Thursday, November 08, 2018

Swishy

Last weekend I decided to spoil myself a bit.  Back in August I signed up for a finishing class at Needleworker's Delight in NJ - about 3.5 hours away from my home.  The piece was a darling mermaid by White Lyon Needleart, and since I had enough Marriott points to get a free night in a nearby hotel, I just couldn't resist.  Here's my finished piece (minus the silver clay crab that I made there - it has to be fired and will be sent later).
Isn't she adorable?!?  The hardest part was getting the mermaid on to the laser-cut finishing form...all those curves were maddening.  But I persisted, and am pretty pleased with the finished product!  The pearls hide a multitude of sins, as well.  And of course, I did mine different from many of the other ladies in the class.  First of all, I made my tail shorter.  I mean, the physics of a giant tail just don't work....she'd never be able to swim if her tail fin was 3 times the size of her body!  (Yes, I can suspend disbelief enough to accept that there might be mermaids, but not the physics of a huge tail fin.  Shut up.)  I also added turquoise seed beads between the pearls on the edge, and I added beads to her tail as well.  Mmmmm, beads.  I embellished her stand with some green yarns (seaweed!), beads, shells, and a piece of sea glass.  I'm planning to put my little silver crab on the sea glass.  And finally, I tied my own purple ribbon onto the top of her staff and stitched the starfish charm to that to secure the whole thing.
She's a perfect addition to all my mermaid-y pieces, and I had a good time working on this.  It was definitely a day-long finishing project, and Needleworker's Delight was a great place to work (and shop!).  Since I was there, I did do a wee bit of shopping....I brought home a piece of 40-ct natural linen (my LNS always seems to have a hard time ordering high counts for me), a limited edition doll kit from Cherished Stitches, and an old Dragon Dreams pattern my daughter might like.  Here's the little doll kit:
And now that I'm back home, I want to start something new.  Maybe Thanksgiving-themed?  Stay tuned!

3 comments:

Astrids dragon said...

OMGoodness, she's gorgeous! You finished her beautifully!

Robin in Virginia said...

Your finished piece is gorgeous. Way to go!

Bethan said...

What a great piece! And I understand the logic of debating the physics of her tail x

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