Starry starry night

A few of the steps on the way to the conclusion of the starry gift cushion inspired by some mid fifth century A.D. mosaics in Ravenna.



More......

The cross is probably about 5, or so, inches tall...



Remember that, working on 18-point canvas, it takes me a whole evening's work to produce about 1" x 5" of worked canvas (less, if there is a complicated pattern to count out)...



The "furry" bits are the flashes of color; the ends get cut off, as I fill up around them...




And now, for the finished project (I do my own sewing up, too):





(for more info on the font of inspiration, go to my: http://arsacupicturaestellae.blogspot.com/2010/07/from-whence-cometh-my-profile-picture.html#0)

Shading patience

Working in the three tones of light-medium-dark, it's usually possible to get good results without being too tedious to plan, acquire yarns (oh, the omnipresent worry about tag-end leftovers), and stitch. Four tones probably would be even better,...More......but even my patience has its limits.

Furthermore, the colors of Paternayan are grouped in small batches of 5, and, at the light end of the tones, the difference may seem visible on the color card, or even when laying hanks next to each other, while stitched may "disappear" discouragingly, after all that work (though the differences, not consciously perceived, still may contribute to enlivening the design).

Similarly, at the dark end of the tones, the difference between the 4th and the 5th color may not seem startling, but might turn into an eye-popper once stitched. I encountered the first situation in the skin tones of my Justinian and Theodora needlepoints (my second ever projects), while the second is evidenced in the mantle of Justinian (http://arsacupicturaestellae.blogspot.com/2010/06/adopting-images-in-mosaics-surprisingly.html).

Though the finished product is still good, working the designs always is an excellent way to learn new lessons, to refine sensibilities. Especially if the project is going to be large and costly, it's a good idea to work good-sized test patches of the color combinations, first.

Adopting images in mosaics--a surprisingly difficult adventure

I thought it was going to be easy. Translating an image in mosaics into a needlepoint design. I was wrong! I had forgotten that,...More......though perhaps we first think of little same-size evenly placed squares when we think of mosaics, it's just not true.

In the areas where more detail is desired, the mosaic artist snips and clips the mosaic bits into the desired shapes, and--to better catch the light and create a sense of movement--sets the mosaic cubes and bits at slightly different angles into the cement support.

Getting the right amount of detail sufficient to express these marvelous images produced for myself and inspired by the famous mosaics in San Vitale (Ravenna, Italy) in an 16-18" pillow already wasn't easy. Getting the sense of glitter and movement (without "cheating" and using shiny gold-like threads) was not easy, either.

And I learned an interesting lesson also helpful for me as an art historian: as much as I wanted to copy the images, as exactly as possible, something subtle changed, as the design passed through my eyes and hands to the canvas. The face of Theodora, the Byzantine empress, turned out softer, sadder, than it really is, while the face of Justinian, the Byzantine emperor, turned out a bit harder, more wily.