Scallop Shell and A Fish in Needlepoint

My photography is never the best, but is really off tonight, as I didn't notice the light zapping the gold tag until I edited the picture. Oh well. I started the fish today, as I couldn't keep my hands away from him another day.

This fish is from a collection I did a number of years ago (time flies), when I was inspired by some jewelry in an antiques magazine. I didn't realize until later that the fish in this lot were the shapes of actual tropical fish! The painted version is on the other blog (Freebies, Etc.), where the patterns are available for print out.

I've assembled Petite Very Velvet for this one, as I'm very fond of the effect of the metallic thread and shiny stuff against it, and the greens are right, I think. Also in the plan is some DMC Satin Floss - the black band on the head and another place or two.

I'm using the Kreinik #12 braid in 002V, and 1/16" ribbon for the little silver "beads" in the chains of jewelry. I chose the ribbon mainly because of the way the light strikes the surface on the Smyrna cross I used here. Braid would have worked fine - but not as effective as the flat shine of the ribbon.

These metallic threads are so wonderful for accents and special effects - things we didn't have when I first started designing almost 40 years ago.

The jewels are probably going to be red, as on the painted version, but I wanted to also show what I usually use for "pearls." This is Shimmer by Renaissance - great pearls!. Sorry about the glare on the tag.

I have several things drawn on canvas and ready to stitch, and will be doing them, I hope, simultaneously.

This scallop shell is very small - you can see the scale by comparing it with the cards of PVV. It's only 3 1/4" high on 18 mesh canvas - and this one also is available on Freebies for you to use to create your own.

The original was blue and green, but I like the look of this color combo, and of course the "pearls" in Shimmer will be lovely. What looks like coral on the blue and green version (Freebies) will probably be changed to peridots on this one.

I'm off to stitch some more and find a NetFlix movie to watch meanwhile. I've given myself another day off from the marathon of painting Talavera crosses for The Yarn Barn of San Antonio for Fiesta - San Jacinto Day celebration. I found I couldn't keep up the pace as I could have 20 years ago. Oh dear.