Monday, July 21, 2008

Shuttles and other stuff

Hi everyone! Well we had a busy weekend we had! We first took my son for therapeutic riding session on Saturday morning. He had a great time! Although he wasn't too thrilled with having to wear a helmet. Here is a slide show of his horseback riding session.



Next for tatting, I have finally found. . . drumroll please. . . a group of ladies that meet monthly and tat! Wooo Hooo! Now for those of you that are saying big deal, let me assure you it's awesome after having to rely on no face to face contact with other tatters it is a big deal to me anyway. LOL :-) We had a great time talking about tatting and other things. Just wonderful! We met Saturday afternoon and we all had a blast.

I've got a few things on my blocking board so when they're dry I'll show you those but for now I've always wanted to post about my shuttles that I've collected over the years. My favorites by far are my GR8s. Love them!

Starting from the shiny shuttle on the left and going clockwise. The shiny is an abalone shell, next rosewood with abalone shell inlay, next laminated woods in multi-color, next green laminated wood, next plastic with a swirl of green and blue, next deer antler with scrimshaw letters, and finally is birdseye maple. These are all GR8 shuttles. I didn't buy one of these for a long time as all the posts I had read said they were fiddly to work with. Well once I bought one I found out how to use it which when you use a shuttle for the first time you kind of get a feel for how it works. Also Randy who makes the GR8s included some instructions on how to operate the shuttle. Once I followed the directions it was easy and I was hooked. Now I'm never without my GR8. Love them, love them. They are by far my favorites to use!


Now here starting at the top and going clockwise first is
red cedar, next a rainbow silent tatter shuttle, next ash with ebony spot silent tatter double shuttle, next is plastic tan/multi GR8, next Osage orange GR8 with relief carving, and finally Zebrawood GR8. Lovely!






I have other shuttles too. Not to mention clovers, aeros, and a couple of metal Boye shuttles. Clovers I use mainly as my second shuttles. Here's a shuttle that falls under the heading "What was I thinking?!" It's awful! I've only used it once I absolutely hate it that much. The thread gets caught on the side and the pick is too big to be usable. It is a cheapy shuttle I got thinking it was going to be like a clover only slightly bigger. It's awful! Yuck! Well live and learn. At least I learned which shape of shuttle not to invest in. ;-)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

What a good mom you are to take your son horse back riding. You're safety conscious, too...(his helmet) kudos to you!

Your collection of shuttles is so nice! Those Gr8 shuttles are a pretty penny and you have so many. I would love to have some like that. I love the doily you displayed them on. Did you tat that yourself? You did a great job. Too bad that one shuttle is such a disappointment, but it's pretty and makes a great conversation piece. Just another one for the collection if nothing else. I have some of those too...LOL!
Thanks for the nice comment on my blog.

Bonnie said...

You are super lucky to find people that you can tat with. I did find a local tatter, the lady who taught me, but most everything I've learned is from the wonderful group of internet tatters. Very, very nice collection of shuttles. I'm having a hard time with my Gr8 shuttles, any tips?

Tara said...

thanks tattingchic and bonnie. Bonnie of course I have tips for you. Stay tuned because I'm working on something to put on my blog that shows how to operate a GR8 well how I operate mine anyway.

Tara

Barbara Gordon said...

I would like to know where you get your GR8 shuttles? I like the idea of winding a bobbin instead of winding the shuttle directly, but I have never tried one of these. After reading what you said about it, I would like to give one a try! I apologize if I missed you already saying where you got them from. Not a name but a site is what I like to see.