dimanche 9 novembre 2014

Giant Rainbow Skull



Hey Guys!

I am super excited to present my entry for the Old Stitch New Tricks competition hosted on &stitches blog.

It's a giant cross stitch rainbow skull made on pegboard measuring 24 by 32 inches.

As soon as I saw the post about the contest, I knew that I wanted to make something big, bold and colorful, as usual!

I had this project for awhile on my mind to try cross stitching on wooden pegboard, so I tought this was the best moment to try it.

So! I had chosen cross stitching as my ''old stich'' but I was a little disapointed to find a couple of projects that looked like what I had in mind on the Web (mostly floral motifs) so I wanted to push the experience further and make it super challenging (yeah that's me!!). I tought to myself, why not use something different, something that wasn't meant to be used as a cross stitch pattern at all. I started digging for Lego creations and beading patterns and that is when I had the enlightenment! I found this amazing perler (or Hama) beads creations by Irina Hansen and it looked so great I wanted to recreate it! I found out that people sometimes use cross stitching patterns to make perler beads so I tought it would be fun and new to see the other way around!

I mean, this screams me!!! a skull, rainbowy, symmetrical, with a little something that reminded me of Darth Vader's helmet! that was it!




I really tried tracking down Irina to see if she had a website to give her the credit, but beside Pinterest I could not find other picture of her beautiful work, so here is the link of the picture I used as my pattern. 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/91127592433273227/

*** edited on November 10th. I finally found Irina Hansen's board on Pinterest and looking through her pins, I saw that she was herself inspired by another artist named Denilson S. Medeiros to create her perler beads creation. I tracked him down and found this amazing pixel art he made on Flickr!






So what was digital art became perler beads and ended up being cross stitched! How cool is that! (end of editing)***

I started my project by painting the wooden side of a precut pegboard piece my husband bought for me at the home improvement center with cheap black acrylic paint. It gave it a nice matte finish.




I chose to work with my beloved worsted weight cotton since I always have every solid color on hand plus I thought it would look more like real cross stitching.

Each X stitch required a little over 2 feet of yarn, so a lot of yarn was involved in this project! I wanted the final look to be bright and bold so I used 4 strands of yarn. I used a regular metallic yarn needle to stitch.

At first I worked in rows, just like I would in a regular cross stitching design, but changing color after each X made it a little challenging so I started working on the left side of the pegboard and then switch to right side. It made my life a lot easier working in symmetry like that because I would prepare the colors I'd need in advance.



I had a blast stitching this project even if it was so bulky.  I took about 15-20 hours to complete it.

Here's a little close up of my bulky creation!



I used black duct tape to hide the yarn hanging in the back because it looked like a shaggy carpet.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out! At this point I picture it hanging from the sealing as a colorful room divider or as a statement wall art in our basement.

I would like to thank the ladies from &stitches for the inspiration! Hope you enjoyed it!


3 commentaires:

  1. Hello, I found your blog through the &Stitches website - I love your creation! It's very original, it must be huge! And I think it's cool how you tracked down the origins of the image - the positive side of finding inspiration online.
    Good luck in the competition!

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  2. I am wanting to crochet this on in single stitch for a queen size blanket...any idea or suggestions on how many stitches across this should be. if i can get a base number i can graph it out myself its just the idea of how big i should make it. ive found it done in granny squares however i do not want to do that. i simply want single stitch

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