Saturday, January 9, 2010

A New Year

I cannot believe that it has been nearly four months since I last posted. I haven't been lazy ... I've started working on Ineke Kuiperij's Trainset and Station. I've completed the tatting for the station and the locomotive but haven't stiffened the pieces yet so that I can put the roofs onto the station and put the locomotive pieces together.

The station is was done in six stages (not counting the frames for the windows and door and the door itself). Ineke's designs are really nice to work up. Using a translator in conjunction with her wonderful diagrams, it was pretty easy to follow.

The locomotive steam boiler I tatted in a single, 3-D piece by starting at the concave portion on the front and then completed the boiler by using split rings. I have the coal tender about 75% completed and will be very glad not to have black, size 80 thread all the time.

I wouldn't same the this is my very best tatting, from a technical standpoint, but I am having fun with the project. I'll get some pictures shortly (need to charge the batteries for the camera) and post. I think I'll do a before and after for the locomotive pieces.

For those of you in the northern tier of the US and the UK and northern Europe, I hope you stay warm and well. The weather has been very cold and snowy, more so than usual (although with weather how do we really know what is normal?). For those in the Southern Hemisphere, I hope your summer is pleasant and not terribly hot.