Embroidered Collage

My first goal for the stitched portion was to increase the complexity of the overall image.  I wanted to capture the nested cellular structure within the jasper so I turned to chain stitch, open and closed.  I followed and went across major shapes.  My favorite effect was how the variation in the heavy green thread showed up. 

In some places I bent the definition of chain stitch a bit by anchoring one corner of an open stitch with a small tacking stitch and then continuing the chain from the other.  I went back later to continue the chain from that second side as well.

I am having a great deal of difficulty taking good pictures of this work.  I think that when I complete it I will need to wait for sunlight to photograph the official image.  Otherwise I will lose detail in the stones as the flash bounces off their polished surface and detail in the stitching as it blends in and out of the painted and collaged pattern underneath it.  The stitching is supposed to do that, but I need to make sure the camera captures it accurately, and I don't feel it's right in this image.

At this point, I was looking at the work in despair, thinking about all there could be left to do to wind the stitches over the image and wondering how I would know when to stop.  Then I pinned on the green central section and realized the time to stop was now.  I didn't need and actually did not want the same level of detail all over.  Instead I would focus on increasing the density of stitches and detail in the focal area.  This thought energized me to continue stitching.  I was suddenly much happier with my progress.

I've discovered I can only stitch for so long before my fingers hurt. I can use a thimble, but it's not so much the end of the needle poking the pad of my finger that's the problem, but rather that I have to press my thumb and finger together tightly to pull the needle through the canvas.  That gets painful after awhile.  I need more calluses.  Or maybe I should use the thimble and do more pushing and less pulling...

On one of the mailing lists I'm on - Stitching Post - the question came up of what direction everyone does chain stitch in, away your body or towards it.  I strongly prefer doing it towards me and did rotate the piece regularly so I was primarily working in that direction, but at various points I think I went in every other possible direction when I felt I had the right angle on the frame.

See how this work has progressed from Sketching to Painting to Squiggles to Beading.