I hope everyone found Deborah's question about how I stitched Japanese hair on my geishas interesting, particularly since I reposted old information about how my canvases were worked. My original blog is no longer easily available, so reposting was the best option to help Deborah. My apologies to long time Blog readers to whom this was old hat and to those who aren't really that interested in stitching hair.
As you can see, I've been busy finishing side two of the cell phone case. This has been rather relaxing after Cha which involved trying new techniques and coming up with stitches to interpret the lovely design. I am about to start assembling this into a pouch. I have Ultrasuede cloth (very thin version of Ultrasuede) in purple for the lining and a long chain for the handle. The background above is the lining fabric but I forgot to include the chain in the photo. Sorry.
Once everything is put together I'll add beads to the side seam where they were omitted when I stitched this. I doubt I'll put trim on the edges as it will be carried a lot, so I'll have to be very careful to make a neat seam. I'm going to adopt these mini stocking instructions to make it up.
http://summerlouise.blogspot.com/2008/11/learn-to-finish-miniature-christmas.html
Wish me luck!
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
6 comments:
This next phase of The Skulls is going to be fascinating. I have reviewed Summer's finishing posting, and have pen & paper ready to observe. Love the Ultrasuede cloth idea. Really cool. Wishing all the luck from me to you!
Jane,
There is nothing like reviewing past blogs. It gives us a chance to refresh our memories and your new friends, who might have missed it, a chance to learn something new.
Your Cha is fabulous and I really like your skulls.
Sounds like you have a great plan! And no glue?! LOL
No glue this time. At least I don't plan to use any. I'll probably sew my hair to the cell phone case instead of gluing it. Sigh.
Thank you so much for posting so much wonderful information - what radio DJs would call a blast from the past! I am absolutely delighted, and everything is safely Saved so that I can refer to all these useful pointers many, many times in the future. I do hope your other loyal readers found something they can put to good use as well.
I've recently been able to buy all the Glorafilia needlepoint books (except their Miniatures one, which I'm not sufficiently keen on ...) and one of them, the first one I think, has pictures of a few Japanese designs. Glorafilia are very gung-ho about their designs; I think they don't quite realise how good they are. They keep up a barrage of bright remarks about how well Japanese prints adapt to needlepoint - which may well be true - and how all one needs to do is trace the outline, adjust the size and get stitching - which will have to be true but will not be relaxing. My daughter learnt a bit of Japanese last year as part of her Linguistics course, and loved it. She also loved one of the illustrations in the Glorafilia book! I rather think Glorafilia have finally closed their doors, so I'll be flying solo for this one: I've done two of their painted canvases, but this will be a challenge and a half.
As a final thank-you, one of their tips is that for the background of at least some of their Japanese pictures they wanted a slub effect and achieved it by stitching at random varying lengths (horizontal; tent stitch) of background over two instead of over one. This gives a very tactile textile effect that looks like woven cloth and is perfect for a plain background that would otherwise have been basketweave. Like shantung. In the other pictures they used colour variations and/or flat diaper stitches that remind me of lanterns. I think I'll try the slub effect!
All the best
Deborah, awestruck at the latest bounty from the Master Enabler!
You are welcome, Deborah. I hope my hair stitching helps you. I will have to pull out my Glorifilia books and look at their backgrounds. The slubby tent stitches sounds like a very easy and fun way to do a textile-like background. Appreciate the tip!
Have fun stitching for your daughter. Make lots of photocopies of the design your daughter likes and cut out areas like paper dolls to trace around them on the canvas. It probably won't be quite as hard that way to transfer the design.
I know in the 1970s NPrs here used a grid to transfer designs but that seems way too difficult to me. Grid the original and the NP canvas and then transfer block-by-block....
Easier said than done in my opinion!
Good luck.
Jane, waving like mad from CH
Post a Comment