It's not easy sometimes to do random stitches on a piece. It doesn't really bother me much to attempt randomness but I know even the word "random" drives some stitchers up the wall. We all can sympathize with Plays With Needles as she tries to use beads in a random pattern to evoke sand.
http://www.needlepoint-for-fun.com/shop/Handpainted-Needlepoint-Designs/Sandra-Gilmore-Needlepoint/p/Sandra-Gilmore-NeedlepointBRKindness-sku-sg-kindness.htm
NZR started a discussion on the NP Group on Facebook about the difficulties of randomness. She got all sorts of interesting ideas from other members of how to achieve random, from using a deck of cards or dice, to throwing darts, having a glass of wine, running a random number generator, or borrowing a small child (preferably one who has imbibed sugar) to do the random for you. Personally, I have scattered beads on a canvas, taken a photo and worked from that just like Susan talks about above, but the most interesting way to generate random that was mentioned was a comment from Gini who quotes the designer David McCaskill as follows, "David McCaskill has two "rules" to doing random, which make it controlled but still random...great for those of us who came from the counted world. 1. No two adjacent stitches can be the same length. 2. No two adjacent stitches can start or end in adjacent holes. Violating either rule draws your eye to that place immediately. Random horrifies me, but these two rules allow me to actually enjoy it!"
If you aren't familiar with David, you can visit some of his designs here. He's currently managing Needle Nook of La Jolla and occasionally teaches there. The second link is David demonstrating how to use laying tools for the shop website. He's a true master of threads which will do things for David that they won't do for anyone else!
http://www.stitchamaze.com/gallery-guest/davidmccaskill.aspx
http://www.needlenook.com/videos/
Many thanks to the members of Facebook's Needlepoint Group for this interesting discussion.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment