Right. Well it has been a while. I moved on to the next leaf and it didn't go so well:

It looks a bit like a mouldy banana. The shading between the colours is fine but the colours themselves look awful. The light patches in particular are far too white. That will teach me not to pick my threads out when the light is bad - orange light made the white look much more yellow than it really is. So I did a bit of unpicking and tried again:

The pale section is at least broken up a bit but the mouldy banana problem remains. This is definitely not my finest hour!

No unpicking required

Finally I have managed to sew a leaf for the Autumn panel that did not require any of the stitches to be unpicked:

I suspect what helped is that although there are a variety of colours they are all roughly the same shade so there were fewer awkward transitions. Again there are seven colours of thread included in this motif, not including the black outline. The three leaves together look quite good:

There is a nice contrast in shape and colour that works well. The plan has always been to do five coloured leaves in total and gold ones in the background. However, when I started thinking about where the gold leaves should fit I started wondering. I tried making some outlines:

I am not really convinced. So I am carrying on with the next coloured leaf and thinking about the gold ones in the background. The may need to be much smaller than I had thought.

Colour Shading Again

I have managed to get myself to the part of the country that has the rest of my embroidery silks in it and have been carrying on with the autumn leaves panel. This has involved some unpicking since I decided that I wanted to original leaf I started with to be predominantly yellow and far more gradually shaded than my initial attempts had been. I have therefore been using multiple needles with different coloured threads to help avoid mistakes when I am shading between colours:

Actually, I appear to be getting better at counting on evenweave fabric and while using blackwork stitch patters as I am making far fewer mistakes of that type. Which is a very good thing as I have found that the best way to create the kind of gradual shift in colour I want is to have continual shading with no sections that are completely one colour. The picture bellow shows the completed leaf in better light:

Although there is a general trend towards yellow, some parts shade into green and some are orange. But rather than differentiating between the areas I wanted to be different colours when I was sewing I took a very fluid approach. That explanation wasn't very clear so maybe a close up will help:

There are seven different coloured threads in the above image, not including the black outline, but they all overlap so much that you have to concentrate hard to see where one starts and the next begins. This allows for very quick but smooth graduations in colour. The trick seems to be to not have even a single repetition of the pattern in a single colour. Where there are no sections that are identifiably one colour it becomes easier for the eye to accept the transition to the next one as there is simply no dividing line, however blurred.

As you can see in the first picture above, I started on a second leaf while I had the limited selection of threads that is going to be much darker than the first. However, the problem I had with the colour on that was the opposite one to with the first. The red/orange patch that has been sewn above contained three different coloured threads but unless you look closely it is virtually impossible to tell them apart. In the image bellow I have done some unpicking and introduced some lighter colours to help:

This is better but the use of only five colours of thread still seems quite limited. I think I will need to add something even darker to give this one the variation in colour it needs. The main thing I have learnt from this exercise so far is that colour is really very complicated!

Autumn Panel

Firstly, here is the sampler I made for my mum with its backing done so it is ready to be displayed:

Now on to the next project. I bought a few pots of fabric paint (brown, gold and bronze) and attacked a piece of evenweave fabric so it is an uneven colour. I started by soaking the fabric in diluted brown paint so that there would be no completely white sections left then used the brown paint to darken some areas. Finally I added the gold and bronze for texture and sparkle. Since the design plan is to go back to the autumn leaf I did on my previous set of colour experiments, the background is supposed to be vaguely treelike in its shape. I will do five different shaped leaves using coloured shading with a few gold and bronze ones using very thin sparkly thread in the background. It will be a bit abstract and muted. Here are the materials:

I am at the opposite end of the country from my collection of embroidery silks at present to I just chose a few colours that seemed to work well together. However I quickly hit on a snag:

The yellow thread I selected in the shop turned out to look pale brown when used against a brown fabric rather than a white one. It also blends in with the background so that it is virtually invisible. The similarity in colour between the 'yello' thread and the background also means that the orange stands out hugely and doesn't blend together as well as it looked like it would. From a distance the situation is even more obvious:

Only the orange shows up at all. I need to re-think this. I really like working on a coloured background but in future I need to have it with me when I select the colours I will use since it has a knock on effect on all the rest of the colours used. I have found an interesting looking book on using colour in embroidery which I hope to get for my birthday so I plan to work on thus more in the future. In the mean time I need to rethink my colour choices on this piece.

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.

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.

Gold coins

I have struck a problem doing the coins for the hip scarf. Although I have gold thread I am uncertain that I can make them look good. I had a go and this is what happened:

It looks a bit pathetic really and the satin stitch is very awkward on evenweave fabric because I can't get a smooth edge. A couple of practices later and I have come to the conclusion that coins won't really work. The satin stitch looks ok in photos but stands out from the fabric quite a long way because the thread doesn't bend, so it would get damaged very quickly, and I am still having trouble keeping the edge smooth.

The other two experiments are to test the idea of creating an outline and then filling it with a blackwork stitch pattern. They are more practical but are unsuitable stylistically in this case because the rest of the bellydancer is quite naturalistic and they are too stylised to fit in with the overall image. Therefore, I think I am going to have to give up on the idea of having coins at all. I will experiment with gold thread at some point and possibly come back to the idea when I am more experienced.

oh dear

Well that didn't work then.

Ironically I think the original stitch combination was the best after all. I am still convinced that it should work somehow but I will come back to it sometime when I am a bit more experienced because there is a more immediate problem to focus on now. The difference between dark and light shades in the background isn't great enough to create the impression of fabric folds that I want on the bellydance hip scarf. I will have to break up the pattern to some extent but that is difficult to do naturally in small areas so I am going to have a practice run at that first.

Pattern experiment

I have started an experiment to test my idea about having a second pattern on the bellydancer's hip scarf. I will be sewing an octopus in one stitch pattern on a background of a different pattern, both of which shade from dark to light at the same time following the red line.

That all looks a bit complicated but there is some very quick shading that needs to happen on the hip scarf so I want to try it at the hardest level first. In order to help the eye distinguish between the two stitch patterns I have selected ones that are different shades and shapes. The body of the octopus is darker and based on octagons while the background is the large mid-tone lace pattern I have used before. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work that well.

Neither the shading nor the two different patterns are showing up clearly so far. I am going to try dividing the image into four quarters and using different combinations of stitch patterns to see what combinations are more effective but this is not looking very hopeful.

Blackwork Bellydancer - Design

While I am still playing with coloured experiments I figured I would start designing my first proper blackwork image so that I have plenty of time to think about it. I already have a piece of fabric that is the same size as the one I am doing the current experiments on which is square and about 14 inches wide. Therefore I intend to design an image that is approximately 10 inches square. I want to stick predominantly with black thread at the moment but am considering using some gold as a contrast.

I am a belly dancer and it would be really nice to combine my two hobbies in this piece so I have looked through my photographs to find a simple shape that I can take as a model. These are what I came up with:

The shape of the dancers back provides a simple but easily recognisable image and the fabric of the hip scarf and skirt provide interest. The first of the two is the more dramatic so I decided to start with that. I transformed it into black and white, heightened the contrast slightly to emphasise the different tones, then drew lines over the edges and where the most obvious shading should go:

To make the image stronger I shortened the hip scarf and raised the bottom edge of the top to show more of the back of the waist. I then created a new, square, document and copied the outlines across so that I could decide what layout the final image should have. Finally I blocked in some shading:

Cropping the image in tighter to the waist hightens the impact by emphasising the body's curve and I really like this as an idea. Gold thread could be included by adding some coins to the hip scarf. In real life there would be two or three rows but I wouldn't want to overload that part of the design so I experimented with a single row allong the botom:

The coins do add something to the design but they will also add to the difficulties in transfering the design on to the fabric so am stoping here and will come back to it in a couple of days to see what I think. I am happy with this as a starting point though.

Building Blocks 2 - outline

I decided to have black outlines to all of the blocks in order to help distinguish the different areas and used the recommended technique for transferring patterns from a page to fabric - sewing running stitch through both paper and fabric then tearing the paper away. However, there was a problem. Although I thought I had lined up the vertical lines on the paper pattern with the grain of the fabric I apparently wasn't accurate enough.

You can see how the verticals indicated by the tacking are very slightly diagonal and the boxes ended up rather uneven.

Eventually I just used the tacking as a vague guideline for the height and width of the blocks but worked with the grain of the fabric for verticals. This is what I ended up with:

 Since this is just an exercise it is bearable and I won't start again but it is definitely irregular so I need to find a more accurate way to transfer designs to fabric. I had hoped that by drawing the design as a geometric grid on paper first I would be able to make it uniform but I think for future reference it would be better to work out the angles and sew regular straight line shapes onto the fabric direct. I'll have another go at the tacking technique some time I'm using a more irregular or curved shape as it may just be that I need more practice..

Building Blocks 1

In order to have a go at coloured blackwork I am starting simple by using single threads to create flat blocks of different patterns. This seemed like a good time to try to expand my vocabulary of stitch patterns again and experiment with shading using different patterns. Therefore, I will be sewing a regular pile of coloured cubes, like children's building bocks. This is a simple mock-up of what I am aiming for:

Each cube will be in a single colour and will be shaded entirely by using different patterns. The rules are that I am not allowed to use the same pattern twice or simply add or remove a few stitches from a base pattern  to make it different and I can't cheat by changing thread thickness. This should be interesting, I am slightly worried about the yellow block in case it doesn't show up enough. I looked through my thread collection and these are the colours I have chosen:

The yellow is the darkest one I have and the others are chosen because they are all in the same shade range. I think they make a nice combination.

Sorted

I have come up with a design that allows the stem of the second blackwork leaf to go downwards without it having to be so steep that the shading doesn't work:

The leaf has become virtually horizontal with just a very slight downward curve at the end which is enough to keep it looking realistic. I am using a vertical pattern under the stem and a horizontal one above it again to keep the two leaves balanced without symmetry, but this time the shapes in the pattern are larger so there are more stitches in the centre of them that can be taken out for the lighter section.

Design flaw

Oops. I have been having difficulty coming up with a design for the second blackwork leaf because I don't want them to be symmetrical. Leaves need to point downwards or they look strange and trying to have the main stem direction downwards to distinguish it from the other design leads to the problem that the central line of the leaf has to go up and over which takes up more space. That probably wasn't very clear but if we look at these designs you should see what I mean:

It just doesn't look realistic. Eventually I came up with what I thought was a viable option:

As you can see there were various problems with exactly where the join of the stem should go but it all fits in the space and is in the right proportions so I was happy. Then I started to sew and a problem emerged:

Where the stem is almost vertical the shading doesn't work properly. Instead of lots of short lines you get a few very long ones which don't move with the curves of the stem. Obviously I have to go back to the drawing board. For the shading to work the stem can't be at more than about a 45 degree angle at any point and the pre-existing join point combined with the need to shape the leaf in a certain way makes that very difficult. One possible solution would be to rotate the fabric relative to the design but I haven't quite worked out what the other implications of that would be and I am running out of scraps of fabric so I will go away and think about it.