Stitching a Geisha

This lovely painting by Suzanne Tornquist has been transferred to needlepoint canvas and is for sale on eBay this week. Here's the auction--

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=120291004220&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=002

She's a beauty but before you buy, read the details and study the photo carefully.

This is sold as a 14 count canvas but you can get larger count, which to me says that this is probably going to be a silk screened or transferred design onto NP canvas.

If you are thinking about picking up a piece on eBay --which is home to a ton of transfer designs--you need to think about several things. The first is how much trouble a silk screened or heat transfer canvas is going to give you. If not knowing exactly what color is on a particular canvas intersection drives you nuts, avoid silk screened canvases like the plague!

Do you like working on 14 count or do you want to try it? If you really need 10-12 count, it looks like you can have this size made for you, which would be a reason to bid.

The auction doesn't say if the 14 count canvas is interlock or Zweigart or another type of NP canvas. You may want to find out before you bid if this is important to you.

The auction does say that this design is an "exclusive copyrighted image" which makes me think the artist licensed this to be turned into a NP canvas. Many silk screened or transferred image canvases don't have permission and very often these turn up on eBay. I've seen rip-offs (or counterfeit) Melissa Shirley designs on eBay and I'm sure that some of the people selling these things ignore copyright. I wouldn't buy anything I thought stolen myself.

How well will the design tranfer to the grid of a needlepoint canvas? Look at her mouth and eyes. Will the curves there translate well to NP?

Only you can answer these questions for yourself, but think about them before buying a silk screened canvas. I'm not saying don't buy something as gorgeous as this. I'm just saying think before bidding.

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

Bohin Needle Info from Ruth

If you go back two blog entries to "New Website, New Newsletter" you will see mention of Bohin needles from France and my plea for more information about them. Ruth Schmuff has come to my rescue with news about the needles which are carried in her shop. She says,

"I generally tell my customers that I don't really care about needles. Don't have a favorite etc. etc. A needle is a needle right? I had the same ones for years. Lamora from Access Commodities told me about these needles and I tried them. OMG have I mentioned they are wonderful! I immediately threw away every needle in my possession and now only use these. As I tell people this and they try them, they do the same thing. They come back the next day and buy more. Everyone loves them. They glide through your canvas. They make stitching faster and easier.

there's my 2 cents worth :-)"

Unlike Ruth, I don't use the same needle for long as my acid hands--you should see the steering wheel in my car!--eat away the needle surface. I stick to Piecemakers needles which I find both very silky smooth to use and also which seem to resist my body chemicals well. So I asked her if she'd gotten any reports on the Bohin needles from customers with the same hands. Ruth replied that no one had mentioned this problem to her and she thought the Bohins ever smoother and silkier than the Piecemakers needles I use.

Here's Ruth's shop website where you can order the needles if you are closer to Maryland than Texas where Chaparral carries them. After all, you want to get these in the mail right away!

http://www.bedeckedandbeadazzled.com/

Jane, your friendly Master Enabler

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