Monday, February 1, 2010

Alice In Wonderland Collection

Another weekend of furious activity. There was an entire day of cleaning floors, an evening of convincing my five year old to let me help her second loose tooth out and tons of tiny tatting besides. But first, yes, she got that tooth out, it was hanging by the little vein, which of course meant to bled and she had a minor meltdown. She is fine now. The house is clean now as well. Every last tile scrubbed, carpet cleaned and bathrooms washed. I think I am ready for my guest for the week...I think. You know, I'm fabulous at providing a space for people, but I am an awful host as I lack cooking skills or desire and I have so much to do during the week that my version of entertaining is handing someone the television remote and showing them the fridge. I know, classy.

On to the tatting for the weekend. Well, I made the White Queen piece and decided that she needed a foil. So I made the Red Queen piece. Each piece used the same vintage motif. As you can tell, I quite love the motif. For the white queen I went with a clear swarovski & pearlized beads, for the red queen, black swarovski rounds and a collection of small glass beads I had stashed away. Then I used filament to embroider the lace of each silver for the white and gold for the red.

I decided though, that I couldn't leave the Wonderland family quite yet and I set about trying to find the right piece for Alice. I have the perfect blue colored thread, I just needed the right delicate motif. I decided on a simple rose, added swarovski crystals around the edge, embroidered the petals and hung a small key charm from the edge. All the pieces have a black diamond swarovski sewn into the center as well to tie them together just a bit more. Of these pieces, only the Red Queen can not be reproduced exactly since I have no more of the glass beads.

Recently, I've been feeling the pressure from a few more tatters on the etsy with what I shall call, a similar aesthetic. Basically they are starting to get all up on my firmly established niche. Rather than panic, I have been inspired to continue to expand my niche with more pieces like this. They certainly aren't black, but they still appeal to my audience of fantasy loving folks I think. Plus all this rooting around in the supply box will hopefully reduce the stash of things I thought I'd never use. I think I have a bunch more one of a kind pieces to work out in the coming weeks. Never fear though, the day any other color out numbers black in my shop is the day ...umm, yeah it's just not happening. I know who I am and my tatting will always reflect that.

I did also get a bit of work done on the gloves, but no pictures and got more edgings made for the museum display, but no pictures. I'll make sure that my aunt provides some once the display is up though. I am curious to see how she puts this together as well. I think that is it for me today. I think I might be looking at another long day trying to keep the children from undoing the cleaning and maybe I'll get a sale, it's been days...what's up sales fairy? Have I offended you in some way? Eh, I've gotten so much done with the time, I shall not complain. See you all tomorrow.

2 comments:

Emi said...

I love that Alice pendant, which is kind of odd for me really, I have always loved the Alice in Wonderland meme but more the supporting characters: the queen, the Mad Hattter, and best of all, the Cheshire cat.. this piece just captures her innocence and youth so well - lovely!
The red queen pendant is also gorgeous and it gave me a kind of funny idea based on one of the songs from the Disney movie... tho I am not sure how to make drippy red liquid look like paint and not blood so maybe it won't work anyway.

Summer said...

Gorgeous work! I love that square motif, too:)