Wizard Influences

When Margaret's sharp eyes spotted the tiny image of the Santa I plan to stitch next, I bowed to the inevitable and shelved my plan to finish the goldfish before I started the next project. After all, I need supplies from the craft emporium before I can finish the goldfish and I won't be able to get there until next week. Can't go without stitching anything that long, can I?

So let me introduce one of Joan Thomasson's Santas, the Halloween Holiday Spirit Santa. He has a brother (the Valentine Santa) and you can see both on Joan's website if you click on Catalog, then find Holiday Spirits and click there.

http://www.stitchinstuff.com/

Joan Thomasson's website features a variety of sizes of the image of the finished product. Click on any one you are interested in to see Joan's model stitched, depending on how fast your connection speed is and how much detail you are interested in. The Wizard Santa comes in a kit. You get the painted canvas, a stitch guide with the stitches and threads Joan used to stitch the model, and a crystal bead and charms to finish the piece. The design is on 18 count canvas and the wizard Santa himself is approximately 8 inches high and 6 wide. Joan tells me that this is a Halloween spirit. The date on my canvas seems to be 1995, so this is an older piece. The stitch guide describes this piece as "the Mid-Sized Wizard" so there may be larger and smaller versions. That I don't know.

Let me quote Ms. Thomasson here about this piece:

"Magic fairly swirls around the mystical Wizard, who keeps close control on the Earth, moon and stars. From the staff, topped with a far-seeing crystal, to the trunks and baskets holding all the needed ingredients for truly special incantations (no eye of Newt or toe of frog here), the Wizard is fully prepared for almost anything. Books of spells are stacked at his feet."

So what do I do next? Well, I am always thinking about my next piece while working the current one and I have my eyes open for inspiration and ideas all the time. Here are some of the things I'm considering as I think about stitching the Wizard Santa..

John Marshall's Galactic Warrior robe reminds me slightly of the wizard Santa's outfit. Maybe I can add a frog closure like the one in the inset photo at the bottom to the front of his robe? That would be a nice touch.

http://www.johnmarshall.to/J-008.htm

Carol-Anne Conway's "Flutterbies", a Japanese Embroidery piece seen at the top of her blog (or click on Flutterbies in the right hand column of links to see the development of this piece) reminded me of the sleeves our wizard wears. Look at the purple and the pink butterflies and you'll see what I mean. The problem with duplicating this technique is that the underlying silk must be carefully laid at a diagonal to the metallic couched line that goes on top. That means also laying the padding at an angle. I'll have to think carefully to figure this all out.

http://threadsacrosstheweb.blogspot.com/

I've been watching Laura Perin's mystery blackwork piece that she is posting as a free pattern on her website. It's made me think about using a blackwork pattern for the minimal background behind the Santa. Doesn't the first step look sort of like a stone wall pattern?

http://two-handedstitcher.blogspot.com/2008/07/stitch-with-me.html

If you are eaten up with curiosity about the mystery design she is doing, here are the instructions on Laura's website.

http://laurajperindesigns.tripod.com/id30.htm


Hope this gives you an idea of where I start on a painted canvas. I collect potential ideas and start rummaging in my stash for threads that might work, then I start looking through my stitch dictionaries for more ideas.

But the very first thing I do is make a color copy of the canvas and several black and white copies. I plan to finish this as a standup piece, so I sketched an outline in pencil on one of the black and white copies to show where the standup's edge might be, then erased and adjusted the pencil line until I was happy. Then I folded the design in half right down the middle along a vertical line. Then I cut the standup ourline again so both sides match exactly. Unfold the pattern, put it on your actual canvas with the Santa heads lined up, and draw around the outline of the paper and you'll know where to stop stitching around the standup figure.

Speaking of knowing when to stop, this is enough for today.

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