I received a generous sample box of plastic tabs from the Beadery the other day, and here are my first attempts using them. I made eggs. I will post a more in-depth product review when I get the chance. But, first I wanted to share my latest shaping experiment. Also, wanted to show off the adorable baby dragon my 13 year old niece made for us. She made it all on her own with no pattern! He's made with white polar fleece and burgundy felt. Isn't he cute!
Since Easter is just about here, I though eggs were a good first project to test the plastic tabs. I had an ulterior motive here, too. :) We have an annual Harry Potter themed birthday party for my daughter and my sister whose birthdays are days apart. And, this years theme will be Goblet of Fire. That means Dragons! And, more importantly, Dragon Eggs!
Among the multitude of colors, from pastels to neon, available in the box of tabs, there happened to be some really nice green tabs in the Camo Mix. It's cool that the green tabs are slightly off in color in what looks like three different shades of green. I thought I'd work on my egg shape with those before attempting any more colorful patterned eggs for Easter. I wanted to get the location of the tabs in the increased/decreased shape down before planning what I can do with the pattern for the Easter eggs. First, I tried dark green weaving material for the darker green egg, but I think it was too dark. This egg ended up 15 tabs around and 3.5" tall. Then, I tried a color of green closer to the tabs for the larger one that is 18 tabs around and 5.5" tall. I made this one open in two pieces. I think a color just a little darker than the tabs would be better to make them stand out more as scales.
The smallest pink/white eggs was my last attempt, so far. It is only 12 tabs around and 3" tall. The small tightly curved shape of a small egg would prove to be a challenge for the unbendable plastic tabs. I pushed them to the limit to get the egg shape. I used white and hot pink weaving material with white, light pink and neon pink tabs graduating from top to bottom.
I still think I need to make one a bit larger for the dragon. I may cannibalize the two green eggs to make a larger one. Ideally though, I would like to make a golden dragon eggs using gold single hole metal tabs, if I can find any. I will be trying to make some more colorful Easter eggs if I have time. You should be seeing me attempt some projects with the colorful plastic tabs, and possibly incorporating them into my usual tabistry work for some added color. Look for the product review sometime in the next week or so. And, I'm still editing tutorial when I can! Sorry, I'm so slow.
