I've finished the fish scales on Gail's goldfish as you can see in the photo above. It dawned on me that I didn't explain how I worked the stitch or how I choose the color of the single ply of Splendor silk I used for it.
First, I worked Judy's Blocks from the top of each column down. I worked the cashmere stitch and then the four tent stitches in a block and then the cashmere stitch again These stitches are offset slightly so the next row you have to adjust the position of your starting point. You could alwo work the cashmere stitches on the diagonal and then go back and fill in with tent stitches but I found that harder to do so I just did a column at a time. To keep the silk as straight as possible, I let my needle dangle to untwist the thread after each cashmere stitch was finiished.
I worked from the head back, omitting the bulging fish eyes and mouth. Those will be worked in a different stitch later. I started with orange, then switched to rose, then to coral, then dark orange, then light orange, then a touch of pale yellow and finally pale pink. I choose these colors by looking at the unstitched canvas, and decided which color was most prominent in the fish's body. I laid that color out above the fish then moved to the next area and choose the most prominent color there, etc. Once I was happy with how the skeins of thread seemed to flow, those are the colors I went with. Most areas have 3-5 colors in them but I choose the color that seemed most prominent except at the head where I ignored the dark brown and choose the rose instead.
I finished either the tent stitch block or the cashmere block before I changed color, even if the paint seemed to switch abruptly. I thought it more important to get the stitch right than the color, and I think it worked out well.
Next, the fins and tail.
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
7 comments:
Very nice! I like the stitches you chose as they really do look like scales. Gail's painting is so wonderful--sure does help us stitchers!
I thought the Judy Blocks looked like scales and they also are very rectangular which is how the fish was painted, so this works well. I usually look at the paint to pick stitches that convey the same feeling, so I feel very lucky that I found Judy's Blocks!
Yes, both of the Squiggee pieces are very carefully painted so it is easy to see what colors go where. That couldn't have been easy on the goldfish piece!
Nice job, Gail.
Jane he really looks great....
i imagine he is a male koi since he is so flashy...lol...
lots of fun to see him come to life...
xoxoxox
g
And here I thought he was a girl because he was pink. LOL
Guess I don't know much about goldfish. Never had any although I always wanted one. They are beautiful fish and even better stitched. Wait until you see his fins and tail!
Jane, who has the fins stitched and will attempt the tail tonight in CH
Jane, I am so impressed with your choices. That's a lovely stitch and it makes your fish look stunning.
Thank you, M. I'm glad you like my choices so far. I must say the goldfish is much better in person than in photographs. Gail did a superb job with him.
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