Onion Earrings Tutorial

The Onion Earrings are made using true ring needle tatting.

You will need:
#7 (fine) tatting needle
Lizbeth size 20 tatting thread
11º Takumi seed beads (large-hole size 11º seed beads made by Toho)
3x4mm crystal rondelle
size 10 (1.3mm) steel crochet hook
needle threader

Most size 11º seed beads do not fit over the eye of the #7 tatting needle. But Toho makes a line of size 11º seed beads with a large hole; these are sold as "Takumi" seed beads. They come in many lovely colors and they are fantastic for tatting with beads because they fit easily over the eye of the #7 tatting needle, allowing you to add beads at any point in a tatted element. You can buy Takumi seed beads online.

In the pattern below, note:

B = put a bead on the needle

bp = make a bead picot with 1 bead

3bp = make a bead picot with 3 beads

My next blog post will go into detail about the right side and the wrong side of true ring needle tatting and tips that will help you get the best results. For this tutorial, note that the first ring is made using Reverse Order Double Stitches (RODS). That is, begin each double stitch with what is usually the 2nd half of the double stitch and follow it with what is usually the 1st half of the double stitch.

Slide a crystal rondelle onto the ball thread before starting. It is NOT inside the first ring, so slide it 5 feet down the thread. Use the first 4 feet of thread for the rings. The ball thread, including the crystal, is used for the chains.

Begin True Ring Needle Tatting

Note: To begin true ring needle tatting, the orientation of the needle thread must be as shown below. That is, the double stitches are formed using the thread coming from the needle, not from the ball (as in usual needle tatting).

RODS for ring 1

1. Ring of RODS: 12, p, 3, p, 12; close, RW.

Reverse order double stitches on the needle for Ring 1. 

Using the reverse order provides a 
smooth close for the true ring.

2. Chain: 1, (B, 1) x 8; close, DNR.

3. Clover of 3 rings:

Since we didn’t RW after the chain, the clover rings are worked on the right side. So these rings are not made with reverse order double stitches. But to keep the ring close symmetrical, end each ring with an extra 1st half double stitch! 

String 3 beads for the bead picot before beginning each ring. That is, slide 3 beads onto the tatting needle and push them down onto the needle (ring) thread. 

To join the chain just made to the ring, use a crochet hook to pull up a loop of the needle thread (start with thread under the picot) and transfer that loop to the needle, as shown.

a.     Ring: [string 3 beads] 6, 3bp, 4, p, 2; close; DNR.

b.     Ring: [string 3 beads] 2, j, 4, 3bp, 4, p, 2; close; DNR.

c.     Ring: [string 3 beads] 2, j, 4, 3bp, 6; close; DNR.

Normal order of double stitches, because the clover rings are worked on the right side. Note the extra 1st half double stitch at the end.

4. Slide up the crystal on the ball thread. Join the ball thread to the picot of the large ring (this is a non-locking join).

5. Chain: 1, (B, a) x 8; close. To join this chain to the beginning of the ring, pass the needle through the base of the ring, where the first chain starts.

6. String 6 beads on the needle and slide them down to the tatting. Tie the ball thread and the needle thread in a square knot, enclosing the 6 beads in a loop for the earring finding. Cut the ball thread and use a needle threader to hide the thread ends; trim the thread. 

7. Apply fabric stiffener, if desired, or wet block the completed motif.

     

Onion motif earrings made using True Ring Needle Tatting

Note that all rings and chains have the right side showing!

Janet Palumbo

Needle Tatting using TRUE RINGS

Here is the sound of my mind being blown: !!*!!
Why? Because I watched some YouTube videos on needle tatting with true rings that blew my mind and solved a nest of problems with which I have been wrestling for years!

First, a little background. Mostly, I like to bead. But I also like to combine fiber and beads to make jewelry--mainly using tatting, tubular bead crochet, and Turkish bead crochet. I am self taught (you can learn anything from books and YouTube videos!) and the first tatting technique I learned was needle tatting. After a while, I learned to tat using a shuttle, too. I find needle tatting significantly easier to learn and also faster to do, but it doesn't look quite as pretty as shuttle tatting. That is why I learned shuttle tatting. But it is a pain to work with beads on the shuttle thread--especially having to wind and unwind the thread all the time to move the beads along. Then, this week, I watched two videos that changed everything for me! The videos are part of the "Beginning Tatting Video Series" on YouTube (associated with the Georgia Seitz online tatting classes); I believe the woman in the videos is Tamie Montgomery. In these two videos, Tamie demonstrates how to construct a needle tatted ring that is a true ring--like in shuttle tatting--and not a self-closing mock ring, which is the usual type of ring produced by needle tatting. She credits Barbara Foster with devising the method.

Here's why true rings are so important...
The usual method of needle tatting involves using the ball thread to make the double stitches on the needle. When the needle is pulled through, you have to hold onto the loop and pass the needle through it--which really makes a self-closing mock ring. Then you have to tie a knot to reverse the work. So all through the tatting, there are these tiny little extra knots at the base of each ring and the end of each chain. Also, the ring isn't as tight as a shuttle-tatted ring is. The combination of these two things is what makes needle tatting look less delicate and less pretty than shuttle tatting (I think). If you use the true ring needle tatting technique, the rings are tighter and there are no extra knots! The resulting lace is, like shuttle-tatted lace, made up of double stitches only, without extra knots, and that is just better!

Here are the links to the videos that demonstrate how to needle tat a true ring and then how to continue with your work once you have done that. Go ahead--blow your mind!
Needle Tatting True Ring video
How to continue with true ring tatting

But wait, there's more...
Experimenting with the true ring technique over the past few days, there are a few things I would like to point out:

1. If you are making jewelry, the tail thread only needs to be between about 4 to 8 feet long, and that is a length that I can manage. The tail thread is used for the rings. I leave the thread for the chains on the ball, which means no measuring there.
2. This is the BEST method for incorporating beads into your designs! Bonus! Because the beads that end up in a ring have to be added before beginning EACH ring, you don't have to string long, complicated sequences of beads--you add the ones for each ring as you go. That also makes it easier to change your mind. And it is especially helpful if you are designing a new pattern or figuring out how to add beads to a tatting pattern that is just thread. You don't have to figure out the whole sequence and then reverse the order for stringing! Hurray! Note that all beads that are going to end up on the chain thread need to be strung before beginning your project, however.
3. The lace is stiffer and tighter than traditional needle tatting.
4. Elements like clovers work just like in shuttle tatting! Another hurray!

Onion Earrings by Janet Palumbo
True Ring Needle Tatting

So I encourage you to watch the videos and experiment with true ring needle tatting. Here are my first two earrings using this technique. In the next post, I will provide a photo tutorial of how to make the blue earrings. -Janet Palumbo

Anastasia Earrings by Janet Palumbo
True Ring Needle Tatting

Grounds for Sculpture Workshops

We are thrilled to be teaching two bead weaving workshops at the Grounds for Sculpture, in Hamilton, NJ. We taught the first one yesterday and the second one will be on February 17. We were very excited to be invited by the Grounds for Sculpture to offer these workshops during the Grounds' exhibit of the amazing beaded sculptures by Joyce C. Scott. 

The Grounds for Sculpture is an inspiring place and we wanted to do something very special for them. So we designed two projects just for them! The first is a peyote-stitch pendant featuring a stylized version of the Grounds for Sculpture logo. Since it is a sculpture garden, we embellished the logo with little flower fringes. 

Workshop participants will learn odd-count peyote. We want them to have some color choices and some design choices as well. So we offer three color combinations, as well as an alternate tribal graphic that can be made with the same beads as the logo pendant. The pendant can hang from a peyote-stitch bail or a simpler bail made of 3 loops of strung beads.

Three fringe embellishments are offered: the flower fringes shown on the purple pendant, the Swarovski crystal fringes shown on the green pendant, and the swag fringe shown on the tribal graphic version of the pendant in hematite.













For the second workshop, we designed an earring that looks like a peacock in full plumage. The Grounds for Sculpture has some resident peacocks and they use these majestic birds in their branding as well. The earrings are made using a modified St. Petersburg stitch and a lot of sparkling Czech faceted fire-polished beads.