Design-Tat

Trial Run

2011-09-30T11:52:00.001-07:00

Drawing programs can be useful for trying out all kinds of ideas. I had plans to make a strip of lace for a bracelet or choker that I could use as a strap for a central piece of jewelry. Since I didn't have any flashes of inspiration I just started playing around with different ideas seeing how they would look and figuring out what would work best and what would be the easiest to tat.

I started with a basic little 4 ring bit. It was too small so I tried 4 of them which was better. Then I thought a small side ring might give some variation. It seemed kind of boring and it was going to be a pain working through all of the necessary split rings.
Then I thought maybe a square of cloverleaves but the chains on the inside made it a stinker to work in a continuous row. Since I wanted a strap like effect and not just a single motif, what I was striving for was the look of a motif but the continuous flow of an edging.

I took the already created cloverleaves and made a copy of them that I could keep going back to, to copy and paste. You can see it in the lower right.

Then I copied the clovers again and put the chains on the outside which was an improvement, but not quite what I needed so I rotated it.

The next version looked better but meant that I had to do a cloverleaf in the middle of working a split chain in order to work it continuously. It's possible, but awkward to work. Some designs are like that. They look good, but they're fussy to tat. Most people will refuse to work this kind of a design because it's just more trouble than it's worth. I usually find another way of doing it when I get this kind of a problem.

So I tried it again without the side clovers, which made it nothing more than a chain and clover edging. B-o-r-i-n-g. I added a little interest with some large ring/small ring combination, but it made the centre look bare and unconnected. I thought that a row of tiny split rings would help, but when it came to tatting the design it was already wide enough so I actually tatted something a little different from the diagram.

It would have taken 4 or 5 hours to tat the various samples just to see which looked good and which had the best "flow". Doing several trial pieces in the drawing program saved me hours of tatting time and resulted in a finished piece much faster.

When you use a drawing program, you don't have to have a specific purpose in mind. You can use it to just try out different ideas and see what they look like.

Inside out designing

2011-07-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

A good way to get some insight into making your own designs is to look at what other people have done before. Take a look at this pattern called Anemone which is on the cover of the Dover publication Tatting Doilies and Edgings edited by Rita Weiss.

This doily obviously has some good negative space, but that's only one thing that makes this an interesting doily. What are the other features being used here to create this design? How do you think the designer was able to create a doily the perfect size to fit the surrounding motifs?

Doilies

2011-05-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

This is a doily from an older publication.

This is a doily from a newer publication.

What is you opinion about the designs?

What do you like or dislike about them?

Do you know why you feel that way about them?

Edited to add a doily made from motifs.

New Course May 2011

2011-04-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

There will be a new Design-Tat course starting in May 2011. The cost of the course is $20.00 Canadian paid through PayPal. Portions of the lessons are shared here but the full lesson and the discussion are all in the Design-Tat Yahoo group which is only accessible to class members. We will look at how to design your own patterns and how to write them out. There is a full step by step tutorial on using drawing software. The course will also include information on creating your own publications. The lessons are spread out so that you can work at your own pace. If you are interested in joining please email me for more information.

Here is how the classes work. Anyone proficient enough to tat a ring and chain can do this course. You don't need to know any advanced techniques, but as with most things, the more techniques you know the more possibilities you have. For example, if you know how to do split rings and split chains you can incorporate them into your designs both as a means to move from one row to another and as design elements. If you don't know how to do those techniques you won't include them in your designs. Many beautiful designs exist that don't use those techniques. They aren't a requirement, but they are an asset.

Upon receipt of your payment of $20.00 Canadian you will be sent an invitation to join the Design-Tat Yahoo group. Once all of the invitations have been sent out and accepted I will begin posting lessons. Usually we begin with some questions to find out what people really want to learn, then I post the first PDF lesson. Since the lessons are in PDF format you can work at your own pace. We don't meet in a room or at a particular time.

The lesson will require you to do some very simple tatting but in order to do the tatting you will have to make some choices which will dictate what you do next. After you do your tatting you will scan or photograph what you did and upload your picture to the photo album that I designate for that lesson. Several days later when everyone has had a chance to do their homework we will all look at the pictures and talk about the choices we made and how those choices will affect what comes next.

Then I will post another lesson and we will do the same thing with that lesson.

Periodically I will post a picture here to the Design-Tat blog and we will look at the picture and discuss it's design merits or lack of them. We will discuss what's good, what's bad and why. The discussion will happen in email in the Design-Tat Yahoo group.

One of the lessons will take what has been learned and apply it to making a small design. When your design is completed you will post it to a designated album and we will look at all the designs and talk about their merits. This will give you the feedback that all budding designers need.

We will discuss the good the bad and the ugly, and then you will write out the pattern for your design and post it in the designated File. Other class members will tat your design from your pattern which will give you feedback on your pattern writing skill.

After we have done some design work I will begin posting a tutorial in several sections on how to use drawing software. I will provide you with the link to download a FREE PC drawing program. (I don't use a Mac so I can't attest to the performance of Mac software, but the principles given in the tutorials, will work with any drawing software.) The tutorials will go through the different features on the drawing software, what they are and how to use them in a very detailed manner with screen shots of what you see, what you should click on and how to move things about to get the best use out of the software. Most drawing software has the same features but they may be located in different places, called by different names, or accessed from different menus and once you know what to look for you can poke around in the program until you find the feature your are looking for.

This segment of the class has a quite steep learning curve so the lessons which may start out being posted every few days will slow down to being posted every few weeks.

Once you have learned how to use a drawing program you will draw your own design and post it to the designated folder where it can be test tatted by the group. I will go through your drawing and offer suggestions on how it might be improved.

After we have completed this part of the course we will go on to discuss how to use the drawing software to create a design. We will look at how to draw a design on top of a picture and how to use the software to test out design ideas. We will take a cursory look at colour and shape and how they fit into designing.

We will end by talking about creating your own publication and what are some of the problems and pitfalls you might encounter and how to overcome them.

The first few lessons are very easy and the lessons will be posted several days apart. As we progress, the amount of homework won't really increase, but it will probably take longer to do it so the time between lessons will increase. Think of when you were in school. Learning the ABC's was easy, but writing your first short story took a bit of time thinking about what to write and how to write it. So it is with this course. Every attempt will be made to keep the majority of the class on the same lesson so if no one has posted their homework, that's a signal to me that you aren't ready to move on yet.

Since the lessons are in PDF format you can work at home at your own pace. If life gets in the way, as it does from time to time, some people may find that they can't keep up. Even if they can't work as fast as the rest of the class they will still have the formal lessons to refer to and they can still read the dialog from the emails.

The new course is planned for May 2011 and if you are interested in joining email me at
sharon#rsbriggs.com changing the # to @ as usual. Once the course is started no more participants will be accepted until the next session in about 6 months.