Last night I finished the stitching on my Leigh dragon ornament by stem stitching the fire he breathes. This took a while because I used rows of very thin metallics in orange, gold and red, working from the right side of the ribbon of fire to the left. The left edge of the fire was painted red but I put orange there on the outside edge just to make the background distinct from the flame. Occasionally I put a gold stitch on top of the red ones or an orange stitch on the gold to add a little depth to the colors.
I used Bijoux 414 (the same thin red metallic I used to tie down the silk that outlines the background squares), orange Treasure Braid #TR47 (4-strand), and gold Acentuate #23 for the fire the dragon breathes. These are all very thin metallic threads around the size of Kreinik's blending filament. It took a while to create the flames but the stem stitch is very easy. You can also cover up a bare patch easily if you didn't pack the stem stitches tightly enough as you worked.
I like how he looks a lot but I do have to say that the photographs don't do him justice. Ch'ing will go to Leigh Designs to serve as a model and there will be a stitch guide available later but I don't have the details on that yet.
I'm going to add another smaller piece to my stitching rotation now. I choose another Dynasty Ornament from Leigh, this time Fiji (the one with the palm tree on the beach) from the South Seas Dynasty series. It's on my favorite sea green canvas and is a lovely design very reminescent of photographs I see at work all the time. Photographers can't resist a beach with a palm tree leaning out toward the incoming waves. Well, who can? Not me for sure!
http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp825x.html
I'll continue working the border on Cape Cod Dogs. Right now three of the four sides are finished. I won't do the corners of the border until later but I hope to finish the basketweave black background and the red letters on the border this week and move on to something more interesting.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
6 comments:
What a super dragon.
He is truly a fire-breathing dragon. You put your considerable thread- and stitch-selection skills to work on this small piece and really brought it to life! Thank you for all the work you put into the description of your work - it's so instructive.
Nancy
This is truly a fire-breathing dragon. You certainly put your considerable thread- and stitch-selection skills to work on this small piece. Thanks for all your descriptions of your stages of work. It's been very instructive.
Nancy
Glad everyone likes Ch'ing. I like him a lot myself!
Fantastic job! He really is breathing fire!
Wish everyone could see Ch'ing in person. I know metallics and silks don't photograph well, but the pictures of the Chinese red dragon are particularly disappointing. Sorry!
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