I have always been interested in many forms of needle work, and while growing up I learned as many as I could – crochet, knitting, embroidery, etc., but I had never even heard of tatting until 1976. Armed with two library books and some supplies from Woolworths, I managed to learn how. It was fun and different. I carried shuttles with me everywhere that summer. As years went by, I would tat off and on, alternating it with my other crafts. When the internet introduced me to many tatting friends, tatting became my preferred pastime. There was not a wide variety of patterns available to me in the beginning, so I began to make up my own, and early on sold two patterns to Workbasket. Since then, I have self published 11 tatting pattern books. I have been honored to have been chosen to teach many times at Palmetto TatDays, and also at the Finger Lakes Tatting Convention (Hector, NY) and the Fringe Element Tat Days (Cambridge, ON).
Martha Ess