seemed odd to me so an investigation of Art compared to Craft seemed appropriate.   

Not the highest level of researcher, I turned to the internet and found 2 sources that were intriguing:

https://artincontext.org/difference-between-art-and-craft/

and a video entitled  "How Folk Art Shaped the World We Know Today"  

What I am going to share comes from these sources and others as well.  Art historians H. W. Janson and A. F. Janson open their 1000 page "History of Art" by asking "What makes this Art?"  And this is indeed the quintessential question.  Mankind has been expressing himself by way of a variety of vehicles that are lumped together as "Art." From painting, to sculpture, to carving objects out of wood,  stone and bone, forming vessels from clay and turning animal hair (or human hair for that matter) into wearable clothing of unique style.  There is also photography, choreography, drama, music, creative uses of paper (oragami, for example) or even the making of paper itself; the list seems endless.  And still the question remains: "What makes any given endeavor Art?"  And what keeps tatting from being Art?

In the article "Difference Between Art and Craft - A Look at Art Versus Craft," Isabella Meyer wrote that the division between crafts and arts began during the Renaissance Period.  Beginning at the end of  Medieval Times, the Renaissance in Europe was a time of incredible and rapid growth of social, intellectual, economic and cultural growth that involved more secular individuals rather than the scholar-clerics of the previous age.  The great thinkers of the Renaissance were men and women of many talents who introduced new ways of thinking to their various homelands and pursuits.  During the Medieval times and earlier, the term "artist" didn't really exist.  People who were interested in or possessed an afinity to a particular endeavor would study as pupils or apprentices to a master of the skill.  All of them functioned at the behest of the client and generally speaking it was the patron who received the praise for the finished product.  The Renaissance changed that.

During this time there was an increase in modification to the way things were both considered and carried out.  It was the innovations that led to recognition of increasing numbers of outstanding individuals in given fields.  This meant that the artist became separated from the artisan and was subsequently held in higheer esteem.  Neither made their own tools or even materials, however the artists appear to have moved away from group practice such as had existed in the schools and guilds and into the realm of the solitary practitioner.

Additionally, Meyer, writing for the "Art in Context" organization's website, notes that what is seen as artistic has changed over time.  What is seen as Craft has structure and takes a long time to master.  The same can be said for Art and in many cultures, the distinction between them is blurred.  An object created may be very functional, but the design upon the finished product may be contemplated by the owner / observer and be the source of emotions brought up by gazing upon it.

Everyday objects that were functional for the common people were adorned with markings, or symbols of cultural or personal meaning.  Sometimes these were connected to stories that conveyed meanings to the observer.  Techniques that were associated with either the creation of the object itself or the images which adorned it were often passed down from one generation to the next   The Rennaisance did not affect this as a whole but the industrial revolution did.  Everyday objects were no longer created by the user or someone in their village or clan. Instead these were mass produced by machinery.  Sometimes there were crafters marks that were part of the object, but many times there was not.  It was during this phase that people began adding their own ornamentation to machine-made objects.

The Arts and Crafts Movement began in England in the last half of the 19th century.  It was led by people like William Morris and was an international trend in decorative and fine arts concepts that sought a revival of historic craftsmanship that eventually became the movement we now know as Art Nouveau.

One area this trend has specifically left off is that of fiber arts.  This time-consuming and labor intensive art form is one that has been carried out primarily (although not exclusively) by women.  The products that are created are often from natural elements and subject to breakdown and detioration over time by the forces of nature.   Yet the craftsmanship of preparing the fibers, spinning them into thread or yarn then weaving or knotting them together is more than 20,000 years old.  Fabric historians point to ways of creating cloth that have been lost to usbut may still be found in fabric museums around Europe.  This has come about in part because of the industrialization of weaving, knitting, crochet and lace-making  When an artisan puts himself or herself into one of these endeavors, each part of the process tells a story or has significance to both the person who created it and to the one who uses it.

Much artistic endeavors have endurance on its side: native artwork on the surface of clay vessels, the frescos of Italian churches, the plays of Euripides, the poetry of Homer, Dante and Chaucer, the Scandinavian designs on furniture and so many more.  Meyer and others point to function verses emotion as being the dividing line between Art and Craft.  But there is so much more, because what ever is created has a process that arises from desire and can connect the viewer to that desire, whatever the art form.    

Tatting seems to fall into the arena of Folk Art because of its  Living Tradition essence.  It is a practical skill yes, but one that over time has morphed in the hands of cultures around the world and has become a true artform reflecting the life and personal artestry that is unique to the creator.  Folk Art reminds us that "Art" is not confined to museums or galleries.  Art belongs in our homes and in our everyday lives.  It connects us to ourselves and to where we have come from.

Yes, there is Folk Art and there is Fine Art.  And they both have a place.

#Bead Me Endrucks December Game

I do my best to participate in the challenges or games associated with the Facebook Group Endrucks 1920 Project each month.  Doing so makes me more aware of tatting fundamentals and helps stretch my tatting skills.  For December, the challenge was to add beading to one of the motifs that Elonore Endrucks-Leichtenstern published in 1920.  For more information about this group, visit 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1235560633606162

The pattern #32 was re-written by Carin Jansen with notations updated to more modern standards.  Frau Endrucks published her work using written instructions in German and in a font that is hard to read by today's standards.  She used her own style of notations making following her instructions challenging.  Photos of each piece are present throughout the publication, but sometimes the photographer placed the tatting upside down or backwards before capturing the image for print.  This adds a layer of complexity to the work as a whole.  Consequently, it was Carin's interpretation that was the one I followed for this creation.  Carin's pattern is creative enough to offer up 2 ways of carrying out the motif: one that creates a continuoum along one side of the motif at the end of which the tatter can round the end and return to the starting point along the other side; 

 

and the second method creates a motif of blocks that can be joined together to form a length of lace or can be fashioned into a larger square, rectangle or shape such as a cross for a bookmark, according to the wishes of the individual following the pattern. 

My goal was to complete this pattern in such a way that it would encircle a satin-wrapped styrofoam tree ornament with a circumference of approximately 8" (20.32 cm).  Beads would be added to the tatting thread when the shuttles were wound so they could be added to the outer chain as well as to certain free picots of rings along the way.  The pattern as Carin prepared it using the first method did allow for that sort of configuration.

The motif at the top was not in any way from the Endrucks 1920 Project.  The design was fairly simple and tied the central section to the entire piece.  The pattern follows below and may also be found here:

December #BeadMeEndrucks Christmas Ornament Cap

 © 2025 Sally M. Biggers

Abbreviations / Notations: 

R = ring                                          p = picot                                Ch = chain                             

lbp = long bead picot                    prev = previous                     dnrw = do not reverse work

lj = lock join                                   vsp = very small picot          SCMR = self-closing mock-ring                                                        

Links to tutorials:

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/p/tatting-resources.html

Basic Tatting Terms English-Italian https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_7DetVeL2rW7Y3GYkyjRdw7S6k8ZcWbh/view

Long Bead Picot technique by Jane Eborall   http://www.janeeborall.freeservers.com/AddBeadsNew.pdf

 

Materials:

Crochet hook                        20 15/0 seed beads                         10 6/0 seed beads

4 - 6 yards/meters Lizbeth thread size 40 or Olympus Lamé Metallic or similar thread

coiless safety pins

This pattern can be created with needle or shuttle

Instructions:

This small motif is made up of first a central beaded SCMR that alternates 5 long picots and 5 joining picots.  Over each of the long picots 4 15/0 seed beads are placed (lbp – 4 beads) and held temporarily by a coiless safety pin until it can be removed at the time they are lock joined by the chain in Round 1.  A 6/0 seed bead is slipped over each picot (lbp – 1 bead) in this round and likewise held in place by a coiless safety pin until the Round 2 chain connects these together. 

Wind about 1 M / yard of thread onto a shuttle without cutting it from the ball.  Using the diagram below, begin SCMR at point designated with the star and proceed as follows:

Central Ring:

SCMR: *3 ds, long lpb (4 beads), 3 ds, p *.  Repeat from * to * four times leaving off the final p. Close SCMR.  DNRW. 

Round 1:

Begin Ch with a vsp, * Ch 4 ds, lbp (1 bead), Ch 7 ds, lj to lbp of prev R leaving a small space, 7 ds, lbp (1 bead), 4 ds, lj to next p of prev R *.  Repeat from * to * 4 times leaving off the last p and lj to vsp that began the round.  Cut, tie and hide ends.

Round 2:

Re-wind shuttle with about 12 in / 30 cms of thread and do not cut from ball. Join to any vsp at the join of the lbp (4 beads) of the previous Round and begin chain.  *Ch 9 ds, p, 9 ds, lj simultaneously to both lbp’s of the previous Round, Ch 9 ds, p, 9 ds. Lj at top of lbp (4 beads) of previous round *.   Repeat from * to * 4 times, and lj the base of the first chain.  Cut, tie and hide threads.   

Finish:

Cut a length of thread measuring approximately 45 to 50 cms / 18 to 20 in.  Using a tapestry needle, thread one end of the length of thread and begin weaving it through the free picots alternating between the cap created by the above pattern and spaces between the chains on one of the sides of the Endrucks #32 motif around the widest portion of the ornament.  When all the spaces and picots have been threaded, adjust the tension between them to be neat and equal, then cut, tie and hide thread ends.

E32’s reworked pattern’s pdf is part of the Endrucks 1920 Project, please for any detail refer to the main Endrucks 1920 Project document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view )

The pattern may be reproduced for personal use and tatted freely.