Bargello update

I finished my little bit of canvaswork in mid January. I am very happy with the way it has turned out, the grading of colour from centre to outside has given the right level of "glow" in the middle. The leaves in the centre are easy to distinguish while the darker edges bring out the bright flowers. We won't comment on the slight difference in my working of the bottom flower!

Christine asked me why I chose to use stranded cotton rather than the more traditional wool. In part it was because this was how Rachel was working her experimental fish. Her reason was to allow her to mix colours in the needle, to great effect I must say, but I hadn't really thought about that element until it came to the background. Here the six strands gave me the flexibility to work three shades in a graduated way which has created a smooth transition from one colour to the other. This is not quite the way Bargello is traditionally worked; colour transitions are more marked as with the flowers and leaves here, but that wouldn't have given the right effect in the background. The other effect of stranded cotton as opposed to wool is the lovely sheen that comes where the light, hitting the thread as it lies in differing directions, bounces back and brings changes in value to the colours. I'm really enjoying that.

Now, of course, that horrid question people tend to ask - "but what's it for?" Well it's only about 5 inches square, so something small, another box perhaps. But really, it has been for the pleasure of stitching and experimenting. And that is enough for me