Friday, February 4, 2011

Water for the Chermor Gold Fish

Carol's Lillian Chermor Gold Fish Canvas
Yesterday I wrote Carol about the background for her canvas, “My first thought is to use a rippling stitch that looks a little like the seaweed that hands in front of the Gold Fish’s body. Something that is a vertical stitch with movement. I’ll check my stitch books and see what I can come up with.”  Keep in mind that we need a suitable background stitch to completely cover the bare brown canvas.  Carol's deciding on a color while I look for possible stitches.

The traditional water stitch looks something like the background of this canvas from the Sundance Designs Photo Album.  (Many thanks to Sundance for permission to link to these photographs!)  Personally I think this very horizontal stitch would look odd intersecting with the vertical seaweed on Carol's canvas.  What do you think, Carol?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundance_designs/5043098828/

I prefer something like this gray sky background--a vertical wavy stitch. Doesn't have to be this one but I'm thinking a stitch that is roughly shaped like the seaweed bits dangling around the Gold Fish.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundance_designs/5043105350/

However, a more jagged edged vertical wavy stitch would work also.  Do you like the sharper edges of this sky stitch, Carol?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundance_designs/5043096466/

Another way to go is to use a darning pattern in the background, using small fish shapes in one thread surrounded by tent stitches in another thread in a slightly different color or texture.  Look at the base of this Easter canvas to see what I mean.  The fish shapes could be in rows, scattered at random, or be done on the diagonal facing \ the way the fish is swimming.  The fish shapes could be beaded or stitched in a metallic thread (either a totally metallic thread or one with metallic woven in like Silk Lame Braid) in a similar color to the tent stitches surrounding them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundance_designs/5043088270/

A fourth choice is to use an all over pattern like the green sky here done in Criss-Cross Hungarian in an overdyed thread to suggest water.  This stitch doesn't have a direction but the changes in color suggest water movement.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundance_designs/5042463305

Carol, do you love or hate any of these ideas?

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com

7 comments:

Marcy said...

What a fun canvas!

I'll put my 2 cents worth in here. I like either of the last 2 options.

Anonymous said...

A suggestion for the background of Carol's fish canvas is swirl bargello. I believe it is in Brenda Hart's Stitches for the Millennium on page 37, and originally appeared in Jo Christensen's book, Teach Yourself Needlepoint. For a picture of this bargello stitch see "Neptune's Sentry" a Beau Geste canvas (2005 TT18K - Kit).

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

Thanks for the suggestion, Anon. I am unable to find a photo of the Beau Geste canvas using this stitch but it is a very pretty one. It's a sort of W shaped stitch but with rounded peaks and valleys that seem to run slightly diagonally.

Anonymous said...

Here is a link to a black & white photo of the swirl bargello. www.needlesandthreadsofruxton.com/newsletters/August2006.pdf

Definitely does not do it justice, but does let you see the stitch.

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

Thank you very much for the link, Anon! It's on the first page, everybody. Just copy/paste the link into a new window.

Anonymous said...

Hmm. That Swirl Bargello is an interesting option. I kind of like that one, too. It certainly adds a feeling of movement to the piece.

Dang! More to think about, just as I think I've made my decision.

Carol S.

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

Carol, this is a series of ribbon-like stitches, each row in a varying width and meant to be done in different threads. I saw it in one of Brenda Hart's books when looking for Swirl stitches. It's very pretty but also very very busy.