Lily Bud

Not happy with the way the bud looks. I think it needs more padding - the petals are mushed together. I'll come back to it later and see if it is worth finishing or fixing.  I'll work on the lily next.

Water Lily Bud

I painted over the resist lines. The shadow is not looking great. Maybe the black sharpie is the way to go. I'll wait till I'm done to evaluate.
I used split stitch to outline the lily bud with silk serica and did the self-padding. I've left the inner edges undefined to see if that will give me a more dimensional look.

Waterlilies Doodling Done

The bottom sepal was padded with 2 strands of #5 perle cotton. Maybe overpadded.

Some of the stitches on the bottom sepal was done with Edmar thread,  plus a couple of strands of blending filament - it does not have the effect that I want.
The next petal, the one on top of the bottom sepal was stitched with white floss plus a blending filament - also not what I want - and the padding is showing through.

The second sepal from the top was stitched with Kreinik serica in white, not padded. The serica silk was separated into the 3 component strands and straightened with my handy hair straightener. I think this is it!

The lily petal at 12 o'clock was done with the Kreinik serica also. The one at 8 o'clock was padded with 2 strands of cotton floss, with the serica on top. The padding is showing through. So I use felt padding instead on the petal at 10 o'clock, with serica. I think this is the way to do it for the petals.

Reminder for the piece: 1. Pad the center of the lily. 2. Add some shading on the petals.

I have done enough prototyping - I think I'm ready to tackle the real thing! On looking at the piece the paddings are all ok; especially since the petals are to be felt-padded. The only dial-back will be the stem paddings. The stems may need to be greener as well.

Waterlilies

The left lily stem was done with self-padding, the right with 4 strands of #8 perle cotton, twisted and couched. The perle cotton padding looks better, although it may be too thick. I think 3 strands of perle cotton may work better.

For the dark shadow, I marked over the resist lines with black sharpie (well this IS a doodle cloth!). I stitched blending filament for the water on top of the shadow. I used a mixture of bullion knots and straight stitches for the lily center. I added a little bit of shading on the lily petals; I don't know if this helps or hurts - will think about it.

I tried to make a water meniscus where the lily stem enters the water, using 2 strands of blending filament - that didn't work out, although the one under the top right lily pad has possibilities.

What's wrong with the lily bud:
1. It needs to be padded, to match the stem.
2. The edges of the bud need to stay white.

So that's what I'll fix next.

Waterlilies on Silk

I took an EGA class Mark and Paint on Canvas and Silk  from Laura Smith. The requirement of the class was to submit a painted silk and a painted linen (or canvas) picture. I did a practice version of the silk painting before the final piece that I sent in. I can now use the practice version as a doodle cloth.

Here is an brief explanation of how this silk painting was done. I used Setasilk silk paint, on white silk. Silk paint is thin and watery and promptly soaks through the silk. An outline (e.g. the lily pads) was drawn with "resist", which is a rubber-like thin liquid that forms a dam to contain the color.  When done painting the color was set by ironing and the resist was washed off. This leaves behind a white outline that has to be covered by stitching, or worked into the design. The class gives very precise details and instructions on how to do this correctly.

For the doodle cloth, I  initially tried to cover up the resist white line with stitching - the top right lily pad (blech!)

Then I decided to paint over the resist line carefully using a small brush - and I like this effect. So that's how the top left lily pad was done. For the next lily pad I want to see if I can make it seem like that the edge of the lily pad is submerged in the water.

I used self-padding on the foreground lily petal:

Half padding on the midground petal, and no padding on the background.

Unstitch Leaf

Well that was painful. I think I'll do something else for a while to recover from the massive unstitching!

Hydrangea Leaves

Finished the last 2 "full" leaves in the front. The shading of the left foreground leaf looks awkward. I was hoping that with the veins stitched it will look better. Unfortunately it is too far along to re-stitch, as I will have to remove the SSH and the veins. I am going to sleep on it.

Close-up view of the bad leaf.