Monday, August 12, 2013

Aurore Boréale

So much has been happening in my little part of design world that I felt it might be a good idea to get everyone up to speed.
My most exciting news is Aurore Boréale.  Last fall, the editor of Needlepoint Now contacted me about having one of my designs in the magazine.  I had to think about it for all of 2 seconds before I said yes!  The offer came at an interesting time in our lives when I was actually thinking about shutting down my business, due to my husbands illness, working full time, and trying to manage that full time job, home, care for my husband, and deadlines for designs.  It was a time of lots of prayer for guidance.  That offer confirmed to me that everything was going to work out and we would come out stronger on the other side, and yes....I needed to continue to design.
I really didn't have any idea of what to put in the magazine, but suddenly it seemed like everywhere I turned, I would see a photo or an article about the aurora borealis. I mentioned to my husband how great it would be if we could go somewhere where he could photograph it (he's passionate about photography!) The design just suddenly started to take shape.
The design has lots of dimensional stitches using 9 different Kreinik metallics in shades of purple, turquoise, pale mauve, lilac, silver night, Bahama blue, periwinkle and my favorite: purple mambo, all set on the background of the night sky.
You can see the photo below, or check out www.needlepointnow.com.  Go to "current issue" and check out the back cover.
It's worked on black canvas, but don't despair if you find that difficult to see.  My wonderful photographer husband came up with an awesome solution!  If you have an ipad, there is a FREE photography app called Color Softbox.  I have no idea what it does for photographers, but it has numerous colored screens that are lit.  You can place your ipad on your lap and choose the color that works for you.  It's very easy to see the holes on the black canvas with the color shining through.