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Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Box and Bookmark

I finished the first stage of the tatted box from last week, and it will definitely need to be stiffened. Thank you for all of the suggestions on stiffening in the comments of my previous post. I'm going to look through them in more detail and see what products I can find at the store.

The box is difficult to photograph, so I put a few shuttles in it to help see the dimensions. These are old German Silver tatting shuttles that I bought on eBay a while ago:


Here's another view from the side. Although the walls stay upright, they are wavy. If the box is picked up by one of the sides, it will collapse because it has no rigidity.


The next step will be blocking and then stiffening the box. I want to try using card stock to create a box form, to block and stiffen the tatting on. I'm hoping that wrapping the card stock in plastic wrap will prevent it from getting wet. If that doesn't work I'll have to find a small Tupperware or something at The Container Store that I can use as a mold for the tatting. If that goes smoothly, then maybe I can design a lid for the box as well.

I also had the chance to test out criss-crossed picots in the bookmark from a few posts back. I ended up scrapping the idea because the crossed picots don't add anything of value to the bookmark design. I think they would work better in a pattern with larger open spaces.


Anyhow, the pattern for the bookmark and variation has been added to my Etsy shop. Here's a photo of the two bookmarks together and a link for the listing.

Two Bookmarks pattern Click Here

10 comments:

God's Kid said...

Your box is beautiful!!! :)
Oh, I think the crisscross picots are pretty!! :)
Your bookmarks are fabulous!!! :)

Lavinia said...

The box looks interesting and useful. Maybe you can store threads in it. I hope you find the right stiffener. I heard some horror stories about some of them... I would really like to see the box finished with the lid on too.

Robin Perfetti said...

Hmmm...if you come back to check on this comment, could you tell me which stiffeners you've heard bad things about? I'd want to avoid those!

Patti said...

I tatted a box several years ago and used a piece of styrofoam cut to size as my form. I wrapped it with aluminum foil and then Plastic wrap before putting the wetvtatting on it. It worked pretty good and held its shape while the tatting dried. I don't remember what stiffening agent I used but it could have been Stiffy by Plaid.

Robin Perfetti said...

Great idea Patti, I completely forgot about styrofoam! I think I will use that instead of the card stock. Thanks for sharing.

Madtatter80 said...

I have some Styrofoam that is a weird plastic stuff that you would not need to wrap, I could mail it to you if you want it.
love them they all look great and perfect as always :)

Bernice said...

What a great idea, I collect little boxes but don't have a tatted one yet. This one calls to be filled with chocolates. :)

Lace-lovin' Librarian ~ Diane said...

I've never successfully stiffened anything. Nothing seemed stiff enough to me. I do have some lovely crocheted pieces from Slovakia (gifts from my son-in-law's family) that are very stiff, but I have no idea how it was done. I'll be interested to read more!

Robin Perfetti said...

No need Carollyn, there are lots of craft stores here and I'm sure I will find something to use. But thank you for the offer!

Margarets designer cards said...

Beautiful box design, not tried to tat a box
Lovely bookmarks and pattern