Share Your Thimbles May 2011

One third of the month has already gone, but I would like to officially announce the start of the thimble photo sharing on Flickr today.   But first thing is first, I have to announce the end of the last month's photo sharing, i.e. our first ever "thimble of the month challenge".  Although we did not have many participants last month, either, I believe it was a moderately successful challenge.  If you have not visited Flicker yet, please pop in there to have a look from here.  You can find very beautiful work there.  Some of them did not fit the challenge, but it doesn't really matter, does it.  The purpose of the group is having fun and not a contest.  Oh, and we have a new member this month.  Please kindly welcome Yuenman.hk to our group.  Her thimble on Flickr is was not a scales design (it's bluewaves) but beautifully done.  Lydia (Quiltsummes) wondered if her thimble was called a scales design.  Well, it's technically not the scales I expected you to make, but it's also called scales design, "vertical scales" to be exact.  As I told you many times before, collective triangles are called scales in Japanese design and as you can see in her thimble, the triangles are shifted by 45 degrees, hence vertical scales.  It involves back stitches and my complement to Lydia.  I half expected Debi and Dorian would gone for finer scales than period of 32 sections, but their colour schemes are very beautiful: Debi's being with distinct yellow frame and lavender and green composition is very unique, and Dorian's is very bright and festive!  It's hard to believe that these two thimbles are same design, only in different colours.  Natalie (beadturtle) shows us her beautifully done arrow's shaft feather design.  Using the only two colours by placing them alternatively gives the unique arrow design which you can find in many classic kimono.  Pat shared her lovey rainbow colourd thimble and "kanoko" design.  "kanoko" or "hitta-kanoko" is a kind of tie dye design and she reproduced it on her thimble.  Surya's thimble is with repeat of four in three colours which I am still wondering how best to describe the design and her second entry to the photo sharing is a lovely bracelet.  She found something you would like to know about in the process and she mentioned it in her blog post at Sunshine Craft.  I should have included it in the post where I explained about row and round. 

Probably not very soon because I will need some preparation time, but I hope we would be able to have another challenge sometime later.  Now, back to this month's photo sharing.  We are back to regular photo sharing and that means you can share whatever you made using the thimble making technique with the group:  i.e. no size or design restriction applied.  As we are not going to have a lucky draw this month, either, there is no reason to set the closing date but the end of the month.  I have set up a discussion board at Flickr and I would like you to leave a comment there once your photos are up, and that discussion board I will close on the last day of May.

Here are the general rules of "Share Your Thimbles"


1. The thimbles (or any other rings) have to be your own work.

2. Although the name of the group reads as "thimbles", your work is not necessarily a thimble and you can make your rings in any size you would like, as small as a focal beading for a necklace or as big as a bracelet, or even bigger.

3. As stated above, they have to be your own works however, you can use the ring base from the kit if you choose to do so. It may not seem to be fair, considering I sell the kits, however, they are many other kits available (at least in Japan) and some of you may be able to obtain them, and it is definitely not fair to exclude the people who is brave enough to share their first work with us from the group.

4. No technique restriction applies. You can use back stitch and weaving in addition to the forward stitch, and even embroidery on the surface if you choose to do so. This is not a contest. You do not need to use these techniques if you are not up to them or you simply do not feel like it. A simple and elegant bi-coloured scales design is always welcomed (and one of my favorite design).

5. You can use any material, and in any colours, you would like.

6. Please state the size of the mould on which you formed your ring base in the description field of the photo, either in millimeters or in inches. Please also mention what threads and padding you used, too, so that we could compare notes. In case you bought one of my kits, here are the sizes and materials: "first thimble" is 50mm in circumference and Tire Silk size 9 & floss silk padding. "small pincushion" is 61mm in circumference and Tire Silk size9 & floss silk padding. "medium pincushion" is 103mm and Tire Silk size 16 & knitting yarn for padding.

7. You can upload as many photos as you like. You can upload several photos of one thimble if you choose to do so.

Now, please start uploading your photo from here.

Wish you happy stitching.  Chloe P.