Design Idea: Shading Study

While I was working my Bound Crosses and shading them, I thought that it might be interesting to do a full piece focusing on shading. The effect of shading by varying strand color is fascinating, and quite effective. My idea involves using very few stitch types, but instead focusing on color variation.

The top would be black all the way across the top, with columns going down that gradate in color to white. The arrangement across the canvas would be ROY G BIV, with a grey gradation bracketing it on either side. The trickiness would be in shading between the color families. For instance, the Red -> Orange border. I think you could do complicated shading like this, even with 4 strands, by slowly substituting the new color family into the strands of the previous. With 4 strands, you don't have much to work with, but if you pay attention to the directional flows (up, down, left, right) you could choose adequate combinations. The effect would be a very large gradual blend in any direction.

The result, of course, would be tiny stitch areas for each color combination. The design would have to accommodate all those switchovers by:

• Choosing stitches with adequate backing to bury both ends of the thread
• Have enough stitches to deal with the burial of threads, and prevent insanity. Can you imagine rethreading the needle for one or two stitches over and over? That would be bad.
  

Currently I am thinking that the stitches need to vary between the columns and the cross-column blendings -- a relatively flat stitch versus a "textured" or fat stitch. For example, Cashmere or Mosaic versus Bound Cross.

This weekend I will probably try some tri-color and quad-color shading as described above on my sampler, basically extending my current Bound Cross area. I'll also try Bound Cross with Mosaic or Cashmere to see how they look in relation to each other.

While looking around the web at shading information in needlepoint, I encountered Sphere on a Table, a shading study done by a beginning needlepointer using only black and white thread. His accompanying information says it took a very long time to finish and has numerous beginner's mistakes, but wow, what a labor. That takes nerves of steel.

More Cashmere, Shading, Waste Knots

I have continued quite successfully with the Van Dyke and Cashmere stitches. Once the Van Dyke columns are lined up side-by-side, the disproportion I was seeing between the right and left sides disappears, which is good to know. As I create larger sections of stitches, I'm appreciating the effect of laying the threads -- even from a distance, the reflection of light enhances the pattern so that the stitch definition can still be discerned -- and these are tiny stitches!

Combining Cashmere with Mosaic was helpful in creating continuity in an unusually shaped space. Since they look very similar but differ in dimension (rectangle v. square) they can be paired together at those odd issues.

I had some fun using two colors of threads in my Cashmere stitch. I was thinking about ways to transition colors and didn't bother to look in "The Needlepoint Book" first. My mistake, I made it much harder than it is. What I tried to do was stitch Cashmere stitches partially with one color (there are four diagonal stitches in a Cashmere, I would stitch between 1 - 3, leaving blank space for the other color) in areas where I eventually wanted to transition. Then I when I was ready to move on to the next color, I would stitch in the blank spaces.

Here's two things I learned about this:

• It's really important that the shades by very close to each other in order to make the transition subtle. I can imagine situations where you would want a striking transition from one color to another, but if you are looking for subtlety, shade differences should be minimal.
• "The Needlepoint Book" has a great section on shading. The revolutionary idea I couldn't come up with on my own: use strand combinations of different colors to transition WITHIN stitches. Angels flew down from heaven to sing and strum harps while I reveled in this discovery.
• This is a third point but has nothing to do with shading. "The Needlepoint Book" has an entire section about the necessity of stripping threads and using a laying tool. Its a bit later in the book about projects and design, so I glossed over it in my eagerness to get started.
  

I've also gotten pretty good with the waste knot. This is much easier than holding the thread end under the canvas until it gets buried, although it does require that you have a "plan" when you get started stitching. Also, I suspect it would not work as well with line stitches. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, I think.

Van Dyke, Slanted Gobelin, Cashmere

After learning how to strip strands and use a laying tool, I was ready to tackle some more stitches. There are so many to choose from in "The Needlepoint Book" it was pretty difficult -- but I settled on the "Van Dyke."

My first attempt was done with 6 strands of stripped floss. I also had the column of stitches abut up to the previous work I had done with the Straight Gobelin and the Hungarian. I encountered two problems.

The first problem was that by abutting it next to my 9-strand monstrosity stitches, it was very difficult to see the canvas clearly on the left side. I am not sure every stitch made it into the right hole -- even though I used the laying tool to push strands aside to see better. Although this may be an unavoidable problem for "real" projects that I will have to practice to overcome, I think for the sampler it is a good idea to try new stitches away from others or at least against fairly thin or flat stitch groupings.

The other problem was that 6 strands was way too thick. Instead of being an attractive pseudo-braid marching down the canvas, I have a rather lumpy and decidedly off-kilter caterpillar... thing. Frustrated with this, I ended the stitch pattern prematurely and did a little randomly-placed Slanted Gobelin instead, which is much easier and was therefore more satisfactory.

Not to be undone, I tackled the Van Dyke a second time. This time, I used a much lighter-hued floss so as to better see the stitch and reduced the strand count to 4. I also started in a blank space to the right of my previous work so I would have a clear view of the canvas. Success! The stitch came out MUCH clearer and less lumpy -- the caterpillar became a butterfly. The second column's backing did not turn out as well, I stopped looking at the book and unconsciously changed the stitch order. Although the right-side of the canvas looks correct, the backside does not have as good a backing because of my changes. I definitely need to refer to the stitch instructions more frequently until the order is burnt into my brain.

In order to fill the space between the Van Dyke and the rest of the sampler, I did some 4-stranded Cashmere stitches, along with some more Slanted Gobelin. I really like the appearance of the Cashmere stitch, and it had good coverage of the canvas. I think it would be worth giving the Mosaic a retry with only 4 strands.