Thursday, August 19, 2010

Angel Wings, Etc. (random commentary)

The "Calla Lily" angel is finished except for the wings!! As there is nothing carved in stone about angels having white wings with feathers, I have chosen another way. (more on the history of wings another time).
Incidentally, speaking of wings, if you haven't already tuned in to The Cape Stitcher, be sure to watch Anne Stradal as she stitches yet another of the "birthday angels." Her version of these guardian spirits has gold wings in December! Quite beautiful.
Also, at this point, I want to thank the people who have so kindly and generously offered their time in stitching models for me - I only needed a few, and have it covered already - but thanks beaucoups anyway!

Back to the subject of wings: I couldn't use white, as that would run into the white blouse - so chose DMC floss #712, which should be fine next to the sleeve. It will darken and dull when worked in basketweave.
The #822 that was used on the first angel is too dark for this one, I think, and doesn't have that little tinge of yellow that's in the #712.
The detail shows the floss (#822) before stitching, and how very light and bright it appears until stitched in basketweave. Then it is considerably darkened, due to the light on the surface being broken up by the stitches. An amazing effect that should always be considered when choosing threads.
In this detail, you can also see that I have taken out the sparkly earrings (I really didn't like them, as inappropriate for this lady) because I accidentally found the thread I originally wanted to use - Frosty Rays Y136. Much better!!
I have a lot of painting to do today, so will stitch more tomorrow, as I actually need a break from this project for a littlle while.

2 comments:

Rachel said...

It might be an interesting exercise one day to use a single shade for several different stitches and see how the different light refraction affects the perceived colour...

Judy S. said...

Love those angels, Judy!