More shading

While I am thinking about the bellydancer's skirt I'm working on my Mum's birthday present. She requested a random panel like my experiment sampler so I will be using the opportunity to try out a few things. I have started with a simple leaf:

This was actually ticker than it appears because when I did the same exercise as my first try at blackwork I was using 22 count fabric so the stitches were far smaller and consequently shading was easier. To create the same gradual shading in the same space using fewer, larger stitches I had to be more subtle, using 3 different thicknesses of thread within the same section of the stitch pattern. I started by sewing the outline stitches, shading as appropriate, then added the stitches at the centre of the pattern separately. It is probably cheating but seems to work and provides greater flexibility than doing all of one thread thickness at a time then moving on to the next. This is probably what I will end up using on the bellydancer (I will explain the process with pictures in my next post as I am not sure that was very clear) but I still need practice in more rapid transitions.