Shuttle and fishes

With the dawning realization that I will never receive my "Tatted Shuttles" that I ordered from the Shuttle Shop, I decided to try and make my own. I looked online for any tutorial to give a general idea on how to begin. There were none. So, beginning with the basics I already know, I began. Using a mold off a button I made, I based this trial off a picture I saw on Ebay of a shuttle for auction. It was two hearts used to form each side of it. On Ebay, it was made of wood.

 

 I already have a mold that will make two separate hearts. I created another one with them facing each other to start the blade. The problem with this is that when the resin is poured, I get a flat surface. I pushed the hearts deeper into the putty mold to try and get a concave setting more like the shape of the tatting shuttle. It sort of worked. The problem being that the blades turned out to be thinner than making the hearts separate.

  

I used Modge Podge to glue the two separate hearts together to form another blade. I set them in the mold I made for the joined to keep the sides touching while the glue dried. If the thinner bladed setting doesn't work, I can always use it to hold the pieces together like I did here while another coat of resin or industrial glue dries and cures.

 

I left it sitting overnight, and in the morning it had dried clear. As you can see there is a difference in the thickness of the two separate blades. The one that is thicker will most likely hold up better to continuous use. I had to make a center post now to hold the blades together. I'm using sculpting putty to create a shape. I don't want to have it too thick because it will interfere with how much thread could be loaded. But I need it to be thick enough to support and tension the two blades together.

 

It took a bit of maneuvering to find a middle ground. At first I had the blades more open in the center. This left the shuttle fatter in the center. I had issues with the points touching when it was like this. Because the mold with the two hearts connected was thinner it left the blades at a skew. After guiding the sides to lay parallel I managed to find a position that would keep it all in line with the points still touching.

 Using the handle end of a paintbrush, I shaped the center post to fit. I'm not to worried about putting a hole into the post right now, I can drill that in afterwards. I may not even drill a hole, I never use the hole in my other post shuttles. I just hold the thread to the side and begin to wind. There is a little bit of overlapping skew with the blades. I'm not worried at this point, it's minor enough that a small amount of sanding with make it even without compromising the blades or the design on top.

 

I'm going to leaving this to sit overnight so that putty can harden. Then I should be able to make a mold for resin with it. I would like to make a 3D mold with this but I don't have enough Easy Mold to make one. Looks like I'm going to have to make another trip to Micheal's to get more. Here we have the semi-finished prototype with the post in but not finalized.

 The spacing between the two hearts is good for holding the shuttle to keep it from flying out of your hand if you tat fast. This is the size comparison to a Clover Shuttle.

It's still relatively small compared to the others. For a trial, I'm happy with how it's turning out so far. I can get and test the mechanics involved with making a shuttle and later using larger templates, make one in a size I prefer. My goal is to have it be between the SewMate and the Starlit shuttle in size.

I also made another fish keychain.
I'm keeping this one for myself.