Update 12th July 2020

Fish Scales
When I tried this a few years ago, it didn’t work, but this time it did.  Main difference between mindsets was: former had been pursued as per surface ‘embroidery’, e.g. decorative, flimsy, unstable.
Latter approached as mini ‘weaving’, hence stable, firm and consistent results.

So that’s the mermaids’s scales sorted.
In researching how to approach the fish scales, I found this reproduction of a ‘boiled leather cuirass’ from 9th century soldiers, worn over chain mail.
Later this design pops up in falconry gloves.

Medieval Collectibles

Now onto the Mermaid’s German headgear, which I managed to confirm this morning

Respect due to the model here, her hair AND headgear is exactly what I can see in this woodcut.
Which is great for historical accuracy but not so great for overall design....you’ll see what I mean later.  Then again, I think if her head gear is white it could tie in with the sails?

Then there’s the mermaid’s tail background layer.
I’m going with this idea, I’m about to do a couple of try outs.

This is two shades of woven kid, soft leather.  Now I don’t have soft leather, so I’ll use something else.  This method will save a lot of work, because the sea is taking such a long time....

I created a firm base for her tail with reversed chain stitch. That stitch takes such a long time.
I also have to switch to stem stitch stab method for much of the sea, again that takes forever, instead of the sew method, which is so fast and fun.
At long last I was able to photograph the piece in natural light. The second fish is not a shark.

Update 11 July 2020

I did say “less text“...well that didn’t last...oh dear, grab a coffee ppl!

After doing the hair, I figured the woodcut is most probably German. Now that the shark has so much detail, I think the mermaid’s will need more work.

I think the sea only really comes to life when the palest blue is added. I’m using a single thread, as doubling it means the colours don’t blend as well.  I did a section with doubled thread, but had to juxtapose with a single again as the “quality of the line” was completely lost.

Il Futuro
Ok, so here’s the handsome chappie that’s going to be stitched. As an image I think it’s really great. I like his pose, especially that he’s not looking directly at us.  Love he’s reading a letter...who could it be from?

He’s a Royal Artillery soldier about to go off to the Battle of Waterloo.  I think because it’s a watercolour representation, it’s already been simplified for sewing.  I’m going to use a mixed bag of stitches, mainly satin, stem, long & short and gold threads etc. It’s a nice size, not too small around the face.  Very small faces can be particularly tricky. I love his hat, so that might get ‘special’ treatment. I don’t think the colour of his trousers is accurate, must be a faded reproduction because they’re more blue than grey in the image and I think they were actually light grey.  He has some gold, but not too much.  It might help to copy the image using coloured pencils first, but the danger is that I’ll have exhausted my enthusiasm and then won’t proceed.  But saying that, deep shadows need to be understood e.g. elbow creases.

 Have a good weekend !

Update 10 July 2020

Ok so I’ve given the mermaid some hair but I don’t think it’s accurate, so will be working on that.

Her tail and the two fish are the elements that I think about most, I don’t really want this piece to be about her hair but a funny thing happened...

(Since drafting this post I completed one of the fish, that turns out to be a shark but I gave him scales.  Not sure if other fish will be the same? I like the idea of male shark and female shark being different. If the next shark turns out better, this shark will have to have a new look.)

As I gave the mermaid’s features form, I could see the original drawing for the woodcut suggested somewhere in there.  That was a complete surprise and actually magical, because now I’m really back in the past.

I think this is quite a pious image along themes of hope for safe journeys, sort of thing, because if you look more closely you can see her hands look as if she’s praying, she’s wearing a modest chemise and her hair is covered.

I also think she was younger in the original design drawing than in the woodcut, but that’s what happens when you start gouging at delicate faces with wood carving tools...it’s all about the “quality of the line”, as they say.

I think the fact that her bosoms are not on show and she is altogether a demure mermaid, make her to me, seem more like the guardian angel of the ship, than pure fantasy borne of physical longing...?

Her tail is going to be hard, as are the fish.  Why? because if it ain’t hard, it ain’t worth doing.
Hard is when you learn, when you find things out and when you develop as an artist.

Hard can also produce dreaded banishment to the attic for several years but, hey, better late than never, right?

I’m already working on my next project, which is going to be very different indeed and in fact I’ll tell you now because I’m super-excited...it’s going to be of a soldier about to go off to the Battle of Waterloo.

Look what I found in the attic...

More projects with a maritime theme.

Ok, so this was meant to be for someone...you know how it is.
There’s a seagull, two shells, a boat(two sails), the sun, a lifesaver, some seawater and one cloud.

I should mention each mini motif is only a prototype.  The colours are not final choices and I would like to work with finer thread.

To give you an idea of scale, the sea shells are 2mm!

As Pat Trott says in her book Three Dimensional Embroidery “ illumination is better than magnification”.  So get your hands on a daylight lamp ppl!

Saying that, it is actually relatively easy to stitch DBH fast in this way, as you can see two threads intersecting to guide you to the next place to take a stitch. It’s not knitting, it’s more forgiving than that.

Anyway, on finding said item I could immediately identify what needed to be done to sort it out.

So all the items are made Punto in Aria, aka, DBH around your finger or between your fingers.
At first it’s fiddly, then you quickly realise it’s a very good way to make miniature cute things that make you smile...

So here’s how you do it...

Photo 1 is how you start.
Photo 2 is how you end the first row.

Eventually you end up with this...

Now a funny thing happened as I rummaged in my bag of bits.  I found this...!

Now ‘this’ may not look like much to the uninitiated but for anyone that’s about to make a mermaid’s
tail, this is potentially a fish scale...

Must dash, have to water the plants and feed ‘he who cannot cook’...

Update 8th July 2020

We have a crow’s nest, more water, some rope and sailcloth seams...

I’ve managed to injury my thumb while gardening, wish I had one of these clever masculine inventions called a Sailmaker Palm...

Let’s have some more sea...

I’m using stem stitch here to convey movement of the water.  It’s such a versatile stitch, in that you can switch to its mirror image, which is outline stitch, and also it can turn very easily into satin stitch.

7th July 2020 - Update

Hi Everyone

Working on a new project.  I plan to plot my progress from now on using less text, more stitching and more images.

I’ve missed the sea and decided to make this as a way of coping...


This is a woodcut from around 1500s.

I think the ship is a Portuguese Caravel.