First of all, thank you so much for all your contributions in the comments, I really appreciate reading them!
I hope you're not fed up with this yet as I carry on trying to improve the design. On the last post, I pondered whether the centre should be more filled in (more like the real snowflake) so in these next two versions, that's what I changed. The tips have remained the same nearly from the beginning.
Earlier on I made a transparent image from my tatted snowflake and superimposed it onto the real snowflake to see if the general shape and that of the tips fitted well with the real thing and was satisfied that it was close enough.
 |
Transparent version 5 of snowflake, checking for shape
|
|
So in the next version, I attempted a more filled in centre:
 |
| Version 6 |
I was trying to make onion rings but they are not lying very well, it's a bit tight trying to fit everything into the centre space. I made three more chains after the centre onion rings. It's a bit messy and I don't like the centre negative space.
The real snowflake has a tiny ring in the centre so I tried that in the next version and I thought that would also help anchor the centre rings around it. Instead of making onion rings, I made small rings attached to the very centre one and then chains around them. I think that worked out better.
 |
| Version 7 |
As per Frankie's suggestion, I made a collage of all the versions so far with the photo of the real snowflake top left.
To recapitulate: Version 1: does not count, it was my first "tat-through" and I kept changing things as I tatted it. Version 2: I made more space for the tips (they were too close together on Version 1), added a gap between the centre rings and the chains and made three rows of chains. Version 3: is a mistake! I missed an element but decided to keep tatting and finish it anyway. Version 4: I removed a round of chains as I was not sure I liked the heaviness of the three rounds of Version 2, but I think it makes the centre a bit too angular and star-like. Version 5: I square off the chains so that the line between the tips was straighter (more like the real snowflake) but this makes it very open whereas the real snowflake is full in the centre. Version 6: I filled in the centre with onion rings and three rounds of chains but it was not lying nicely so I then tried Version 7 with a tiny centre ring as the starting point around which I attached rounds of rings and chains.
Phew! Are you still with me?
Do I stop here or are there more versions I should try? I pondered Angie's suggestion to tat it as pie wedges but it seemed quite complex to come up with a path that would work. The other problem is that in my bid to re-create real snowflakes, sometimes patterns becomes complex and perhaps less do-able for beginners. All versions have SCMRs and a split ring to climb from round one to round two and some also have a split chain so that it can be tatted in one pass. Is that something you'd be happy to tat or does it require too many "advanced" techniques? I sometimes try to come up with a simpler version of some of my designs too (which may mean tatting it in more than one pass to avoid split rings and chains if you're not comfortable with those).
Am I happy enough with Version 7? Thinking about it... Might try adding a picot there (red arrow in image below) to fill in that space and to give the centre ring a slightly more pointy shape. Or maybe not... Decisions, decisions!
I look forward to your comments!
Best wishes,
Frivole