Black ink drawing of an ornate floral and lace-like design with dotted chains, sketched on cream paper beside pens.

Enlarged with AI from a smaller original

Ornate floral lace design sketch

Fine line · Black and grey · Flash

A hand-drawn sketch on paper shows an ornamental design of scrolls, leaf-like petals and paisley-style motifs arranged in a symmetrical, lace-like panel. Thin black linework is combined with rows of dots that form hanging chains along the lower edge. The image is shown in black ink on cream paper with a pen and a second sheet partly visible, and the design is composed to fill a wide, curved shape.

Fine line Dotwork Ornamental Lace Floral Paisley Scroll Dotted chain Mandala

Find an artist for this

Take it to an artist as a reference. A good artist will make it yours rather than copy someone else's tattoo.

A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Nell, the lace is finished and I have pinned it to the board in the back room so you can see the pattern before the light goes. Mr Abernathy wanted scrolls like a Lisbon church, and I gave him scrolls, but I let the petals spill over the edge the way the wild rose does on the Penhallow wall. Then I put the dots along the bottom and let them drop in little chains, because you cannot make a thing that hangs without a bit of weight in it.

Keep reading

You will laugh, but I drew the first half of it on the back of the fish ledger, while Dad was shouting about the tide tables. Every time the ink ran dry I dipped the pen in the tea cup, which is why there is a brown ring near the paisley. Mrs Tremayne came in for her thread and stood over my shoulder for ten minutes, saying nothing, which for her is a compliment. She took the second sheet off the table and held it up to the window, and the light came through the leaves like a stained glass saint.

I want to show you the curve, because it is the part I am proudest of. It fits a shoulder blade, or the fan of a hand, or a grey shawl on a bench in the rain. I measured it three times against the church cloth so the lowest drop would sit exactly where the dune grass stops. Dad says I am mad to spend a week on something nobody will wear. I told him somebody always wears the lace, even if it is only the light.

Come on Sunday and bring the good scissors. We will finish the last chain together and hang it in the window where the boats can see it coming in.

Love, Ada