Korte tekst hier, maar zoals je hieronder vast kunt zien was dit nogal een lap tekst om alleen al in het Engels te typen!
Voor het gemak, en tijdsbesparing, heb ik daarom deze keer aangenomen dat de meesten die mijn blog lezen vaardig genoeg zijn in Engels om het dit keer alleen bij de Engelse versie te laten.
English
A tatting shuttle review
First of; I picked up the “2022 spring doily” by Renulek again, and finished round 8 (of 17)!
While I was busy tatting it I got the idea to write a tatting shuttle review, because, clearly, I have opinions about them now, ahem.
And well, I’ve already made 2 posts about this doily so there’s nothing to add (one, and two).
Not that I’m an active collector of tatting shuttles, but with needing some for special purposes and, having gotten quite a few gifted and donated, there’re now quite a bunch in my collection.
Most of my shuttles are common plastic ones that I hardly ever use, because I dislike using plastic crafting tools with a passion. Grrrr blègh!
Still, I keep them for when I’ll finally teach this craft to others, and this way I can let them try different ones, and pass them on.
On to the more in depth review:
First off is an old one of bone, and you can see it below (top one).
This one is average in size, but it’s by far the heaviest one. It’s also, due to the thight splits, or mouth (?) and it’s sturdiness only usefull for strong thin thread.
Normally I like a bit of heft with my tools, but in this case it regularly causes the project to slip out of a nice working position, especially when having to switch shuttles.
Now to the ones I’ve been using for Renulek’s “spring doily 2022“: the Tatsy tatting shuttles. These are BIG, and made of plastic. In the picture above they’re the top 2 (transparent red, and plain transparent)
They’re ideal for thicker threads/ thin yarns, demonstration, teaching, and for projects with lots of beads. For me that’s about it.
I did buy them specifically to show tatting with, so there’s that.
They’re cumbersome to work with, and slow me down quite a lot. They also tend to unwind fairly easily. With some joins they’re downright frustrating to work with due to their size, and that of my hands – it looks like I’m just shy of average height for females in the ‘Western world’ (which is still small for Dutch females).
If my partner ever decides he likes tatting himself, it could very well be perfect for him with his size hands: He can pick up a basketball one handed, to give you an idea.
The other thing I want to mention about them is that the thread I’m working with regularly gets caught back by the ‘mouth’ of where the two halves come together. In the picture on the far bottom you can hopefully see why: It has a bit of a notch. This of course is also a bit frustrating and interrupts my flow.
Ok, I initially wouldn’t write about this one, but lets have at it too, because why not, this post is already getting way longer than I had in mind.
This one I call my dainty one. You can see it on the middle picture below.
It’s the smallest one I grab regularly (possibly the smallest I own), and I think it’s made out of layers of yellow and blue coloured wood.
I bought it at a fair from Heikina (the wooden ones don’t appear on the webshop).
I use this one only with thin thread, otherwise I feel like this shuttle is empty way too fast. That’s basically the only reason why I don’t consider it one of my favourites.
Next is the one you see on the left in the picture above. This one I got gifted by a lovely person, and it’s my third favourite.
If I’m correct it is a wooden shuttle (king wood?) made by David Reed Smith.
It’s a nice size, has space for a lot of thread, can handle quite a range of thread sizes, but it has a pointy bit that I have mixed feelings about.
It looks like it’s made of several layers of veneer, finished with resin or laquer, with on one side a brass point (started out as a hook that didn’t work at all, so I carefully filed it into a point)
It is one of my “workhorses” aka. I grab this one for a lot of projects except the ones with thinner thread, but you’ll get why below 😉
The only things keeping it from being higher is the pointy bit, it’s handy, but also in the way.
And at one time the veneer came apart a bit and I had to repair it, but there’s still a tiny split. Oh and the finishing makes me like it a bit less, because it feels “stickier” than my plain wooden ones.
Time for my second favourite! Seen on the right in the picture above.
This one I bought on Etsy from Tattingshuttles, but they can’t be found at this moment because they are Russian.
It is made of veneer from moon ebony. It is my second “workhorse”, and it’s absolutely wonderfull to work with.
It is similar in size as my other ‘workhorse’, but just a bit higher, so it holds even more thread! It also handles the various sizes of thread very well.
It also works well when working with beads.
Oh and the plain wood feeling is lovely to me.
So yeah, I think you can understand why this one is one of my favourites.
Finally it’s time for my absolute favourite one!
You can see this one on the bottom of the picture above.
This was the first nice shuttle I bought, at a fair from Heikina.
(As far as I know the maker stopped making tatting shuttles 🙁 )
It is made of solid wood from a pepper tree. If you’ve got a good sense of smell you can even get the occasional whiff of pepper from it!
Yess I’ve been known to cradle this one in my hands and sniff it in enjoyment!
Being made of solid wood, and the smell already make it stand out to me, but it handles marvelously, especially with finer threads.
It is just a tad smaller than my other two favourites, and a bit lower too, so it holds less thread, which is the only reason why I don’t grab this one all the time.
But if it’s a small project and/or with fine thread: Yes please! Gimme gimme gimme!
If you’d like another view of these (and other) shuttles for size comparison.
You can see them too in this post I made last year.
While typing this I checked again if there are now other shuttles for sale made from solid wood, and I found a seller on Etsy! So it might just be that I have a slight rearranging of my favourites soon!!!
