Goldfish fins

I finished the fins and the body of the goldfish. I believe I need to do short stitch holding on the white tummy; which may interfere with the bumps. It looks so nice now that I want to skip the short stitch holding. I'll ask Mary Alice. I am also leaving the scales and the fin "ribs" for later - to avoid snagging on the metal threads that are the scales and ribs.

Working on the tail fins next, after protecting the body with tissue.

Goldfish Blending

I did the blending two ways: on the front of the body I used 6 sugas of orange thread to cover the shared holes of the orange and white threads - you can still see the uncovered holes on the back half of the body. On the front fin, I used 6 sugas of white thread to cover the shared holes. It doesn't look any different, but on certain angles the white looks better. However I need to continue with the orange thread for the remainder of the body, and then I'll switch to the other way around for the tail fins.

I also made sure there is a one point opening between the fins and the body. Suzy (my art teacher) said she was told to do the same for her paintings - so it must be the "universally correct" way!

The fish has a cute fat tummy...

Midori's Goldfish

Finally got back to working on Japanese embroidery. The goldfish from Midori is easier...

The fishes have to be outlined with running stitch. I used running stitches for the fins and backstitch for the body. There are little padded blobs on the tummy, and a bump on the forehead. Midori's silk threads are 16 sugas, and they seem to be easier to work with than the JEC ones - although that sometimes is dependent on the color of the thread.

Here are all my "personal devices" in order to maintain the correct weft angle. These include a T-square, a flexible ruler, and a programming template (from my previous life). As  it turns out, the thinnest devices work the best.

Today's progress: