Scarab Rings, Kreinik and a Fancy Terry Background

Terry Christopher's Snow Wave Stitch

With space limitations in the jewelry box lid where I plan to insert my Egyptian scarab jewelry canvas, I had to figure out just how to make the design shine without the use of beads or fancy stitches.  So I turned to Kreinik.  Their metallic threads were perfect for gold jewelry.  I pulled golds, blues, red, and brown from my stash, looking for shades that go well together but trying to use as much holographic Kreinik as possible.  I really wanted the scarab rings to shine and holographic Kreinik does just that.

After I had the threads chosen, I simply tent stitched the design.  I did have to be careful to keep tied off ends of thread well away from the edges of the scarab rings since holographic Kreinik frays a bit and those ends will poke up through the lightly stitched background if I am not careful.

Once the scarab rings were stitched, I turned my attention to the background.  I needed a subtle but pretty background stitch. I played around a little with the idea of stitching Egyptian hieroglyphics in the background but the complexity of the letters defeated me.  So I turned to one of Terry Christopher's stitches which you see in the background in the photograph above.  I saw this piece on Facebook and diagramed the stitch Terry created for a student at 2 the Point (Terry's shop).  This is a Shorebird Studio design, by the way.  You can see it on Shorebirds' website by searching for canvas M424.  The second link is to Terry's online store.
http://shorebirdstudio.com/

http://www.topoint.com/terry_bio.htm

You can see the original photo that Terry posted on 2 the Point's Facebook page.  I'm not sure if those without a Facebook account can see this, but here's the link.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=188567564508578&set=a.188566801175321.42855.157438187621516&type=3&theater

What you see in the photo above is my diagram which was done on a page from Ruth Schmuff's Stitches CD Volume One.  Ruth's bargello stitch is very similar to the stitch Terry used but it isn't quite the same stitch. In Terry's version, each stitch unit moves up a thread in Terry's snow wave stitch.  In the diagram you see two stitch units drawn in pencil.  The X shows where the third unit moves up a thread to start.  Each unit moves up one thread.  The photo of Terry's original design and my charting of her original stitch are posted with Terry's permission.

Isn't she just the greatest?!


Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com