Saturday, August 2, 2008

The Wizard Needs a Setting


As you can see from the picture, I've been fairly busy with the Joan Thomasson Holiday Spirit wizard. He has a flagstone floor (Swirl stitch from Jo I. Christensen's Needlepoint Book, 1999 edition) in three plies of dark gray Splendor and I've started a stone wall behind him on the left side near his staff (Linked Stitch from Even More Stitches for Effect) in one ply of light gray Splendor.

This piece is going to be a standup most likely, and I feel they look odd without some sort of setting. Wizards live in stone castles, right? So the decision to give him a flagstone floor and stone walls was easy. I choose a smaller scale stitch for the wall than the floor since there isn't that much space around the sides of the wizard Santa figure. Can you see the mark where the background ends that I made from tracing around the paper pattern? I know I cut it off at the top but I crop photos as much as possible to make them faster to load on all the computers of blog visitors.

I've made a counting error in the floor stitch (it's right under his heel) but I'm not going to pull it out. I just compensated the stitches under that area. Sometimes one can be too perfect and I think a real stone floor will have areas that aren't quite identical. That's a good rationalization, anyway!

The other thing I've done is to stitch his face and hands. His eyebrows are not done--that needs to wait until after I decide on stitches and threads for his hair and beard. If you squint at his hands, you'll see dark lines marking the fingers. I used the same Splendor silk there as in his cheeks but it doesn't seem dark enough. I'm going to have to pull those stitches out and redo them.

The last thing that is finished here are his eyes. Joan Thomasson often paints a straight line for eyes on her figures but I didn't like how they looked with a row of five tent stitches, so instead I stitched two straight horizontal lines using a grey-blue Kreinik #4 metallic in parallel. The top line I pulled up with a little couching stitch; the bottom line was left straight. That gave me a sort of very long and short triangle. I put a tiny French knot in the middle of the triangle for the eye pupil. I like the effect so far, but don't be surprised if I come up with something I like better later on.

The wizard is starting to have a bit of personality now. My next step will be to finish the floor and more of the wall while I debate what to do with his silver and gold striped sleeves. Wish me luck.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Robin K. and the Amy Bunger Website

I got a very nice note from Robin K. yesterday on the Yahoo 360 main blog. She is Amy Bunger's webmaster. Unfortunately, she's set not to receive replies so I can't answer her directly. Since her message was so interesting, I am quoting her in full here and hope she doesn't mind the liberty.

Robin said,

"Thanks for the quick message about Amy s new website. I have been working hard & fast on it, and there is still more to come!

You mentioned all of her canvases are gone . Well, not exactly because they are now represented within the canvas category which is appropriate. (People, Nutcrackers, Christmas, Food & Drink, Fruit & Vegetables, etc.)

I plan to have a Nutcracker page for her Nutcracker Heads, and there are still hundreds of canvases to photograph for the other categories.

I really enjoy your blog and read it faithfully. I am envious of your stitching time. Lately the only thing I have done it type & photograph, and then I photograph & type.

Thanks again for the great mention. Also, would you like to receive Amy s monthly e-newsletter? I can add you email to the list. Just sign up on-line on her E-newsletter page."

Thanks, Robin. I am very glad to hear that the wonderful photos I so enjoyed will be back just as fast as you can take photos and post them to the new website design. Be assured that there are a huge number of Amy Bunger fans who are cheering you on as you work!

I already get the monthly e-newsletter but I guess I'd better update my email address as I've about to change it. Anyone else interested in getting the newsletter? The place to go to sign up is here. Of course if you already have a full mailbox and don't want to have the newsletters mailed to you when they are ready, you can still check here for the latest each month.

http://www.amybunger.com/current_enewsletters.html

Thanks again for the update, Robin. I appreciate everything you are doing to launch a new and updated website for Amy! Not stitching to have more time to treat us with eye candy is a great sacrifice and I appreciate it.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow