Tatting? The Art of Lace Making? Is it A Lost art?

I've heard of it but I'm not sure about me doing it. Seems like something that would definatly require alot of downtime and patience. I have some but with kids you never know one momement they are fine the next wild and into things. But I did want to look into seeing what it takes to do it by hand. I know I had seen a woman on a travel show make lace by hand.... it takes her atleast a year to finish a project even with her working on it 6-8hours a day! It was how she makes her living & it would be good money provided she could make more than one thing! I just can't imagine how much her hands hurt to do that day after day for all those years.

I tried to teach myself tatting from a book once and got so frustrated I screamed and threw the ball and shuttle across the room. This was many years ago, though, so maybe I should give it another try because I really like how tatting looks. I'll have to take a look at the sites you posted. Thanks!

Funny you should mention it. :) I've just started to learn how and got frustrated, and put it down, but now I'm ready to start again. Last weekend, we went to a pioneer village demonstration and there was a woman tatting. She said she would help me learn! So I got her phone number. Wish me luck... I think tatting is very pretty and would like to make some Christmas ornaments with it.

My oldest daughter learned to tat when she was about 17 or so and made some beautiful laces for dresses and such. I DO want to learn to tat and will gladly look at the youtube videos you listed, maybe I can learn as well. She keeps insisting it is really easy, but we shall see. Thank you for the question though as it just helped me to remember that I wanted to look that up on the web.

oh, your second link isn't working

I am so glad you posted some sites here. I have been interested in tatting ever since we went through my Great Grandmother's stuff (I was 5) and have never had anyone to show me how to do it. She did the knot work and there had been a bedspread that I had fallen in love with. My Grandmother fought for it but lost it to a brother and I was devastated. I learned about a two years ago that they had tired of it and tossed it out in the trash. Horrid people that they are. I will be checking out these sites.

my former roommate always wanted to get into tatting, she did it as a child, but has since forgotten, I'll check your links and see if I can figure out how to do it, if I can I can probably teach her...

My sister learned to tat a long time ago from a neighbor....but that was a very long time ago.....It's good someone is taking it up so that the art is not lost. I never learned how to do it but it seems very interesting!

Wow! I think it is really awesome that you have learned how to do this! Years ago when I was a young teenager, I came across mentions of tatting while reading old-timey classic literature that I was into at that time. I was already learning to crochet and really, really wanted to learn to tat! Unfortunately, no one in my family had ever heard of the art and I couldn't find any books on the subject in our tiny public library. And of course, back then, we didn't have the internet. I'd forgotten about this "lost art" until I read your post just now, and I was so happy to see that there is info about it online! How cool is that? I don't have a lot of time for crocheting and such anymore except in the fall and winter, when I work on Christmas presents. My friends, family, and I have a "homemade gift agreement" - we exchange food and crafts instead of store-bought goods. Adorning something with homemade lace would make a special, unique gift! Here is a neat link I just found. This lady has some amazing pieces in her gallery, and I like that she has a demo video showing how to get started. https://www.gagechek.com/slb/ More videos are on this site: https://www.tatting.net/techniques/html It doesn't look any more difficult than crocheting... I may have to give it a try! Thank you for starting this discussion! :)