Beads, Cauldrons, and a Firebird

Last night I finished as much of the cauldron as I can do for now. Once the books are stitched I can add the handle and maybe even some steam rising from the black sparkly interior.

Soon I'll finish the floor stitches now that I know exactly where the cauldron's bottom and sides sit. I beaded a bit on the purple robe last night also, just a few scattered beads here and there. They are barely visible but they do add texture which was The Plan. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!?! I hope you can see them in the photo above. I avoided putting a bead under where the moon and stars are supposed to go. They are temporarily in the correct position held down with pink hair tape that doesn't pull the background threads. I won't really attach them until everything else is done.

My final touch was sketching a firebird in the background of the design. I have been playing around with a pencil, a big eraser and my xerox of the canvas for a bit. First I tried an arched window in the background. It doesn't seem to fit the space well. If I made it in proportion to the wizard himself, the top of the arch was cut off at the top of the canvas. That looks weird. If I made it lower down, it looked like the window bottom reached to the floor. So I gave up on the window although I was charmed by the idea of stitching leaves, then vines and then a stained glass window on top. That would have been fun! But as we've already decided this is winter, leaves are really not appropriate anyway.

Next I tried a heraldic shield hung on the stone wall but that didn't go so well either. Those funny symbolic animals are durn hard to draw in a small space. I could have divided the shield into four areas and done stars and other shapes but I didn't much like that idea since there are already stars on the wizard's outfit (the beads are the center of a star shape done in pale purple Accentuate) and he also carries a moon and stars along with the earth. So Plan 2 fell apart. It probably wasn't the best idea anyway since I don't have any Joan Thomasson designs with such an item so I'd have to make it all up from things found on the Internet.

I finally sketched a firebird on a perch and I think that's going to work although my bird is a bit too large and the perch stand a bit too low in the sketch above. I'm going to have to shift it up taller and make the firebird's body and tail a little smaller. With those changes he looks good to me. I'll have to outline him in black marker so I can trace him onto the canvas . Then I can perhaps change the books so that the big blue book is red and the little one green instead of the colors on the canvas. With a red firebird I think I want the larger book in colors to match to balance the design.

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