Janet from La La Land is back with more details on the stitching of her Mexican Lady canvas. If you missed the introduction, she is working on an adaptation of a Linda Carter Holman painting from Melissa Shirley Designs. You can see the unstitched canvas below, courtesy of Laura Zickus who photographed it for Needle Nook of La Jolla’s website. Janet is working the 13 count version of this piece, although it is also available on 18 count needlepoint canvas.
http://www.needlenookoflajol
la.com/storedir/proddetail.php?prod=ch118-2Now here’s Janet.
**************************************
You can see the results of some of my thinking here. First, no flowers this week; as it turns out I had to do the stems first and they gave me fits and I've ripped out a lot. I know I told you I'm not a perfectionist but sometimes one has to admit defeat when the problem is not "fixable."
So, today I give you the completed face, hair, hands and jewelry. As I worked on the Mexican Lady she came to life and she now has a name. I dubbed her Juanita. Juanita is not poor; on the contrary she is well dressed wearing a pearl necklace, pearl and "diamonds" earrings, a heart shape "diamond" on her finger, and an interesting "gold" and "diamond" bracelet.
Her face and hands are stitched in basketweave (DMC floss, color number 407). The darker color on her face and hands is also DMC but I failed to note the number. Her fingernails and lips are the same red silk. Soie d'Alger was used in her blouse which was also stitched in basketweave.
Juanita's hair is black Flair (color F501), stitched in basketweave. I thought about different stitches for her hair but decided to keep it simple. I chose Flair as it gives the hair a little shine.
I do a lot of beading and checked my stash for pearl beads. I strung the necklace on beading thread (do not use a cheap substitute as it will stretch and break). I used a smaller pearl at the ends of the necklace so it would lie flatter where the thread goes into the canvas, to be tied at the back of the canvas. Then, at several points I tied down the necklace with a single stitch from the back, over and between two pearls and back down to the canvas. This keeps the necklace flat. Juanita's earring is made from two small pearls, with a #1 size clear glass bead from Sundance on each end. I used a single thread, coming up from the back of the canvas, running the needle and thread through all the beads and then back through the beads again.
The glass bead on the end holds the earring in place. I also used a single stitch across and between two pearls to hold the earring in place.
Juanita had to have a "diamond" ring. Looking in my stash I found the perfect one - clear and heart shaped. The picture shows the diamond reflecting red but it is clear. The heart is a type of flat rhinestone found in craft stores. It is held down with a clear bead (same as in the earring and on the bracelet). Bring the needle up from the back of the canvas, through the hole(s) in the stone and then put a small bead on the needle and stitch back through the hole(s).
{see bracelet close up photo above right)
The bracelet: First I stitched it in basketweave using Neon Rays (color NP51) which is a pretty coppery color. Then using a slight diagonal satin stitch I stitched over the basketweave rows twice to make the bracelet have a raised and a rounded shape. Since Juanita is not poor I added "diamonds" to the bracelet to contrast against the large flowers. I used the same clear beads as seen on the earring. I like the result as the added sparkle holds up nicely against the large mass of green of the stems and the large flowers.
*Note*: this is really a "figure it out as I go" piece. Sometimes even with the most advanced planning I realize things have to change when they get actually stitched due to size, color, texture, or shape. I think there needs to be a visual balance. I've already mentioned my personal 60/40 % rule, which I gleefully abandoned on this piece.
See you next week, hopefully with some flowers and the dratted stems.
Janet in La La Land
[This is a mirror blog for Blog which is at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow )
