What a Self-Representing Jewelry Artist Does For Fun!

I bet you didn't know that we have fun, did you?

Honestly, we have fun doing our jobs. We really do. Most of us are probably deep into the "starving artist" category, but we really do have fun staying hungry on account of our work. Many jewelry artists have "day jobs." Many of us who devote ourselves full-time to the effort are in a relationship with someone who brings home a paycheck that buys our daily bread. And anyway you slice it, we really do enjoy what we do. But it is not what we do for fun. It is NOT our hobby.

As creative as we all may be, we need another outlet of some sort in our lives. This is mine:



Cross stitch! I don't have a lot of free time to devote to my hobby, but I do try, at the very least, to devote several hours on Sunday to my hobby which both relaxes and refreshes me. Or at least, I'd like it to relax and refresh me! My problem? I pick impossibly beautiful and complicated projects. This current one is called "Delphiniums" designed by an amazingly talented Marc I. Saastad and it is copyrighted 2001 by The Silver Lining.

This little piece I've already finished (and took me over two hours!) using 1 strand of floss over 1 cross thread of 25 count antique white Laguna linen. So far, just two 10 x 10 stitch squares of a pattern.

The pattern has 13 pages of 63 squares each.

I've completed two out of 819 squares. This will be the project of a lifetime.

Now, to be honest, some of the pages are full of a lot of white space, but still, this pattern is DENSE to say the least.

And would you look at all those blues! The ring you see over here to the right has 22 of the 48 colors I will eventually use, almost all the rest are various shades of blue. Probably at least 35 shades of blue. Can your computer monitor even "see" all those shades of blue? I can certainly see the difference in the 19 bobbins shown in this picture, but I have to wonder if my monitor would show the difference if all of them were on the ring ... assuming I got a bigger ring, of course. A much bigger ring.

Photo is copyright 2001 by The Silver Lining.

This is what the final product will look like. Without the scrolling frame ... that's not part of the pattern. What's really interesting about this pattern is that there is no outlining (or backstitching) at all. The artist wanted to preserve the softness of the flowers. He says the colors speak for themselves ... all 48 of them! How many shades of blue? Yeah, they speak all right. So loud and clear they make my half-century old eyes weep.

But I am having fun!!

Marc Saastad ... a viking dude! Your intricate artistry impresses me almost beyond expression.