Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Skin Tones and Plunging Necklines

BEFORE-Darker Neck and Face
I have pulled out the dark skin areas on Luna's face and neck and restitched them with a slightly lighter thread.  Above is the before photo and below is the after one.  Do you think the lighter shade (which is a tad darker than the shading on her arms) is a better choice?  Many thanks to everyone who chimed in with ideas on how to fix this, by the way.  Everyone agreed that the shading was too dark, so I hope I have fixed this.

AFTER-Lighter Tones
I've also started work on Luna's long black gown.  I need to do it before I work her fingers and ring and hair and I also think I should work it before I start work on her long sleeves and cloak she wears. Stitching order is determined in part by what's less important.  I like to do the receding parts first.  The cloak and sleeves are more prominent than the long gown, so I'm doing the gown first.  Luna's plain long gown will set off the more decorative elements of her jewelry and cloak because of the contrast between fancy and plain.

As you can see, I am basketweaving the gown.  I think Luna is wearing a plain black velvet long dress that clings to her curves.  I don't want anything to detract from the image of smoothness, so basketweave is the way to go.  I also need a thread that will look velvety when stitched.  It doesn't look like it but the stitching above is my third attempt to get this right.  You know from yesterday's posting how hard it is to get a black thread that, combined with other threads, still looks velvety black.  It is also hard to get the velvet effect, even from a solid black thread.

My first attempt was to use Petite Very Velvet.  It does give a very smooth, velvet look but I decided that even though I was using Petive Very Velvet which is sized for 18 count canvas, the look was too heavy.  I think PVV in basketweave is too prominent to work well with the things I have planned for the rest of the dress.  So out it came.  Then I tried Pure Palette's Empress, the wool/cashmere/silk blend I used for the tree branches.  In my test stitching, it looked very velvety but when I tried it in tent stitches, there was some variation in the black color and the stitches didn't look as velvety as I wanted. I think it gives a more velvet-soft look in long stitches.  So I ripped that out, too.  My third attempt was using black Impressions, which is the silk/wool blend from Caron.  It is perfect.  It looks like velvet, is solid black in the deep way real velvet is, and will look wonderful when I do the next step on the gown.

But first I have a LOT of basketweave in my future.  Luna's a tall girl!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

8 comments:

palma said...

Coffee time and time to visit chillyhollow.com. Coffee does taste better while reading your blog :)

Love the new shade, much, much better. I also love the start of the gown and now it looks, velvety indeed. Never thought Impressions would give this effect. I'm learning a lot from you, your reasoning for the basketweave (which I try to avoid most of the time because it is so "simple") has taught me a great lesson: not always what looks good to you is good for your canvas

NCPat said...

The shading does look better and her dress is going to be rich and lovely in the wool blend. Nice choices.

Peggi said...

The shading looks much better. Isn't it amazing what a difference one shade can make?
Black-on-black basketweave is challenging, but will look beautiful.

Margaret said...

Very good choices. This dark dramatic piece is going to be a challenge and we are all waiting to see how you manage it. Black on black , 18 ct basketweave, whew!!!!!

Rachel said...

It's going to be a tough one, this, because there is so much black to differentiate without going mad over stitches and threads!

Michelle said...

Love the new shading. It is unbelievable that such a subtle change can make that big a difference. Luna is really going to be gorgeous.

Tina said...

I have heard that stitching something from this designer is very challenging-looks like you are doing a fabulous job. I will keep checking in to see-you have me hooked!

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

Tina, I've never found Leigh's pieces really challenging but then I do lots of painted canvases. The more you do this, the better you get.

Now Kaffe Fassett's canvases, those are challenging!