I've started stitching the woman on the far left, the one with the wrapped head. I think of her as the cleaning lady/washerwoman, the jack-of-all-trades servant who does all the heavy lifting and cleaning. Her name is Pearl. She is the figure furthest from the viewer and there isn't a lot of her showing. I've already done the white and red flowers on her cotton yukata in the same white cotton perle I used for her face plus 4 plies of red Mandarin Floss. Her lips are also in the same red Mandarin floss. Since there isn't a lot of space and I want her figure to recede, her yukata, lips, and some of her head wrap are in tent stitches. I also plan to tent stitch her hair.
The important part of her wardrobe is the wrap around her hair to keep it tidy and out of the way as she works. This is painted a pale sea green with gray outlines the same color as the outlines of her face. I could have used the same thread for the outlines on her wrap as the outlines of her face but I decided to try Thread Gatherer's Oriental Linen in Seal Gray. This is a silk and linen blend, with the slight roughness of linen and the sheen of silk. It isn't a solid shade of gray, there are slightly lighter and darker tones. I thought that variation combined with the very pale shade of sea green of the wrap material would suggest a cloth that has been washed many times. Pearl is a bit vain--she matches her head wrap to her cotton kimono--but she is a practical soul and keeps everything spotless, which means her clothes are washed frequently and you know how cotton fades. In the photo above, the gray outlines are done and I've started padding the wrap with the thread I plan to stitch it with, Mandarin Floss #M875. This is a thread made from bamboo that has 6 plies like regular cotton floss. In the photo I've taken all six plies and done straight lines down the areas of the head wrap. The next steps will be to tent stitch her hair and the yakuta, then carefully lay four plies of the sea green Mandarin Floss across the wrap perpendicular to the lines that will raise those laid stitches slightly.
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
