The Sherbert Angels

You might remember from my last post that the vintage edging I tatted recently had me thinking of angels and I did have a go at creating one from that design, but it faltered and because I wanted to get an angel done now for a project, I left it for another time. I have another angel in the wings too...it's been there for a few years now, ever since the angel round robin. In fact, I can remember when I started it - on my first trip to FL to visit my cousin in March, 2002. It's still in my notebook, along with the reindeer.

So I fell back on a favorite, two favorites in fact. Both are designs by Martha Ess. Mark Myers has some angels I particularly like too, in his Tatted Gathering of Angels. I like to use the tiny angels in his Angel Jewelry Set to give away in cards or tiny frames, especially as a momento for someone who has passed on. I wanted something a little bigger this time though.

So this is Martha's variation of a pattern by Brigit Phelps which I think I posted about here and on Dec. 10,2007 both. Since I was using the glass heart and it seemed to take up more space than beads had previously, I made the skirt longer by adding a few repeats of the chain/picot sequence. This one is tatted in Sherry Pence's Rainbow Sherbert, size 20. The thread appeared out of nowhere - I think on my computer desk - so I thought it was time to try it out. I'm not sure where I have Marilee's thread but I have several bags of thread here and there that I need to put away and it's in there somewhere. It will appear "out of nowhere" when the project is right, I'm sure. LOL!

I also tried something a little different for the head. I made long picots and then threaded beads on before joining at the next spot where a picot would be, making another long picot right after that. It ended up looking like I had just used 3 beads in the picot. I'm not sure what I had in mind now but it was a little different effect than what I ended up with. I still like it.

The next pattern is also a Martha creation but this one is an original, named Marjorie's Angel. My copy was from the round robin printouts but Martha has it on her webpage now. I made a few slight changes here too. One inadvertantly - the rings at the tip of the wings have 4 picots when they are supposed to have 3. I saw my mistake when I got to the second wingtip and decided to make them match. I also decided to substitute fluffy (also known as ruffled or layerd) picots for the split ring halo. You can't really see it very well in the scan but there is a double layer of picots. These kind of decorative picots are made by measuring the length of your picot, making 2 first halves of the ds, measuring another length, and making 2 second halves of the ds, and you continue alternating the 2 first and second halves. You can play with them in other ways too, by making one side longer than the other or by adding beads to one or both sides. Ah...just got an idea for another angel crown. I wasn't going to make another one but I might have to now.

This thread is Flora size 20 and I'm not sure what the color number is but it always reminded me of orange sherbert so that's why I called these the Sherbert Angels.