Handmade Maple Burl Cameo Tatting Shuttle

Dave handmade this 2 5/8 inch post shuttle out of beautiful maple burl. It has been inset with a resin "Girl with Pearls" cameo.  This shuttle has been initialed and dated by Dave, the maker.

Snow on the Mountains

Dave and I took a little weekend trip that lasted until today, to visit our son in Portland.  We had a wonderful trip and saw some beautious scenery driving from the high desert of central Oregon over the Cascades to the big city.  We even learned a new term for fall foilage viewers--did you know the people of Detroit, Oregon call you "Leaf Lookers"? LOL

The photo is of the Three Sisters mountains of the Cascade range.  I snapped this photo just outside of Sisters, Oregon through the windshield, so you may find a bug or two there somewhere.  

On the way home, Dave wanted to stop at a specialty woodmill and did he ever find some special pieces of wood!  I think you'll be seeing some fabulous pieces in the future :)

Oregon Myrtle Wood Top Whorl Drop Spindle

Dave has made this beautiful Top Whorl Drop Spindle from Oregon Myrtlewood. The spindle whorl has a colorful purple celluloid accent piece. This piece has been initialed and dated by Dave on whorl bottom. Please click the link above for more photos of this piece.

Type: Top whorl
Whorl: 2 3/8 inches
Length: 9 1/2 inches (not including brass top hook).
Wt: 1.2 Oz
Materials: Oregon Myrtlewood, walnut, color celluloid whorl accent
Other: Brass tip/bumper protector

Carved Buffalo Bone Lady Hoare Tatting Shuttle

Dave hand carved this Lady Hoare shuttle out of buffalo bone. It is 4 inches long and relief carved with roses on one side. It is initialed and dated by Dave on the other side. This piece is currently up for auction on Ebay.

Girl with Pearls Needle Minder

We made this "Girl with Pearls" cameo needle minder from a gorgeous vintage inspired resin cameo. We inlayed a rare earth magnet with clear resin on the back. We set the cameo in a gold toned setting to give this needle minder a finished look. Dave inlayed another rare earth magnet into a beautiful piece of pau ferro that he turned on the lathe. Together, these beauties will "mind" your needle conveniently on your project!

You can find this little beauty in the "Fiber Art Tool" section of our Etsy shop.

Handmade Crochet Hooks

Handmade Birch Crochet Hooks

Dave usually creates highly stylized crochet hooks with ancient ivory and bone carvings to sell on Ebay. I've been asking him to design a line of hooks that we could sell directly to our Etsy customers for under $20 and he's done just that!

The hooks of this new line are made from White Birch, a favorite wood of commercial crochet hook makers for the smooth grain that doesn't snag on your yarn, and for the high tensile strength. They are all 6 inches in length.

Q&A About Imported Bone Tatting Shuttles

Q&A About Imported Bone Tatting Shuttles

Dave tries to never rag on any other shuttles or shuttle makers, but he has gotten a few questions from patrons asking what they can do about the inexpensive imported bone shuttle they bought that has come apart where it has been glued together. He provides the following information from his experience:

"These imported bone post shuttles are held together with modern CA glue or cyanoacrylates [tradenames: Hot Stuff, Zap, Crazy Glue, etc.]. CA glue is great and I use it on wood and ancient ivory however I do not use it to make a bone post shuttle. Why? Bone is not ivory! Ivory is a modified tooth (tusk) and is formed differently than bone. Bone was a living organ within the animal and filled with blood, marrow and fatty acids and oils. The processing of bone includes a "de-greasing" process which requires soaking in a solvent to remove all the grease. If not completely de-greased all the way through, the bone will continue to oooze oil to the surface, even years later. My guess is that the problem some folks are having is maybe the bone material was not completely de-greased. It would be something like rubbing a little vasoline on the 2 surfaces and then trying to stick them together with glue. That won’t work!

If you want to keep your bone shuttle I recommend you pick up a can of liquid Coleman Stove Fuel which is also called "white gas", put some in a mason jar and soak the bone shuttle parts in it for about a month, changing the solvent a couple of times. The white gas is flamable and should be kept in the garage or outside and away from any ignition sources. Once de-greased and dry you can rough up the glue points on the bone with sand paper and re-glue with CA glue.

A couple of years ago I bought a few bison leg bones from a Buffalo Ranch here in Oregon and started the process of cleaning and de-greasing the bone. What a job! What a mess! It seemed to take for ever changing the solvent time after time before I felt all the oils were all out of the bone. I still don’t use the bone for gluing post shuttles, I only use it to make the one piece side shuttles and Lady Hoare shuttles.

Ivory on the other hand is a different story. Fresh ivory may have some natural oils but I do not use fresh ivory. The ancient mammoth ivory I use has been in the ground or ice for over 10,000 years and any oils have long since been leached away and the CA glue works perfect on an ivory shuttle.
One time I did find that some ivory I bought had been polished in a tumbler using a walnut shell medium. While nut shells polished the ivory it left a oil film on the ivory that would not hold glue. It took me awhile to figure out what was going on and I that had to de-grease that lot of ivory if I was going to use any glue.

You have heard the saying that oil and water don’t mix...well nether does oil and CA glue! I just suspect that the imported bone shuttles are more production shuttles for the world market and in production modes sometimes quality control is lacking and short cuts taken.

Hope this helps answer some of those questions. I figured some other tatters might find this useful."

Dave

Buffalo Bone Small Crochet Hook

This small crochet hook is buffalo bone (American Bison from the Cascade Buffalo Ranch here in Oregon). The finial is dyed Box Elder with a Cocobolo accent ring. This piece of Box Edler shows a mix of blues, greens and natural burl colors. The length is 5 1/2 inches and is a USA hook size E, 3.50 mm. It has been initialed by Dave, the maker. Please click any of the links above to view more photos of this beautiful hook.

Girl with Flowers Cameo Needle Minder

I finally got Dave to make a couple of new cameo needle minders! I have one listed in our Etsy shop and will try to get the other one listed tomorrow.

Dave made this "Girl with Flowers" cameo needle minder from a gorgeous vintage inspired resin cameo. He then inlayed a rare earth magnet with clear resin on the back. The cameo was then set in a gold toned setting to give this needle minder a finished look. Dave inlayed another rare earth magnet into a beautiful piece of pau ferro that he turned on the lathe. Together, these beauties will "mind" your needle conveniently on your project!

The Bears are Here!

Three Bears Tatting Shuttle Set

A GRIZZLY MOUNTAIN SPECIAL!!!! Sometimes Daves creative moods tend to be more whimsical and with Christmas shopping just around the corner he thought of this special set of tatting shuttles that can only be a GMA exclusive.

Dave has hand crafted this bear family of tatting shuttles out of beautiful Cherry wood, with a Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear.

Papa Bear is a larger 4 ¼ inch shuttle styled after the large popular plastic Tatsy shuttle.
Mama Bear is the more common 2 5/8 inch standard shuttle, and Baby Bear is only 2 inches long for smaller projects.

To keep this family together during hibernation periods, Dave picked up an unfinished craft box and embellished it with his own pyrographic artwork. Baby bear (inside top lid) is only allowed to play in the immediate area of the den. He climbs a nearby birch tree to survey the area and keep an eye on what you are working on. On the top of the lid Dave burn etched the GMA Cascade Mountains scene where this bear family lives.

Please click on any of the links above to view more photos of this one-of-a-kind set!