(Polar) Bears Claw

Those who have been following my blog will know that I occasionally make quilts. This isn't one.

Someone recently asked me where I got my inspiration from. The best answer I could give was "Anything and everything. I never know when it will hit and what will trigger an idea until it comes to me." That's the way it works for me. As Thomas Edison said of Genius, as the light bulb went on above his head, it's 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. 

I find that when the inspiration comes, the initial idea can be sketched out as a first draft in a few minutes. After that comes the blood, sweat and tears. I know where I am, and I know what I want to achieve, but once I get the image it can take hours to draw a final version which I think meets my idea.
Then I have a drawing. Keep going, there are still the threads and stitches to select. Usually I have already decided on colours, but then there's the colour balance to be considered. Once I have the drawing, the colours balanced in my mind, and the stitches applied to areas, I can then translate the drawing into a chart. What about size? Mostly, I find, I don't have to think too much about that as the design will tend to indicate what size the finished piece should be.

What about the Polar Bear?

I did promise one in the title, so here is my Polar Bear:

         

The inspiration came from a previous quilt, "6 Bears +1", which had a Bear's Claw pattern round the border. "You could do something with that in Needlepoint," I thought. 

The initial sketch was a single Bear's Claw, like the quilt. The next version extended it to four paws reducing in size, with a partial border, as though it was the corner of a quilt.

For this piece, the title came next. (Polar) Bear's Claw. Why Polar Bear? Who knows, I just decided Polar Bear, maybe because Polar Bears, like male embroiderers, are an endangered species.

It was the title which decided the colours I would use. Obviously, Polar Bears are white(ish) so there was a predominance of off-white, The live on ice floes and the floes are surrounded by the sea, so the sea had to be a dark blue, the ice a pale blue.

Jings! What next? The Stitches. The paws, being the obvious large areas, needed to be white and suggest a certain furriness so I used a woven stitch to give them bulk. When it came to charting them I decided that the size of the woven stitch should remain the same for each 'paw print' and only the area of the 'paw print' should reduce. I also decided that the claws should be couched Kreinik silver. Why? It just felt right. 

As this was based on a quilt pattern I looked for a stitch that had a woven-fabric quality to it for the background. If you don't know this one, it's called Darmstadt Stitch and it's dead easy. It also covers the area at quite a rate once you get in the swing of it.

Having in my mind already decided that the sea would be the border, or was it that the border would be the sea, I sought something smaller and tighter than the Darmstadt and went for a Scotch Stitch with a zig-zag in the same off white as the paws. I deliberately left the ends 'hanging' to imply that this was a corner of a quilt.

It took some time to balance the stitch sizes to the drawing and chart the final design, but by taking the time to count it all out on graph paper, it does mean that the chart is a close reflection of the finished article. I say close, because there is almost always that point where a stitch, as charted, really just doesn't look right and you have to wing it. All you've got to do next is stitch it.

I have to admit that this is one of the few pieces I have designed where I haven't made some fairly major alterations to the stitch plan just because what looks good on paper doesn't work on canvas.

(Polar) Bear's Claw is 5" square and was mounted in a 12" square cold steel frame with a pale grey mount. I used Soie d'Ager silks and a Kreinik metallic silver throughout. It took me 50 hours to design and stitch. (Polar) Bear's Claw was exhibited at the American Needlepoint Guild Seminar 2015.

The last thing I stitched was a two row border that matched the mounting board. I like to add a tent stitch 'framer's friend' to all my needlepoint. My framer says that it gives a smoother transition between the embroidery and the canvas and makes for a better looking mount, I do it because if the mount is just slightly off, the framers friend can disguise it.

And breathe.

Halloween

Every year the American Needlepoint Guild holds a Charity Auction of needlework donated by members.
One of the joys of stitching something for the auction is that you can choose a canvas that looks as though it would be fun to stitch but which you wouldn't necessarily want to own permanently. In 2010 I chose two different canvases. The first was Halloween. I don't know who the designer was, and there were no instructions or stitch guide, only the painting on the canvas.
I'd love to hear from anyone who recognises it.

Obviously, being Halloween, it had to be 'loud' and the letters had to be in the same stitch. I had the ugly pumpkin orange and just knew it was what I wanted. I considered making the O the same colour as the other letters, but decided that the silhouette witch would look better against the sickly yellow. The background had to be night-like, and in a stitch that was complementary but sat back from the letters and figures. It had to be a dark blue, black tends to be deadening, and grey would never have worked, neither supporting or clashing with the orange.

The figures were fun. I did most of them in tent stitch, but I used fluffy threads for the cats and the owl, and a variegated wool for the tree. The green of the goop from the cauldron had to be yucky of course and the pumpkins had to have lit up eyes and mouths. The witch, following the best traditions of wicked witches, had to have stripy stockings and purple hair.

Halloween, with apologies for the  over-run

It was fun to choose colours that went together, but didn't quite, if you follow me, and I enjoyed playing with ideas for the figures. It took me 88 hours to stitch Halloween.

Dying Flames

I stitched this piece shortly after completing "Earth, Fire and Water". It was done specifically to enter the Handcrafts Competition at the Royal Highland Show in 2007. The class schedule, as I recall, was for "a piece of completed but unframed canvas work" on the theme of Fire .

The fan was based on the design I used in "Earth, Fire and Water", with the addition of the fan stick. I wanted a wide range of reds and purples to represent the darkness within a dying coal fire so I chose three Needle Necessities overdyes for the flames and a dark blue for the background of the fan. To make the fan stand out I stitched the background  with a lighter blue-grey overdye. The flames are worked in vertical straight stitches, staggered to reflect the flickering of flames. The background is bargello in three tiers, all worked in the same overdyed floss. I liked the colour changes and the way it pushed the fan forward.

Dying Flames was stitched on a blue 18 count canvas and measures 11.75" x 8.5". It took 113 hours to stitch.
And it took First Place, which was a pleasant surprise.