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| Leigh Designs' European Dragon |
In no particular order, here are my impressions for each area.
Special Background Thoughts - Some areas of the background have to have a lot of compensation. I’m thinking about the area of the dragon’s open mouth where the teeth stick up and where the smoke and flame are, the hole shape the tail coils around, the small spaces between the claws, the area above the neck where the spines stick up, etc. In general, I think you will want to tent stitch these areas with your background thread. You may find you can put some compensated background in areas that are larger (like the background above the long neck) but I think in most cases that’ll look odd. I’d start stitching the background first and just see how well compensated small areas look. If you haven’t stitched the dragon yet, you can more easily count across the dragon to finish the row. You can also stitch right over the dragon with some DMC cotton floss in a bright color to keep the stitch flow going. Once you reach the other side to finish that row of background stitches, you can pull the brightly colored DMC stitches out.
By now I hope you’ve chosen the “framing” border to stitch but you may want to do a single row of background and then some test stitches. You’ll have to play with the threads you’d chosen to see which looks best as a stitched frame for the piece, though.
The Feet and Claws (and Teeth) - These are pretty easy. I would tent stitch the feet section by section, skipping the lines around each segment. You can go back and do cross stitches over the outlines once the sections are done to set off each area. The claws I would do the same way in three shades of silver and gray. Use a pale non-metallic gray for the inside of each claw in tent stitches, then switch to a dark gray non-metallic for the bottom outline. You may want to switch to tent stitches for this. The final touch should be a metallic silver outline for each claw, probably also in tent stitches. You want the claws a little recessed compared to the feet. I think I’d stitch the dragon’s teeth the same way as the claws. I would also stitch the gray inside of his open mouth in tent stitches so that the teeth aren’t overwhelmed by a fancier stitch.
I'll continue talking about stitches for the dragon itself tomorrow.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
5 comments:
That's an amazing dragon, and such good tips for stitching it. I find this kind of advice so helpful -- knowing how an experienced stitcher would go about breaking down a project like this gives me an insight into the whole process.
I also just wanted to say that the cat stocking ornament in your header photo is stunning. I love the stitches you've used to create the texture of the fur!
Thanks, DM. I am glad you find our "problem" canvas discussion helpful.
The cat stocking is by Maggie. She has several variations (and sizes) of cat designs where the cat is dressed. They are all ironic in some way and I find them very appealing. Search her site looking for Paris Bottman designs. Maggie licenses artists' works and puts them on NP canvas. She doesn't do any designing of her own. By the way, there are a lot more cats in clothing patterns than what are shown on her website. Check eBay and ask around. The ones on the site are probably just the latest and the ones still in production because they are popular.
http://www.maggieco.com/html/drill.php?q=@Paris%20Bottman
The face was stitched in a technique best explained by Tanja Berlin on her website (link below). It's called needle painting by a lot of folks. It is simple to do, especially if you use just one ply of thread and pay attention to how fur actually grows on animals. I could have done a better job with the fur direction around the eyes butI was rushing to finish this for Christmas.
Here is Tanja's site, the page that shows off her needle painting kits.
http://www.berlinembroidery.com/needlepainting.htm
The Commissions and Example of Instructions links are especially helpful in explaining how she does this but do explore all the kits thoroughly as she posts close up photos that are very very helpful.
Very talented lady but anyone can do this. See my attempt above for proof! LOL
Forgot to say welcome, DM. I am told lots of folks in the arts do NP because they have so much wiating time in their profession. So find yourself a little NP canvas and get busy!
Email me at chilly hollow at hotmail dot com for any help you need if you are a beginner. I've made every mistake in the book and can help you figure them out.
Thanks so much for the welcome and all the information! I've known many singers who knit (there's been quite a craze for it, backstage), but now I'm needlepointing I hope to make that the next big thing in my circles :)
I think it is always good to be slightly different. That makes you a trendsetter.
Sing happy.
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