Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Update on Plastic Canvas ornaments

Have the Christmas Ornaments for the first book designed (for the most part).  There will be at least ten (10) designs - mainly geometrical shapes.  So far the profiles will produce a circle, hexagon, octagon, diamond, elongated diamond, kite, oval, navette, with a multi-tiered top and a diamond with a cavity to suspend a finial inside the ornament.  I have a few more of the shapes with a cut-out, an oval and a square. 

I can turn the kite shaped upside down and it will produce what looks like an "Apollo" bead.  The ornaments will be what I call "Vaned" ornaments.  There are a few more that I may include, but I have enough of the profiles cut for a good portion of the ornaments.  Will most likely start stitching on them this week. 

Will make six (6) vane ornaments for illustration, half the finished ornament will be plain stitching, the other half will be embellished with rhinestones, sequins, and bead.  That way I can have one ornament and produce both a plain and an embellished photo.  Later, I may cut the whip stitching and add embellishments or simply cut the threads securing the embellishment and remove them.

Over the past weekend, I went into storage and found a few items I was missing, but still have a box of crafting tools somewhere.  Found another box of beads that I had been looking for, so I have my full color pallette again of beads.

Have almost enough profiles for a book on Christmas Chandeliers from Plastic Canvas.  Have seven (7) designed but a few more can't hurt.  Still have the spoke ornaments (six at last count) I worked on 2015-6,  as well as the geometric solids (seven - not counting compound shapes), segmented shapes (five) including the fringe and fuzzy chandeliers or cones.

So, I have 35+ shapes for Plastic Canvas in 3-D.

Monday, February 6, 2017

PC Chandelier

A new design in my exploration of plastic canvas ornaments. So far I have seven (7) different profiles for chandeliers and they can have 3, 4, 5 or 6 vanes. This is a 4 vane. Before the chain and pearl drop embellishments were the ornament is just shy of 6 inches across and 3 inches tall.  With the chain, pearl drop, and hanger it is roughly 6"x6".  Was thinking about adding additional pearl drop to the jump-rings which attached the chain but maybe later.  Used #5 crochet thread for the main stitching (roughly 5 yards per panel) and the the Yarn Bee Diamond Fetching as the edging (roughly 12 yards).

One of the things I have to remember is to really tightly sew the sequin and gold bead embellishment on tightly.  When doing the final stitching, some of them became loose and I had to re-stitch to tighten.  Next one I am thinking again white thread for the major stitching but with a red border and red sequins with white pearl beads.

Was thinking about making it five (5) vanes but also wanted to get it finished.  Really like how the finished ornament came out.

Most likely will be the ornament given in the 2017 Feb-April Ornament Exchange.