Tail Veins

One tail fin done.

Starting on the second one.

Tail Veins

I decided not to follow the instructions to leave the gold veins for last. I want to make sure it works; also if I don't put the veins on, I'll have to do temporary holding to hold the satin stitches in place. After some trial - and using just a needle to stitch the #1 gold per the instructions does not work for me - the beading koma technique from Mary Alice is the way to go. However I have to hold the gold thread in place with my fingers - to make sure all 4 strands line up. I am washing my hands every 20 minutes to make sure my hands stay clean.

Goldfish Tail

It looks a lot better today. For the first shading, I used 6 sugas orange and 6 sugas white. For the next one I used 4 sugas orange and 8 sugas white. Then it should fade to all white.

Back to Goldfish

Before I shelved the piece, I realized that the tail was bad. Fortunately Mary Alice has the extra silk so I can re-do it.

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

The reason for the mistake was that the silk, being somewhat thin, has stretched and the satin stitches became looser as I progressed, forming a bubble. So I had to re-stretch the piece before starting. The moral of the story is - always check for tautness before starting.

I also prefer the tail fin to be more delicate; so that instead of using all 16 sugas I will be using 12.

Onward: