Buttafly One: FINISHED AT LAST!

I know you guys want to see the finished product, but I have to take it slow.

Forgive me.

**

Let me illustrate my thoughts--the most important of which being that I barely had any idea at all of what I was going to do for the body of the damn thing, and didn't know even after I had already started stitching.

What I did know, though, was that it was going to be white.

I also had some ideas for segmentation a la caterpillar, but I still couldn't think of how I wanted it done.

I wanted to stitch the colors for the segments simultaneously, in such a way that I would just finish the embroidery in one pass.

It was at this point that I realized my plan wouldn't work:

So, there I am, trying to figure out how to fix this without having to tear anything out (which I rarely ever do--so much so that I can almost say I've never done it!)

My answer came to me as such: Work the whole body in white first.

Check.

And now, for the segments. I actually got this idea for the segmentation from my Chinese embroidery book--and I wouldn't go so far as to say that I botched the technique...but I put my own spin on it.

What I was supposed to do was work the first shade, then make a line of back/split stitches and then stitch the next shade over that to give it a "raised looked"

But, in retrospect, I wouldn't have liked how it turned out if it had gone as planned because I was stitching in the wrong direction and it would've given me the opposite effect!

So, my process:

The line of stitches (I used split stitch). 

I tried to curve them to give it some dimension... not sure if it worked.

And then the shading stitches! 

The split stitches are located at the top of each orange section.

Now, I just want to say that I did not use two colors for the orange bits. I used one shade of orange, in fact, the lighter shade (that you can see in the bottom wings) because I thought that the darker orange would be too dark.

As it turns out, the shadow from the raised segments caused the tops to look slightly darker --> so accidental shading!

Yaaay!

So, here's the butterfly up to this point:

As you can see, the antennae aren't done yet.

I really struggled with the color choices for the antennae. I didn't want them to be blue or purple or that teal-esque color because of the predominance in the top wings.

So, orange it was.

And more french knots! 

I did decide to use some of the dark teal, just to keep things from being too orange, and so far I'm happy with it.

So, at last:

Buttafly Number One!

^_^

Random

So I found these digital art courses on CG Cookie and I made this:

I thought it was pretty neat ^_^

You can now see it on a new blog I just started:

Artistically Determinatified

(yes, I came up with that title myself)

^_^

Stitching Burst

At least, it definitely felt like one. I didn't cover inches worth of pattern, but considering the medium I'm happy I finished one of those little circles before my eyes gave out.

I was originally planning on trying a type of weaving stitch on all the circles except for the corners, but... 

let's just say it didn't work out.

On top of that, when I redid the circle with the stranded buttonhole, I had this little thread that kept getting in the way--and of course it ended up as a big thing of fluff that just got everywhere.

On another note, I also worked on the buttonholing.

I feel like it should've been slightly more therapeutic... but at the time I was fighting off a lack of feeling in my caboose for sitting too long, and a tenseness in my back from being hunched over.

-_-

But on the bright side, it's that much closer to being done! 

Embroidery Woes

But first, a more cheerful announcement before I forget:

There is a certain tatting pattern in development that is very near completion. 

I admit that I haven't exactly been working on it around the clock, but I am very very happy with the progress. 

And now, to the woes... 

Within the last few days I've discovered that the screw that tightens my embroidery hoop has become damaged. 

Now, I'm hoping to be able to find a replacement (I honestly haven't been able to look yet), but in the mean time that means that my hoop may not be tight enough to work with.

However, when I realized this, I got stubborn and decided to do at least a little bit anyways.

I managed to finish my little miscellaneous Doodleplex embellishment and use up some spare thread scraps that were too large to stick into my orts jar.

I did also notice that I seem to be rather fond of french knots.

I do have to admit that it was tricky having to pull on the fabric every few minutes--puckering being a definite concern.

However, I feel that it turned out alright in the end.

^_^

Le Masterpiece moving forward!

While I would've loved to say that Le Masterpiece was finished when I finally got through that big fat border, there was, unfortunately... more to go.

Those round thingamabobs around the edge still had to be tackled. 

After a brief hiatus, I returned to the task.

This is my progress thus far: 

A closeup on the corner: 

It took longer than I expected, which made me a little weary... but I'm thinking I'm gonna mix it up and try something new for the rest of the circles... let's just see if it works.

In the mean time, I wanted to work on Le Masterpiece, but I didn't feel like doing anything super tricky.

So I started on buttonholing some more of the inner elements. You can see it on the inside edge of the thing border, and that round thing

In case you can't really see, here's another shot.

I do realize that I forgot the extra threads that were supposed to pad the outline... but I'm thinking I'll just save the thicker outlines for the outer border.

^_^

I've been a bad blogger... again

It's been... I'd have to say, at the very least, a week since I last worked on Buttaflies and I haven't shown my progress!

I forgot! 

>_<

So, to make things short and sweet, behold!: 

As you can see, Buttaflies is almost complete! 

I do admit I had a bit of a tricky time with the shading. I couldn't get the direction quite right (which is why the bottom left wing looks a little more radial than the one on the right) but you learn from your mistakes, so I am nonetheless happy with it!

Here's a closeup: 

I used split stitch for the lines and single-thread french knots to fill up those round bits. I almost used satin stitch, but then I remembered my experience with the yellow thingies in Doodleplex  and completely switched gears.

-shudder-

Anywho, Next on Buttaflies: thorax, antennae, and final details!! 

^_^