The largest mermaid has been back to the plastic surgeon as I try to do a nose that looks right on her. This time she has a little pug nose (which I hope you can see well as it's only 2 small stitches) stitched more to the center of her face. Again, I used one ply of my darkest skin color to over stitch the tent stitches of her skin. If you look in the background you can see I've stitched the white items on the wall all in my #5 white perle cotton. I've started to add the details to these things. I think they are mostly small buoys although it is hard to be certain. One might be a thermometer. I have to finish the round plaque above them, the one with the bird's head on it. That is not done yet. This piece has a lot of small detail in various areas. The smaller mermaid has a red bow around her tail I haven't stitched yet, either. I'll get to them all eventually.
I've also started the corner scallop shells.
What you see above is two layers of long radiating stitches and a short row of small stitches below it that make up the scallop shell. I've also started stitching the yellow coral that flanks the shells in each corner. I decided not to do the detailed shading that is painted but to use the Bleached Blonde Mermaid's brown and yellow Vineyard silks. This thread stitches up beautifully. I've made the little coral tent stitches a bit plump so they sit up higher than the background black Impressions tent stitches. Impressions (a silk/wool blend from Caron) is slightly smaller in diameter than Vineyards Silk (100% silk) so this works nicely. This area is not finished. I need to finish the coral and add yellow streaks to the top of the shell. Tomorrow I should have one done for you to look at.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
6 comments:
Yes, we can see the nose and how busy you have been! Looking good!
Trying to put the nose on the large mermaid would drive me crazy. I would probably leave it out and let the eye imagine it was there. You are doing wonderful with the stitches and thread. I have learned a lot from following you. I am no longer worried about taking out stitches if they don't look right to me. Thank you for that.
Judy
Hi Jane,
Would you consider doing a Fly Stitch for Mermaid #1's nose? That could
help with the definition and detail. This sure is a fun canvas. Robin
Thank you, Pat. I'm glad you can see the new nose ok. It is perfectly visible in person but I had a heck of a time seeing it in the photos!
Oh, well, at least she has one that seems to work.
Morning, Robin. I had never even considered a fly stitch for the mermaid's nose. Great idea! I think Amy's rubbing off on you.
Now I have two new stitches to consider for faces--split stitch and now fly stitch. Anyone else have any ideas? We'll collecting ideas for the next canvas of a person we do!
Thanks, Judy. I am glad that you feel better about ripping out. Sometimes you just can't tell how something will work in the context of the entire piece without trying it and we do guess wrong about how something will look. Ripping out is just a way of backing up and reversing course. You can call it the K turn of stitching (and pretend you are driving that blue convertible you always wanted while doing so). LOL
Seriously, learning that mistakes are not The End is very important, in my opinion. It makes one a better stitcher to be able to redo items when you realize they are not what you wanted.
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