Wordless Wednesday (21) (diagram based on Microsoft free clip art: MC900168450)

)

Milan Monday (34): Wings for your new week

Doesn't seem possible, the weeks just fly by: it's Milan Monday, already, again.

Here's a stunning Pegasus I created by capturing one of my photos, turning it into a StitchPainter diagram, then into a BMP for your personal non-commercial use, to wing you on your happy fruitful way for the week.

If you'd like to know more about the image, see my blog My Milan Italy: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Why do I needlepoint (gifts)?

Why do I needlepoint? I answered that in my first ("Welcome") post: http://arsacupicturaestellae.blogspot.com/2010/06/welcome-first-post.html#0.

But why do I needlepoint gifts?...More...

Gotta do something other than fill my own house with cushions: http://arsacupicturaestellae.blogspot.com/2011/02/surely-im-getting-unpacked-bitonly-bit.html.

But, seriously, it's a productive way to express not just my creativity as best as I can manage, but it also has that old-fashioned pleasure of thinking about what might please the other person, designing it, then actually making it myself.

Here, I had the "bright" idea to make Xmas gifts--all alike, to avoid jealousies (yeah, right)--for my colleagues at work. What had begun as sunglasses cases rapidly turned into (half the size) sachets for undies and stockings drawers, and even so I only managed to finish the designing, needlepointing and hand-finishing the subsequent Easter time. (Note to self: NEVER do that, again.)

Really, though, each stitch is like spending time with that person, thanking them, hugging them. Sometimes (often?) it means more to me than it does to them...and for that reason I keep my gifts small enough to be stuck away in the bottom of a drawer, if so desired: http://arsacupicturaestellae.blogspot.com/2010/06/most-recent-completed-project-thank-you.html (P.S., she loved it, thankfully, and keeps it in her office, where she can see it).

Why all this mushy stuff? Because looking at my calendar, I realized that, thanks to being innundated with Life and Work, my first Ars acupicturae stellae-Star's Needlepoint Art anniversary went by without me noticing: I did the first post on the 12th of June 2010. Does not seem possible.

Thank you to the "vast" crowd, who regularly follow me, to those who might be regular lurkers, and to those checking in now and again.

Writing for you and sharing my hand-done needlepoint love, StitchPainter thoughts and grids, designs and works with you has been very wonderful for me. I hope it was and continues to be for you, too.

Thanks.

Photoless Friday (18): still working our way through important design thoughts to ponder in Owen Jones' book

"PROPOSITION 16: These object[ive]s are best attained by the use of the primary colours on small surfaces and in small quantities, balanced and supported by the secondary and tertiary colours on the larger masses."

Wordless Wednesday (20)

)

Now you can see how long it takes...

Another snap of my work-in-progress. After a long day of work, and a quick dinner, I look forward to a good movie, or TV program, and an evening of needlepoint.

After those three, or so, hours of stitching, I've covered perhaps three square inches, if I'm lucky (the stitches are small...18 point).

One reason why there isn't a lot of chatting on this blog...but I hope you enjoy it, anyway. When my daytime work schedule begins to interfere less with my fun (!) in summertime, I hope to get back to sharing more thoughts with you.

Photoless Friday (17): guess what? (More Owen Jones!)

Can't beat the design advice of Owen Jones:

"PROPOSITION 14: Colour is used to assist in the development of form, and to distinguish objects or parts of objects one from another."

Verrrrrrry Venetian in origin, as opposed to the Florentine tradition emphasizing drawing. There's plenty of that in Owen's writing, too!

Milan Monday (33): a strip of laurel

Laurel was used to honor a worthy recipient. If you have someone to congratulate for whatever grand accomplishment (a graduation, a promotion, the first book published, the first--or 100th!--hole-in-one, etc.), this strip of laurel can be adadpted for the border.

Enjoy this design that I created out of one of my own photographs imported into StitchPainter, then turned into a BMP, for your personal non-commercial use.

If you'd like to know more about the image and the photo, you can go to my blog about Milan, My Milan Italy: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2011/06/laurel-for-successful-graduations-and.html#0.

Photoless Friday (16): surprise, surprise, more Owen Jones

Here it is, Photoless Friday, already.

Time for more Owen Jones...More......

PROPOSITION 13: Flowers or other natural objects should not be used as ornaments, but conventional representations founded upon them sufficiently suggestive to convey the intended image to the mind, without destroying the unity of the object they are employed to decorate. Universally obeyed in the best periods of Art, equally violated when Art declines. [Jones’ cursive]

Huh?

Yeah, I know, his old-time language is sometimes a bit impenetrable.

Here, the meaning is simple: draw inspiration from nature, stylize (don't copy) it, and certainly don't make it into a merely decorative motif.

My spin? Try to adapt the idea to the medium and the project's end goals.

Wordless Wednesday (19)

)

Milan Monday (32): another amazing lion

Another amazing lion...if you start looking, Milan is full of them.

In case you need a fan-shaped design, this is a good one, created for your personal, non-commercial use with my StitchPainter program out of one of my recent photos, then turned into a BMP to load onto this site.

If you want to know more about the doorknocker, go to my site about Milan: http://mymilanitaly.blogspot.com/2011/06/another-marvelous-liondoor-knocker.html.

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday (18)

)