Being A Painter Isn't Always A Walk In The Park!

One part of my working life as a needlepoint designer and painter, is custom work. You approach it just as you would any other project. You get an order sheet from the shop with dimensions , pictures or reference materials supplied by the customer , the approximate size, stitch canvas the customer wants , and finally , depending on the customer, an estimate of cost. Sometimes , if there is no estimate needed , I just give the order a glance, and make sure I have all that the order sheet says I should.

Well , I got an order for a belt , which is nothing unusual, and the customer wanted eight beer labels on the belt, and had included a zip bag with coasters displaying the logos. All seemed in order and I had the proper measurements, the logos and she didn't require an estimate. So I filed it in my book and didn't give it a second thought. I have painted thousands of belts over my 35 year career...candy wrappers, wine labels, and everything in the world, that seems somehow to end up on a belt.

But here is the rub, and entirely my fault..I did not notice, the one big difference in this order...

13st.

Now to the average person , that means nothing.....but most ,if not all belts, unless the belt is very simple and designed specifically to be painted on 13st...all belts are painted on 18st...and for most things that are requested on belts...the 27 stitches you have to work with on 18st. and the 17 stitches you have to work with on 13st...that 10 st. difference is a big deal.....It is hard enough to get a beer label that looks remotely like anything on 18st....13st. is not fun.......

Yes I paint on the stitch and am very precise, but even I have my limits.... a belt has to fit into the loops , so you have no wiggle room..... you are locked into a 1.25" height and you can't change it.....

So , of course like most orders, you only find that you have missed something crucial, when you sit down to the drawing table and get ready to start, at this point in time, I most likely have given the shop a delivery time....boo hoo

so sorry for me...you just have to suck it up...(a technical term)..........and get on with it...you allowed to whine a little and feel sorry for yourself...but no one is listening , so what is the point...

Your only saving grace is, like all belts, you are creating an illusion....of course you can't paint a family crest , even with the 27 stitches, a belt on 18st. allows...... "that is like painting, Michelangelo's Christine Chapel Mural , on the head of a pin"..( one of my favorite studio expressions , when I am attempting to be cleaver !!..............well the dogs love it !)

So I do what I always do, I created a feeling , taking just enough from the labels, to give the illusion.... fitting what I could it into a tight spot...

So I thought I would show, the beer coasters and then the belt......your eye tells your brain , of course that is the label...but it is only an illusion , a small bit to give you the sense of the label...

and believe me ...every stitch counted...lol......martini glasses would have been so much easier...