For the background of little Tea's canvas, I wanted a pattern that would accentuate the horizontal line of both his body and the ornament shape itself. A search through my stitch books revealed nothing of interest, so I decided to wing it and came up with a combination of stitches that seems to have done the trick!
Using DMC floss #873, I'm working a series of cashmere stitches--five canvas threads wide and two threads high--that will be intersected by a row of tent stitches. The profile of the cashmere stitches is fairly low, so won't intrude on the central figure.
But before I began the background, I stitched his face with DMC floss in basketweave and gave him his little coolie hat. I used DMC #5 perle cotton #739 for the hat, first turning my canvas 90 degrees to lay long stitches every other slanted row, then righting the canvas to work more long stitches in the opposite direction. I'll come back to stitch his hair when more of the background has been completed.
5 comments:
I like that background - it's a great choice!
The background is great - also the hat!! This guy is definitely Chinese - without added reminders of tea.
I love the way you choose stitches and colors.. you always get the most effective background details.
The background stitch you "created" is perfect - elongated like the figure. It works very well. On to the Chinese clothing...
You are SO creative with your stich/fiber choices! Love what you do with a painted canvas -- and the fact that you even paint them yourself is mind-boggling!
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