Some more little furry animals

Now that I've worked out the way to give embroidery the appearance of fur by sketching over appliqueed fabric I don't seem to be able to stop designing things that make use of the technique.  Here's another one which makes use of the method to give a nice furry appearance

We have a lot of red squirrels around us, which is very nice as they're not all that common in the UK. But they come all the time to raid our bird feeders and we're always glad to see them. 

 

Two squirrels on a tree

 

You can't really see the details clearly on this final version with the painted background, so here's a test stitch out of one squirrel which perhaps shows the textured fur a little more clearly

 

The test squirrel.  But is he the right colour?

 

There is one problem, however, with stitching a design that is supposed to be quite realistic, and that's getting the colour right.I have a collection of many hundreds of different threads in many hundreds of different colours, but all the same I found it difficult to find threads for these squirrels that were exactly right. A colour might look OK on a chart, or even on the spool, but for some reason once you have something stitched out, the colour isn't necessarily QUITE right, and that's what I found with these. Oh well, I'll just call it an "artistic interpretation" and let it go at that

Comments

[Gail Beam]

Hi Mia, The two squirrels are stunning, and your fur technique really adds a special realistic value. As always your hand painted fabric is perfect and gives the background illusion of a tree. Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

[Chantal Clot-Grangeat]

J'aime beaucoup la texture de cet écureuil
On le voit se déplacer sur cette branche !
Félicitations

[Lisa]

I really like the way the tails turned out! Having never seen one of the UK’s red squirrels, I can’t weigh in on the color match, but I sure can empathize with never *quite* having the right color thread when wanting something specific in embroidery.

Over the years I have collected hundreds of thread colors from multiple manufacturers and I still never seem to have the right color red or gray or brown that I want for a specific project! In some cases, I can blend two colors, but that means digitizing so that there’s an under layer and a top layer or threading the machine with both threads (which always produces more thread breaks).

I wonder if you could paint a quick wash of color over an already stitched item? You might experiment with one of your old test stitch-outs to see how the thread absorbs a wash. Cotton thread would probably take the color a lot better than the modern poly or rayon embroidery threads.

But I know you have a bazillion things to do before the exhibition, so there’s probably not much time for experimentation right now

Thank you for sharing your process with us so that we can learn along with you.

[shirley]

Just like the squirrels by the creek behind my place. Love them

[Sandra Lane]

Love the squirrels Mia, they are amazing little characters. We have seen them in the UK, I would not worry too much about the colours, they all vary with different shades. This new technique sure does suit these little guys adds to the personality.