Pink Scales Thimble

As promised last week, here is a thimble in scales design. The scales are basically continuous triangles as you see here, well, technically, a single triangle can be called a scale, but it's rare and usually the minimum number seems four triangles. You know what, these four triangles are called "three scales" instead of "four". I don't know why, but suppose three triangles (forming one big trianble) makes sequentially the fourth one in the center and only outer three count, perhaps. Where design is concerned in Japan, the scales almost always mean serpents or dragons' scales, and dragons in general in Japan are not evil creatures like in Western world. You'd be better off to find some books in anthropology section in your local library about Far Eastern mythology than listen to my explanation about imaginary creatures in Japan and Far Eastern societies.

Now back to the thimble. I used three shades of pink and white to form quad coloured scales however, the scales are traditionally bi-coloured, like white and silver, red and gold, and black and silver, so my pink one is rather unique :)

My thimbles are hand made, or rather, hand stitched, but it may not be very clear for you what "stitched" means. So here are some pictures to show what I mean "silk stitched".

The Japanese style thimble is basically a ring and you put it on the first knucle of your middle finger. The base is made of stiff paper. You wrap a mold (I use a tube of lip balm) with bias tape once as a lining. Then cut the paper into thin stripe and wrap the paper around the mold (on the bias tape) tightly. Make sure you wrap the paper really tightly otherwise your base becomes dodgy. Turn the both edge of the bias tape up/down and stitch the edge together (herringbone stitch is preffered). Now, you have a base as pictuered below.

Next, you wrap another paper around on the base. This paper (not shown here) is for the guideline of the surface stitch. You measure the circumference of the base and cut the paper into the same size and mark the paper at the certain intervals so that the circumference is evenly devided.

On the marked paper, apply the floss silk as shown above so that the desired thickness is achieved.

Here, you got yourself a nice base.

Now, it's fun part. I divided the circumference into sixteen and following the marking on the paper make a tiny stitch at the top and bottom like zigzag. I should have taken a picture with only one thread instead of after all four colours were done, but you can see what I mean by zigzag? Make stitches with silk thread around the circumference and change to another colour, and then another, and another. Then go back to the first colour and repeat the process until all the segments are filled with stitches (and consequently all the body of the base is filled with thread).

Above picture is after third round.

Now, halfway through.

Almost there.

You got it!

It took me about two hours to to finish this one. This is not a tutorial. I just wanted to show you how the thimble was made. If you are really interested in making your own, please let me know and I may be able to whip up more detailed instruction.

I have created some more blue wave design thimbles and intend to put them on the shelves in my Etsy shop this weekend. If you have time, please have a look and let me know what you think. Thank you.