Break for the Beauty Shop: Part Eight

To make a long story short, I ended up omitting a red ribbon in the Mother of the Bride's hair.  Here is what she looked like when finished.  The other geishas' hairstyles were done basically the same way.  I would sketch out each one, decide where to put the padding, and then how the long laid stitches should slant over the padding on my sketch.  In some cases I left room for the hair ornaments and in other cases I stitched right over them and added them later (or omitted them entirely).

Here are photos of each of the other geishas' hairstyles in the wedding party.  Each geisha's hair was done in Soy Luster but only the mother of the bride and the geisha in purple had Shadow Soy Luster hair in black-charcoal-gray.   I decided the other geishas were younger so their hair was black Solid Soy Luster.

Working from the left to right, here is the green bamboo geisha.  I thought of her as the Bride's spoiled rich girl friend.

Next is the blue Tomboy geisha.

Here is the Bride, all in pink.  She has the most elaborate headdress because she is the Bride!

The next geisha is the yellow Fan geisha, the Bride's closest friend.

The final geisha is the purple one.  This geisha I thought of as the Mother of the Bride's closest friend from when they were maiko (trainees) together.  The purple geisha has gone on to be famous while the Mother retired and started a family.

Here's another random photo of hairstyles-- to give you a sense of how they looked against the finished background.

Deborah, I hope this helps!  The two canvases sold for $650 at the ANG Auction and went home with a stitcher from Houston.  Lucky lady!

Jane, waving to all from CH where I have to get back to that cell phone case.

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

Break for the Beauty Shop: Part Seven

Reposting of April 29, 2006 article:

Attached is my scan of potential bows for the geisha's hair. Pretty horrible, aren't they? There's a row of red sequins that I found when hunting yet again for red ribbon (top), plus the red ribbon floss (middle) and red Flair (bottom) I dug out of The Stash. I also found a spool of DMC metallic (remember the Or Clair?) in cherry red which I used to gather the Flair. The ribbon floss refused to be gathered. It wickedly widened itself like a pair of running panty hose and glared at me. The Flair looks ok as it bunches up nicely but it is all wrong for the geisha, the wrong color, the wrong shape, etc. The ribbon floss has the beading needle piercing it and you can barely see the red DMC metallic which has no French name. It is merely Art. 270. Sad not to have a name, isn't it? Especially when your light gold sibling is Or Clair!

I did come back fromThe Stash with some tomato paste red Felicity's Garden. That's a tapestry wool/silk blend, very nice thread. Not much shine but it is wonderfully soft. I think spilled tomato paste is the perfect color for the background of Two Monsters, don't you? Check the picture--you know the drill--it's over there on the right. Wear sunglasses.   [This is a canvas I was about to start stitching.  Photo here.  I wasn't kidding about the sunglasses.]

I am considering a diamond shaped stitch for the background of Two Monsters. I like using stitches that echo shapes and those monsters are looking out from a diamond shape. 

Susan Portra has kindly diagrammed the stitch on her website [now defunct so no photos, sorry] which she calls Bargello Diamonds. I think I'm going to try it after I finish the geisha's outlining. That means a busy morning for me. Finish geisha outlining, check her in sunlight for missed stitches, take her picture for Blog posting tomorrow, put monsters on stretcher bars, test the Bargello Diamonds in the margins with the tomato red Felicity's Garden. That'll keep me busy for a while!

But first, more coffee.

Jane, slurping it down here in Chilly Hollow

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

Break for the Beauty Shop: Part Six

Reposting of April 28, 2006 article:

I have just about finished outlining the geisha with my single ply of DMC metallic Or clair. As I worked, I referred several times to the picture of the original canvas to see exactly where I should be stitching the obi's flaring shape. After all, most of the kimono is solid black so looking at the picture is the only way to tell where the outlines should go.

While doing this I realized I'd forgotten that the single geisha has a ribbon in her hair. At least, I guess what that is. Most of the geishas have some sort of bow or flared ribbon in their hair. I need to decide whether to leave the geisha's hair as is or add a ribbon in some way.

Originally I thought I'd use a real piece of ribbon, gather one side of it, and tack it down on top of her hair. That's why I stitched all her hair except for the area where the horizontal hair sticks went and the circle around her bun I covered with couched coloured twist. Some of the geishas have bows that need to be stitched but not this one. But I don't have any real ribbon that is the right width. Scale is important on a canvas like this. It's not totally realistic but having a bow that is too big will make the rest of her head look odd. It is possible that I can use a length of red ribbon floss. Maybe. Ribbon floss will come apart when you accidentally put your needle through it. Perhaps red Flair will do better?

Time to experiment! Back in a minute...

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

Break for the Beauty Shop: Part Five

Reposting of April 28, 2006 article:

The geisha's hair ornaments are in place. The long chopstick-like sticks stuck in her hair bun are Jaceron #5 stitched down using one ply of a strand of DMC metallic thread Or Clair (or light gold). The dangling beads are also Jaceron stitched down by the Or Clair.

DMC has several colors of metallic thread (I think there is a darker shade of gold as well as the gold Or Clair I used here, and a silver) which comes on spools like sewing thread. One spool will last a long time. It's a useful thread with one strand made up of three plies which you can untwist and use as I did. The full strand has a tendency to unwind as you stitch with in, so use short lengths and give your needle a twist after each couple of stitches. If you unwind the strand into its three parts, you still should use short lengths as it will abrade and come apart as you stitch with it.

The hair sticks I just added at 1 o'clock and at 10 o'clock are couched down lengths of Jaceron #5 which looks a lot like little gold, silver, or copper toy springs, or a Slinky if you are my age. Jaceron comes in various sizes. I have #8 also but it seemed a little large. Interestingly , the bugle beads hanging down from the horizontal hair sticks are also Jaceron which I strung on like a bead. I am not sure of their size (probably they are Very Fine) but until I used the magnifer, I thought they were bugle beads. SharonG calls Jaceron a "flexible custom bead" and that describes it very well. It comes in a long coil and you cut off what size you want. Here's a picture. Jaceron is the French name. British embroiders call the little springs "pearl purl." I'm sticking with Jaceron because my #5 was labeled that way. By the way, both Jacerons came to me courtesy of Caroline S. Thanks, Caroline! I appreciate your generosity more than I can say.
http://www.berlinembroidery.com/goldworkthreads3.htm#pearlpurls

I couched the larger Jaceron and strung the Very Fine Jaceron like a bugle bead with my #16 beading needle. To couch, hold the Jaceron in place with one finger while couching over it with the other hand. As you pull the couching thread tight, it'll slip between the coils until the Jaceron is held snugly against the ground fabric. Interestingly, the Jaceron #5 was too small for my beading needle eye to go through but it went right through the center of the Very Fine Jaceron. I beaded the Very Fine Jaceron with my one ply of untwisted DMC metallic, using a long length. Once I had the "bead" where I wanted it, I went through it a second time to hold it in position along the longer length of DMC metallic.

I urge you to take any metal thread classes you can. These are very interesting threads and quite different than most we stitch with. You can achieve all sorts of fascinating and beautiful effects with them.

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

Break for the Beauty Shop: Part Four

Reposting of April 10, 2006 article:

Tonight the geisha's white neck became pink and she gained some hair ornaments. I stitched the horizontal L shaped hair sticks with 1/32 inch and #8 braid in Krienik's gold #002, then couched my beautiful gold and red colored twist around her bun twice. The smaller sticks will need to wait until I finish the background as they need to be on top of the background and her hair. I also have some lovely gold cylinder beads to use in her hair but beads are the last things to put on a canvas normally. I forgot about the purple ribbon frill in her hair under the twist (see original single geisha canvas on the right side links for the painting). I had thought I might use ribbon here but I'll have to see what colors I have or can get. Perhaps ribbon floss will work as well.

Now I need to finish stitching the right arm and work again on the background. I'm making progress.


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

Break for the Beauty Shop: Part Three

Reposting of April 8, 2006 article:

Half an hour later I have my Soy Luster untangled and on little paper cards. I scanned a picture of Witching Hour so you could see how beautiful and perfect for the geisha it is. All that grey looks just like jet black hair going grey. I also scanned a sketch of how I have started stitching her hair. It's proof I'm no artist but visual aids always help, even rough ones. See the center circle? With one strand of the Soy Luster I've stitched / lines starting at the bottom and going clockwise around the circle twice. I know there's a name for this stitch or something similar but I'm on a roll here. No time to look it up. Gotta post when I'm inspired and have computer access!

[This is a round Rhodes stitch. I looked it up!]

Next, still with one strand in the needle, I've stitched some lines across her hair for padding, ignoring where the hair sticks and that purple ribbon stuff are. I plan to stitch long stitches across and perpendicular to the padding to make her hair. I think I'll leave a space where the fat gold horizontal hair sticks are since those will sink a bit into the hair but otherwise, I'll just cover everything up and then add them back in on top of the stitched hair. I have plenty of pictures in Blog showing where these were painted for reference.

I will put a closeup of her hair as the main picture but you really can't see much, just that I've covered one side of the purple ribbon. But take my word for it, in person this is looking good!  [Note the photo mentioned isn't available but I found one that shows the Round Rhodes and the lower area's padding covered.]

Off to stitch now. Thanks for all the voodoo you've been doing. Witching Hour is behaving itself very nicely.

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

Break for the Beauty Shop, Part Two

Reposting of April 8, 2006 article:

This week a new thread arrived in the mail, courtesy of a friend on the West Coast who visited Needle in a Haystack and picked some up for me. It's called Soy Luster and it's a fine perle type thread made from soy byproducts. I had hoped when I heard of Soy Luster that it would be a good substitute for silk floss since some people avoid using silk because the silkworms are killed during processing of the coccoons. However, although it has a nice sheen, it is not going to stand in for silk.

Instead, I'm going to use it for my geisha's hair. I have #497, Witching Hour.
http://www.needlestack.com/WebStore/Thread/TPP_SoyLuster.html

Soy Luster comes in two versions--Solids and Shadows. Solids are one color while Shadows are shades of one color. As you can see from the link, Witching Hour is black shading into charcoal and then into very, very dark grey. It is Shadow Soy Luster.

It also is very, very well named. The stuff is bewitched! I carefully unwound the skein and cut the knot holding it together in the middle and it immediately, I'm talking 3 seconds or less here, tangled itself into a big wad. I'd claim it sprang at me like a jack-in-the-box but I'm pretty sure you'd think I was exaggerating.

Imagine a witch with tangled greying hair, going everywhich way like knotted snakes. You have a very good idea of what I have in my lap right now. I think the problem is that the skein is tied together with multiple knots and I only found and cut one before trying to unwind enough to start stitching.

Why do I bother with this mess instead of rapidly consigning it to the trash can? It is going to be perfect for my mother of the bride. The color is absolutely right and I need a black thread with a different texture than the black Impressions that I am using for the kimono. I need a black with texture and a tad grey showing. So I will patiently unwind my tangles and cut my knots and dream of my geisha's hairstyle as I work.

Needlework teaches you patience. And new swear words.


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

Break for the Beauty Shop, Part One

The Geisha Wedding

Yesterday Deborah left a comment that I decided to answer here instead of posting a reply comment. She said:

"It works." Oh, indeed it does. What a handsome parrot, and how well it fits into its joyful surroundings. I don't usually enjoy ribbon embroidery, though it's very popular here in South Africa, but I'll make an exception for a feathery tail any time! Thanks so much for sharing, and for talking us through it.


So you're still not going Asian? Hmm .. the year is yet young! Is there a live link anywhere to your Japanese wedding group? I can't raise it, and since my daughter would like me to do her a Japanese picture, it would be really interesting to see what you did with the hair. Call me amnesiac, but I just don't recall. And though we have a very settled Chinese population here in South Africa, who even run the sushi bars(!), Japanese culture for practical purposes doesn't happen, so I can't consult local experts or even peer intently at local Japanese hair!


All the best from South Africa in early spring."

Since I'm just working on side two of the iPhone case and you already know basically what that looks like, how about we talk about hair?  The canvas that Deborah asks about is actually two line drawn canvases by the late Anne Jerlow.  I stitched both for the ANG Auction in Baltimore in 2007.  The photo above is my best attempt back then to take a photo of both canvases when they were finished.  This isn't exactly much help to Deborah, but my original Yahoo Blog is archived and not easily accessible, even to me.  The canvases are mostly line drawn but the hair and hair ornaments on the geishas were painted.  You can see the original canvases on the Tapestry Fair website which distributes Anne's work.

http://www.tapestryfair.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&Itemid=1


Having the hair painted black was quite helpful since black thread probably won't cover white mono canvas without a bit of "dandruff" showing.  If the canvas Deborah chooses doesn't have black hair, I suggest she color it as black as possible before she starts stitching.


The next few messages are going to be repostings of my original April 2006 ones about the hair of one of the geishas--the one in black on the far left.  I call her the Mother of the Bride.  (The bride is the central figure in pink.)    I hope this helps, Deborah, but remember, you are going to have to adopt this technique to whatever canvas you choose and it may not be the best way to stitch the Japanese themed canvas your daughter wants!


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