Shuttle Shop Tatting Shuttles

So, maybe you remember me making these four motifs last fall.  I made them a couple of times to get them perfect.  I made them from one of  Anne Bruvold's patterns which were designed specially to be the size and shape of shuttles.  There is information about the shuttles and links to Anne's patterns on this page.

 Well, here are the finished shuttles!  They are terrific and much prettier in person than in this photograph.  Chris and Erin Hinton run The Tatting Forums and own The Shuttle Shop.  The Shuttle Shop is where you can have your own tatting made into shuttles - very cool tatting with your own tatting!
Aren't mine pretty?

And these are the winder shuttles that Chris invented.  The one with the thread on it and the heart inside is the first generation.  The heart pushes into the grooves on the wheel which is the top of the thread bobbin.  The little hole you see in the top of the bottom shuttle in the bottom picture is where you insert a little wrench and you can wind thread onto the bobbin really fast.  The little heart clicks as the thread is played out.

The shuttle on the top in the bottom picture, the one with the round black dot, is the newer version.  There is a spring attached to that black rubber dot that pushes it into the grooves on the top of the bobbin in the shuttle, keeping it from spinning until you want it to spin.  When you want it to turn, you pull that little black knob toward the point and it releases the bobbin allowing the thread to play out freely.  I'm going to try to get some thread on the new shuttle to play with this afternoon!