In between a few different commissions, working on a number of dance costumes, and the Halloween season (sideshow gigs), I've decided to start a new side project. I got re-addicted to cross stitch, and am in the planning stages of developing a new pattern: Francesco de' Medici's coat of arms. If all goes according to plan (read: I don't hate the project before I finish it), this will be displayed in either San Lorenzo's guild yard or safely at home. So far, I've got a black and white copy that I've filled in with color, to get an idea of what I want to do.
I was undecided whether or not the figures (seraphim?) should have blue or green tunics, and gold or burgundy tassels hanging from the Maltese crosses. After coloring everything, I think I'll be going with the light green tunics to tie in with the garlands, and the burgundy tassels, to add weight to the bottom.
Since the original image gets pixelated at even the size of a quarter page, I went ahead and freehanded an approximation of the original image.
It's not perfect, but it's close enough for cross stitch. Also: Yay, tracing paper for creating symmetry!
The image, so far, is roughly 14"x14". The next step will be to get the drawing on a light table, under some graph paper, and fill out the 1/16" squares with color. It's a tedious way to map out a cross stitch pattern, but I don't have a program that will do it for me, and this method will give me the results I want. I also don't have a light table, which means I'll be improvising with a glass-top table that's been sitting in my mom's barn. Necessity is the mother of invention, right?
I have a light table I'm not using. Would you like to borrow it?
ReplyDeleteThat would depend entirely on its location. Is it with you, in the Bay Area? Because if your answer is yes, then I would gratefully decline your generous offer - only because I don't want to drive that far for a piddly craft project.
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