3 D tatting or Sculptatting

Here are some photos of how I begin the 3D tatting. This was how I did the fairy boy you see in my slideshow. I usually make a ring of 6, then chain 2, then join into the "bridge" of the first double stitch on the right, finish this stitch with the second half of a ds. Chain one, join the next bridge.. etc. You keep doing this, around and around until, for instance for a small head, I get a circle of about 3/4 inch wide. Then I start to taper down, but only joining into the bridges, not adding any chain stitches. This is the way I do all the 3 D tatting, adding and subtracting double stitches as needed to make heads, hands, bodies, whatever. If I need to change thread, I just cut and hide the original thread, and add the new thread onto the next bridge. Clear as mud, huh? This is why I can't really write out a pattern. I am really not trying to keep this technique to myself, as it wasn't even created by me. It was created, as far as I know, by the late Angeline Crichlow. I have told many other tatters how to do it, but so far, I am the only one I know who does it. As it is rather like sculpting with thread, perhaps I should call it Sculptatting...