Mountains

Having moved onto the mountains I faced the issue of what patterns to use. I needed them to be large, bold, and easy to identify, therefore they all had to be very different and lacking common shapes which could make them appear similar from a distance. I started with the large lace pattern on the closest mountain as that is very striking and I thought that if I used it anywhere else it would draw the eye to the wrong part of the image. The top edge where it meets the snow line is particularly satisfying:

It is very convincing as white snow coming down over the top of the mountain and I think it looks rather more complicated than it actually is. Obviously, as the front mountain this one had to be the darkest so the choice of patterns to use elsewhere had to be based on that. I chose ones I had not tried before for the other one strand mountain and the middle machine mountain and a variation of the first pattern I ever tried on the other. Expanding my stitch vocabulary is always a good idea and I thought that these four made a very varied group:

No one will mistake any of them for one of the others at any distance! I have also filled in the flag with silver thread to add a bit of variety but keep it nice and masculine. However I have decided to leave the sail empty. This is for two reasons; firstly boat sails are often white so it looks more realistic, but more importantly because it really stands out against the patterns of the mountains behind it and I like the idea of the focal point of a piece of embroidery being an area without any actual embroidery. It appeals to my sense of whimsy.

There is only the sea to go now then I will be finished. This simple, flat, stylised, with-no-shading thing is much quicker and easier than what I was doing before but I am very pleased with how it is coming out anyway.

Figure and Boat

Having finished sewing the pattern in the boat with two strands I started on the figure in the boat, also in two strands, but hit a problem. Looking at the image from a distance the two sections are the same shade and therefore are not distinguishable. It looks like they are simply two parts of the same object. The figure needs to be a noticeably different shade in order to be obviously separate - in the boat not part of it.

Adding extra stitches is the obvious answer but doing so with two strands would leave the pattern so heavy that it could not be distinguished because it is already quite compact. Therefore I cheated a bit and added an extra stitch to the pattern in machine thread so the overall impression is slightly darker but not too much:

The difference is minor but just enough to make the figure noticeably separate from the boat. The next section to move on to will be the mountains.

Next project

For my next project I thought I would go for something much more stylised to show a different side to blackwork. As Christmas is coming up I decided to make something for my brother. Usually I can't make things for him because embroidery is not something a man is going to hang on his wall, but the monochromatic and stylised appearance of blackwork makes it more masculine so I think it will be suitable. He rows so I was thinking I'd do an image of that but it proved to be a bit complicated sorting out all the oars, instead I have settled on a sailing boat with mountains in the background. This is the design sketch:

Each section will be a flat, unshaded single pattern but the thread will be thinner further back to give a sense of perspective. The only area where a pattern will appear in different thicknesses is on the water and that will still not be shaded as there will be gaps between the different waves. Here is the outline:

I made the outline stitch change thickness to aid in the illusion of perspective though the intent for the water is that the thickness of the stem stitch and the thickness of the stitch pattern will not always coincide. To create the exterior circle I drew around a bowl in pencil on the wrong side and then followed the line with running stitch so it would show through on the front without any danger of the finished piece having pencil on it. I have a good feeling about this design.

Bellydancer done

With all my new shading practice I have managed to finish the bellydancer's skirt.

 In order to avoid the problem to too much contrast I did not use all three thread thicknesses in the second stage. The outline stitches used all three plus breaking up the pattern but then I only used a very few stitches with the single strand of embroidery silk for the filler stitches in the darkest sections and none with two strands. Most of the second stage was done with machine thread and shading was done by breaking up the pattern. If you compare this version to my first try:

The second go is much more subtle with gradual shading rather than clear distinctions and a generally much lighter tone, which is what I wanted so that it would contrast with the dark hip scarf. This is the whole thing  together:

Compared to the rest of it the shading on the hip scarf is a little harsh but on the whole I am happy with this. As my first try at a full sized blackwork piece and the first time I have created my own design I am very proud of it. All my friends seem to like it as well which is a good sign, I must get around to getting it framed.

Present

Now I am sewing again I am catching up fast. Mum's present has been finished by filling in the gaps between experiments with recreations of some of the shading exercises I did early on because they are pretty.

I also used a little more of the gold thread to create little decorative corner stars at the top right and bottom left to unify the whole strip though possibly a few more down the sides might help. To be honest I think I prefer the first strip I did but I will see what it is like when I have finished it off with a felt back and ribbon edging. It is still quite pretty anyway.

So the plan now is to finish off the bellydancer before moving on to Christmas presents.

Symmetry

I wanted mum's sampler to have something on it that wasn't about shading so I had a go at symmetry. A simple Butterfly seems easy but when the wings are filled in with a regular pattern it becomes incredibly obvious if the two sides are slightly different. The general design idea was that it be very stylised and I included a little bit of gold thread for contrast since I had it already and didn't end up using it for the bellydancer's hipscarf - waste not, want not and all that.

 I sewed the whole of the left side first then used different techniques to create symmetry for the top and bottom wings on the right side. The top wing was done by recreating the filling pattern then doing the stem stitch round the edge, the bottom wing was the other way round. Neither technique is entirely satisfactory. Sewing the filling first results in exact symmetry but the outline is very difficult to keep smooth when it is done second so I would need to work on my stem stitch. Doing the edging first creates a nicer finish but a single miss-count has resulted in a slight difference in the shape which then becomes obvious when the pattern is filled in. The conclusion is that symmetry is very difficult and if I want to try it again some time I will have to pay close attention.

Finally

Having been rubbish about sewing for the summer and autumn I have finally had a chance to get started again and am continuing with the sampler for my mother's (now very late) birthday present. At the same time I am still experimenting with shading so this time I tried splitting the stitch pattern into two sections completed at different times:

First I did the basic outline of the pattern, shading it as normal where I wanted the darker and lighter sections to be. Then I went back and filled in the other detail stitches, also graduating thickness, and broke up this section of the pattern to create the lightest sections. This technique is definitely far more flexible for quick shading than trying to do it all at once and makes it less easy to miss count and mess up but the contrast is too great. Looking at the whole thing the shading seems too fast so there are lines of dark and no grey:

In spite of that I think this is something to have another go at anyway because the flexibility is such that it should be easy to correct the issues.