The Art Nouveau (20th Century) Pet Guardian Angel

The six Household Pet Guardian angel ornaments Kandace Merric designed in the early 1990s all wear costumes from various centuries. There's the Medieval Cat, the Renaissance Rat, the Tudor Dog, the Georgian Rabbit, the Baroque Fish and the Victorian Parakeet. The colors and stitches Kandy selected are typical for each period. I've deviated quite a bit on some angels (Holi is not Tudor, she is a mix of Hindu and Mexican cultures) but the original guardian angels all are solidly grounded in historical costume and color. What you see above is the new 20th Century pet guardian angel-- the Art Nouveau Suger Glider.

When I wrote asking permission to use the pet guardian angels for the ANG Auction, Kandy immediately volunteered to stitch two new angels for the set. What you see above (minus the background) is the first of the two new angels. The 21st Century angel will appear when she is ready as we get closer to the ANG Auction date.

You can read about sugar gliders here. My nieces had one and it was really cute, but I don't think they are terrific pets as they are nocturnal. They are active when we are not. But they make superb pet guardian angels!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Glider

The Art Nouveau sugar glider adds a great deal to the appeal of the ANG Auction pet guardian angel ornaments. Unique and made with love by the incredibly talented hands of Kandace Merric herself, this pet guardian angel is not diagrammed in the magazines. Thank you, Kandy, for creating a new angel to raise funds for ANG and to delight us all.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Trims for a Golden Rabbit

I've finished the Golden Rabbit's underskirt area and I think it looks nice. The Silk Lame Braid adds a subtle sparkle to the underskirt without overwhelming it with metallic. I want the overskirt (that has Kreinik metallic thread) to be primary and the underskirt secondary, so I needed to control the accent thread that pairs with the same Gloriana overdyed silk in both areas.

When it comes to using Silk Lame Braid, it seems to eventually unwind itself and the metallic parts can escape the needle's eye. This wasn't a big problem but I'd use a shorter-than-normal length of this thread to help minimize the jailbreaks. I think this is a nice thread for subtle sparkle or for areas where a metallic thread might catch on the silks you already have in place. Used alone it might make awesome white snow or a navy velvet sky as well.

I decided to start on the trimmed edge of the over- and under-skirt next. The overskirt's trim border is 6 threads wide while the underskirt's is 4 threads wide. In the original model, Kandace Merric tent stitches the sides in metallic and I stuck to that, using my 002V copper/gold Kreinik. The rest of the pattern is done in cotton floss and perle cottons in a pattern that looks like flowers and leaves. The flowers have a French knot center. I will use my beads in the flower centers instead of French knots but I am not sure what threads I will use where for the last three stitches. Stay tuned! I'll pick up the Basketweave Marathon and get more of that knocked out while I ponder thread choices.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow