Woman with Mantilla Revisited

Unfortunately I have only worked 2 hours on the portrait embroidery in the last week.  However I did get a lot done.  It is very difficult to feel motivated making hundreds of French knots.  So here she is after 18 hours with the left half of her mantilla almost finished.

 

Woman with Mantilla after 18 hours.

 

 

I must admit that I would really like to drop this project into a baggy and file her away in a drawer.  But I am enjoying the way it is colored and all the blending.  This project has given me a small glimpse into Picasso's style and starting to develop one of my own.  Every time I look at the copy of his "Woman with Mantilla" I see more colors.  It has been a very interesting project and it may also answer the question "How many French knots does it take to drive an embroider insane!

Embroidered Woman with Matilla Update

 

Embroidery after 16 hours.

 

The last few days I have been working on several projects including the Picasso portrait.  I've gotten to the easier parts after filling in the lady's hair and comb.  The mantilla is filled in with French knots but they are spaced farther apart and use both one and two wraps.  I am not trying to make this identical to the original but still trying to follow the color changes.  How fast the french knots work up has been a real surprise.  Every time I look at my work I'm astonished that I can stitch without lines but if I had tried to draw the portrait with a pencil I would have failed.  So all the doodling with a needle has paid off.  Still I don't know if I will work much longer on this piece it was just a self challenge to embroider a face.  There are several stumpwork pieces that I want to work on more than this portrait.  Still it has been fun.

  

 

Portrait of woman with mantilla.

Cicel Mary Barker's Christmas Tree Fairy

 

Cicel Mary Barker's Christmas Tree Fairy.

Tonight after cheesecake and presents we came home and I started to rummage through the fabrics for something interesting and fun to do.  After days of needle weaving I needed to do something with fewer rules.  There in the fabrics were the Cicely Mary Barker's fairies.  The fairy I chose was the Christmas Tree Fairy.  So I got some fine white fabric for the backing and started stitching it to the fairy block.  The reason for a backing is that it adds strength to the project so that no tearing and holes are made while embroidering.  Using white I started taking large stitches from the center of the fairy block out to the edges.  After tacking in north, south, east and west directions I then tacked from the center in a diagonal direction.  Finally I tacked all the way around the edges of the fabric.  With that important step finished I worked on outlining the fairy's face, arms and legs using Gutermann black silk thread.  Taking very fine stitches and working in the black outline of the fairy this both accented the image and made it possible to trapunto the area later.  Then I spent some time looking at the book "Flower Fairies in Ribbon Embroidery and Stumpwork".  After all that work now comes the playing!  So many fibers and techniques!  But that is for later today, it is time to get some rest.

 

Full image of the Christmas Tree Fairy.