The Earth's Too Damn Big
A while ago I promised I'd show you another giant needlework project I'm working on. Ergo:
Oh, how lovely! Also, how meaningful! This is Teresa Wentzler's "Millennium," which was created for the popular millennium, as you see (2000, not 2001). The alert among you will notice that it is no longer 2000, and that I have not finished the piece. No matter. "2000" is a sort of symbol, not a date. So that's ok. (Click here to see what the finished piece is meant to look like.)
Wentzler's' work is notoriously difficult -- she works with blended threads, with NUMEROUS colors, which is how you get the subtle shading, and she works with quarter and half stitches, which is how you get the subtlety of design.
Fair enough.
But in this piece, she also works with one-over-one, the cross-stitch equivalent of petit point. And I find, for the angels' faces and hands, and the lettering, that's not so bad. But there is a bad bad piece of the design, which I started earlier, and then gave up on, cause it was Daunting and Gave Me Pause:
Notice that big blank spot in the middle of the cosmos? That's the earth, our home, and her attendant moon. Now, remember -- for the most part the design is worked in cross stitch, over two threads. The earth, and her attendant moon, are worked in cross stitch, over one thread. That's four times as many stitches per inch as in the regular parts of the design. Over one thread. With one thread of floss. Very tiny fiddly work, that takes a long time. And it takes a REAL long time, because the earth's so damn big.
For my own amusement, let's have a close up of the close up. It's going to be fuzzy. Squint your eyes and use your imagination:
See those tiny little dots on the edge of the earth? Those are tiny cross stitches. Yes. Compare to the rest of the earth, and her attendant moon.
I figure another five years on this piece; occasionally I get really sick of it.
And yet I intend to finish it. And, knowing me, I probably will. Sorta scary.
So that's another project I've been working on when not working on the raw chicken Viking hat (At some point I'm going to create a contest, wherein faithful readers get to guess how many times I've linked to the raw chicken Viking hat, and the winner will get some sort of prize. Maybe a drumstick.)
*******************
(By the way, Autumn, many thanks for the hint about the Cat Town "Tapestry" episode, which I had not read. Yea verily, for I be loving it.)
Oh, how lovely! Also, how meaningful! This is Teresa Wentzler's "Millennium," which was created for the popular millennium, as you see (2000, not 2001). The alert among you will notice that it is no longer 2000, and that I have not finished the piece. No matter. "2000" is a sort of symbol, not a date. So that's ok. (Click here to see what the finished piece is meant to look like.)
Wentzler's' work is notoriously difficult -- she works with blended threads, with NUMEROUS colors, which is how you get the subtle shading, and she works with quarter and half stitches, which is how you get the subtlety of design.
Fair enough.
But in this piece, she also works with one-over-one, the cross-stitch equivalent of petit point. And I find, for the angels' faces and hands, and the lettering, that's not so bad. But there is a bad bad piece of the design, which I started earlier, and then gave up on, cause it was Daunting and Gave Me Pause:
Notice that big blank spot in the middle of the cosmos? That's the earth, our home, and her attendant moon. Now, remember -- for the most part the design is worked in cross stitch, over two threads. The earth, and her attendant moon, are worked in cross stitch, over one thread. That's four times as many stitches per inch as in the regular parts of the design. Over one thread. With one thread of floss. Very tiny fiddly work, that takes a long time. And it takes a REAL long time, because the earth's so damn big.
For my own amusement, let's have a close up of the close up. It's going to be fuzzy. Squint your eyes and use your imagination:
See those tiny little dots on the edge of the earth? Those are tiny cross stitches. Yes. Compare to the rest of the earth, and her attendant moon.
I figure another five years on this piece; occasionally I get really sick of it.
And yet I intend to finish it. And, knowing me, I probably will. Sorta scary.
So that's another project I've been working on when not working on the raw chicken Viking hat (At some point I'm going to create a contest, wherein faithful readers get to guess how many times I've linked to the raw chicken Viking hat, and the winner will get some sort of prize. Maybe a drumstick.)
*******************
(By the way, Autumn, many thanks for the hint about the Cat Town "Tapestry" episode, which I had not read. Yea verily, for I be loving it.)
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