No Big Secret !

Custom work....this all starts the same way...I am contacted by the shop or customer, with an idea of what they want ....ornament, pillow, rug, Christmas stocking...whatever.....the canvas stitch, size , and content.....some orders are very specific, and I am sent fabric samples for colors, photos , I have even been sent little hand drawings for layout...this is where we start....

now some customers that have been coming to me for custom work for years, trust my judgement, and leave a lot of the design decisions to me....but a new customer, especially one that hasn't really had much custom work done wants a sketch. Now as you can see the sketch I provide is just a simple line drawing, no color. The sketch I do for a customer is also , more than I do for myself before I start a project. The sketch is basically a layout and gives you a feel of the space you have to create a certain image. After a sketch is approved...then I just cut the canvas to fit, lay the sketch under the canvas...and paint...no markers , to outline, I never mark the design with anything, exception a real hard lead pencil, if I doing say a building or something that I need to line say windows or lettering....but on the whole it is a very direct painting...It just happens to have holes in it. It is all painted on the stitch , so the stitcher never has to decide where a color goes, I am very precise. The whole point as I see it, is for you to sit back and just concentrate on your fibers and stitches, not to figure what has been painted ,or have to re-think the design....

My custom piece or any of my needlepoint should look like the painted piece when worked...only better because the fibers add such a richness in texture and depth.

I get asked all the time...this is it ...no big secret or magic....just years of painting and knowing the canvas ......................although it would be nice to have elves that paint when I sleep...or a big machine that I could just channel my thoughts to, and out would pop a canvas....this would be much more exotic, then just me painting....trust me , watching me paint, is not exciting........although I always paint wearing very cool earrings ...this counteracts the crappy paint stained clothes with holes and a painting apron that can only be described as gross!