Gary Houtz' 1-Ring Point Motif

This simple yet elegant snowflake is titled 1-Ring Point Motif and is from "Tatting the Self-closing Mock Ring for GR-8 Design" by the Shuttle Brothers Gary and Randy Houtz (the book credits this particular design to Gary). It was one of the last things I worked and planned to post before I stopped tatting and blogging, and so it languished for a few years waiting to have the ends finished off. It looks happy to finally be the lovely snowflake it was always meant to be.

I believe Gary and Randy are the ones who invented the SCMR technique; they have certainly designed many incredibly creative patterns utilizing it.  I love how the group of three little rings is repeated from the center to the arms of the snowflake - if multiple motifs are connected at the tips to make a mat, the connecting points also form the same group of little rings, a lovely repeating pattern. 

Sadly, Gary passed away in December 2020 from Covid.  He will be greatly missed. 

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Ha Mi-Kyeong's Rozallin

This is Rozallin from "Tatting Lace with Your Life" by Ha Mi-Kyeong (ISBN 978-89-98432-45-4). I love the mirrored curves in this motif, and I think the two colors work well together.  I did have a little trouble working it - I drew my large rings a bit too tight so it was difficult to get it to lie flat, and results in things overlapping a bit more than I'd like.  Because I was also working in two colors, it was a little tricky to simultaneously reverse the direction of the chains and switch colors and leave a mock picot, and so I decided to simplify on the last round by replacing the josephene knots with simple picots.  I think the first two rounds would also make a lovely snowflake and might try it when I find my white thread. 

Book cover shown below using an amazon affiliate link, but be warned that the description on Amazon is very wrong and they don't currently offer it for sale.  I just want you to be able to see the cover.  I really enjoy this book - it's patterns for small motifs and doilies, and the work is colorful and absolutely impeccable. The text is Korean, but the patterns are diagrammed with excellent photographs including close-ups of tricky bits. Some of the patterns feature overlapping elements almost like Celtic tatting.

Concept variations - small rings off a ring

I haven't done any tatting in quite a long time for a variety of unfortunate reasons, but I was organizing some papers and discovered a concept sketch and felt inspired to play a little. This is several variations on a theme, going from one side to the other using a "ring with crown of smaller rings" motif. The little green rings are all the same. The difference is the larger ring in the center and how the work is made.

1) ring and chain (traditional tatting). My thoughts:

• The first sample uses sliding joins and short chains to make a smooth green chain over the pink ring. I like this effect and with smaller joining picots they would be flush against each other for an onion ring/nested ring look.
• The second uses lock joins and longer chains to make a zig zag, with nice negative space triangles between the pink and green.

2) split ring. My thoughts:

• The smaller crown rings look very clean without extra joins or chain.
• 2 colors in the split ring could be a plus or minus depending on your goal.
• It's a bit annoying to throw those little rings off the second half of a split ring. I wouldn't enjoy a project with a lot of this.
• Large ring is more symmetric due to split ring (tatted rings are naturally slightly teardrop shaped)

3) single shuttle split ring (SSRS). My thoughts:

• Running the bare green thread between the join picots looks a little "messy".
• The ring one color and the crown rings a different color is a neat effect - it looks closer to version 1 without making chains
• Naturally front side/back side tatting, helpful if you prefer to tat that way.
• Is there a standard diagram notation for SSSRs?