Friday 12 January 2007

Golden Wedding Anniversary Project

Yesterday I rambled on about Japanese Embroidery. I wanted to tell you about that before rambling on about this years BIG project. On June 1st 2007, my parents will have been married for 50 years. In my book that is quite something and I would like to give them a special gift to mark the occasion. I have been thinking about this for sometime (you will come to realise that I spend rather more time thinking than doing, but I'm working on that). When I showed them my first Japanese embroidery, my Dad was impressed, and that doesn't happen often. That was when I decided to do an embroidery for them. After a lot more thought, I decided on a design called Flutterbies. I have 3 brothers, so the six butterflies in the design will represent my parents, my brothers and me. All I have to do now is decide on a colour scheme. Now, I am not very good with colour, or at least I don't believe that I am, so prevaricate endlessly when choosing a colour scheme.

After much deliberation, I have settled on two possible designs. The first is based on 'mother' and 'father' bird in this embroidery of herons. The mother is embroidered with white, silver and pink, whilst the father has black, white and gold plumage. My idea was to embroider my 'mother' and 'father' butterflies in these colours and for the four 'children' butterflies to each have one element from each parent in there own colour scheme. Below is a sketch of this design, the colours are only representative, the scan below of DMC threads is closer to the actual colours that I envisage.

© Jennifer Ashley Taylor/Carol-Anne Conway



My second idea was to try to use a more 'Japanese' colour scheme. I found an article about how kimono colours changed from month to month. This scheme is based on the colours associated with the months in which our birthdays fall. To me, this is a far more challenging scheme. The colours are not ones that I would normally put together or even use in the first place. Again, the sketch is not a good colour match and is only really a guide for where each colour will be placed. The DMC threads are below the sketch.

© Jennifer Ashley Taylor/Carol-Anne Conway



I will have to make my choice soon; their anniversary is in June and I am definitely not a fast worker.

Happy Stitching

3 comments:

piney cq said...

It will be a gorgeous piece of art that you will be sharing with your parents! All I can say is to remember that some colors draw the eye more easily than the other. The yellow butterfly is what stands out in both (to me). If that is what you are wanting, then it is perfect!! If you would like to see the father and the mother butterfly more symbolically dominant, their colors will need to be stronger to capture the attention! Make sense? Even just using gold, black and silver would be magnificent. But....what has been said is true.....listen to your heart and try to turn off the internal critic. Then, the embroidery will flow! Many hugs...

coral-seas said...

Yes, that does make sense. I think that the gold of the 'father' will be more dominatant than it appears hear, but perhaps I should find a way to tone done the yellow. Thank you for your imput.

CA

Anonymous said...

I can only comment from looking at the threads in the pictures. I think the second set (from the kimono theme) is more eye catching and pleasing. But, it is only my opinion. :)