Tuesday, June 2, 2020

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?

3 comments:

  1. Nice to see you back blogging,
    Very interesting post

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  2. Nice study and thoughts! Always interesting to try options and compare effects.
    I did a similar study on Rings on Ring back in July 2016 (post titled 'refresher').

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  3. So, if combined this with your sea creatures you could do an underwater scene!

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