Originally posted 2008-05-15 07:26:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
You can use overdyed and hand-dyed threads on painted canvases, in fact they are very effective.
But you need to remember two things
1. You control the thread, it doesn’t control you.
2. YOU CONTROL THE THREAD, IT DOESN’T CONTROL YOU. (think of The Producers)
The first aspect of this comes in the choice of overdyes. I divide overdyes into two types, based on the color scheme. The first type I call multi-color. You can tell these overdyes immediately because there is more than one color in the skein. They are lovely, but they can be problematical on a painted canvas. You can deal with them (more about that later). The second type is what I call semi-solid (a term borrowed from knitting yarns). These overdyes only have different shades of the same color. To a very large extent you can substitute a semi-solid thread for a solid thread in needlepoint, just about anywhere.
Dealing with overdyed and hand-dyed threads in general
1. Whenever you have a thread which has changing colors, no matter how subtle, you need to be careful of any stitch done on the diagonal. The color changes will also happen on the diagonal. This does not happen in nature. Our eyes are attracted to changes on the diagonal, so the unnatural characteristic of the change is even more apparent.
The way you overcome this is by changing the stitch or method of stitching to stitch only on the vertical or horizontal. For Basketweave, substitute Continental, for Mosaic, stitch it in rows.
This is an easy thing for most stitchers to do and it makes a world of difference. By doing this you control how the color changes because of your method of making the stitch. So you might stitch a sky in horizontal rows, but a tree trunk in vertical ones.
2. Overdyes and hand-dyes can often have colors in their sequences which you don’t want. In that case, cut them out. This will usually make for shorter stitching lengths, but it’s worth it. This is one important way to control the thread.
Dealing with multi-color threads
These threads will almost always attract more attention to themselves than almost any other kind of thread, so you need to use that to your advantage. First pick a combination that will work for your canvas. I once did a lively sky background for a mini-sock which used a multi-color overdye, but the colors were all pale and by stitching the background in horizontal rows, it looked like the sky in the morning. A thread with more variation in it might be good for a printed dress if you clumped the colors together while you stitched. Or you could use something like Caron‘s Mediterranean and a darning pattern for a lovely tropical sea.
If you pick a stitch suited to the area, then pick a thread suited to the area, you’re more than halfway there. The key is to figure out how to make the stitch so that the color changes reinforce what you want to depict, not fight against it.
But these threads are always more difficult to use on realistic painted canvases (not abstracts or geometrics) than solid and semi-solid threads.
Dealing with semi-solid threads
These are much easier to use and they give a lovely depth of color to needlepoint which doesn’t happen in solid threads.
One really easy way to use them works for all stranded threads. Just switch the direction of half the strands do that the colors change in the opposite direction of the other strands. I did this for the background of the Needledeeva nativity pictured above. Most of the time, this breaks up the areas of color. What you get when it’s stitched is a definite change in color, but it’s impossible to see where the design changes.
Another easy thing to do to moderate them is to combine them with some strands of a solid thread in one of the shades. This does the dame thing as reversing the strands except that it will reinforce the color where the overdye and solid threads match.
When it’s a single strand thread, you can’t use that trick, so you need to deal with them the same way as you deal with multi-color threads, by controlling the method of stitching. The thread may look pretty much solid to you but, trust me, those color changes will stick out alarmingly one you do an area in Basketweave I know I keep this canvas of Jesus and St. Joseph on my desk to remind me. (By the way if you have this canvas in your stash and don’t want it, or know where I can find it, I’d love to stitch it again and do it right this time).
I find, to some extent, the fussier the stitch, the easier it is to use a semi-solid and stitch in the normal way. Right now I’m stitching a dress with a complex divided scotch and using a hand-dyed thread. I can see the color changing, but I can’t figure out where. I just love the effect.
If you’re in doubt I’d try a bit of the stitch on the margins of the canvas and see what you think.
Related posts:
http://threadsofdesire.blogspot.com/2007/03/ocean-finished.html
You can see more detail by clicking the pictures.
This canvas uses both multicolored and semisolid silk threads. I handled the multi colored ocean by confetti stitching, placing the stitches randomly in nearby areas. There are a few places that they clump together, but overall I love the multicolored effect this gives the ocean. The sky is semisolid. Luckily there is not a lot of difference between the lightest and darkest shades. I handled this by stitching each irregular section in a different direction. The effect is streaky, but for the sky I think this works just fine.