Gecko is complete...

It took most of the day...but he is done. And, I enjoyed the process, even though I was tired because I was pushing to finish.  

  I used a lot of beads to cover the cabochons and to fill in space here and there. More bullions, French Knots, and back-stitches were worked around the beading. To add some shading, I used longer back stitches in the pretty knitted rayon from Color Complements throughout.  

I changed my mind on the head bead as it seemed to conflict with the eyes as I started working. So, I covered it with five spokes and did a wrapped rose in rayon perle.     

  These darker beads are called twin beads...I put an extra one in the photo (on it's side) so you can see what they look like. Strange little beads...and I thought that they might be too dark. But, when the gecko was finished...they were fine. Sometimes things don't look "right" because there is so much empty space around them...but after you have worked more into the area...they make themselves at home. Ha!  

 

I worked around the cabochon on the left...but these other two were too close to the sides. So, what you can't go around...you go over!

I like the little three beads on their ends...but the beading thread will be covered some with green sewing thread. I thought about using a green marker to color the thread...or removing and starting over. But, the green thread worked enough to make me happy. All of the background was filled with back stitching in the yarn fiber.

The final gecko has some good dimension and I'm pretty happy with him (or her).

Gecko Begins

This has been such a very busy month with classes...mine and StitchMAP's. So, I have not had any time to stitch this month's HEX Challenge...and only have two days to get it done! So, I began last night with the outline of the gecko and the brick behind. Both were done in Stem Stitch.  

  Stem Stitch is not the first choice of many people for a design that has such tight curves...the instructions actually said Back Stitch because of this reason. But, I like doing my own thing with designs...and rarely (as it never most likely) do exactly what instructions say for anything. And, Stem Stitch can be very easy to work around inside and outside curves...even tight ones...if the length of the stitch is just shortened. For these tight curves, the inside curves stitching is reduced to only a couple of threads for each stitch...and it works around the line perfectly!  

  Next was to select some beads and threads. I pulled a whole bunch of greens from my stash. But, most of this will not be used as the gecko is too small to hold ALL of this.   

  I did find some tiny cabochons in green. These were part of a MIX of cabochones that I bought and wondered what in the world I'd do with these teensy ones. Goes to show...don't discard anything! Ha! These will be temporarily held in place with a tiny drop of E-6000 glue until I can encase them with embroidery work or beading.  

The eyes are first to deal with. The gecko has "bulging" eyes...and I didn't want them to be green like the body. So, I went with a 4mm round black bead. Olive green bullions, stacked on top of each other, create an eyelid for each eye.  

The next area for consideration are the feet. This gecko's feet are pronounced, like a tree frog. I placed a little bead near the end of each toe.  

These beads look like round beads probably...but, they are actually drops. These are tiny, about 3mm, and I purchased them for tiny spider bodies.  

Each toe is rounded with one or two bullions...which mimic the eye lids nicely...and French Knots to fill in the foot. Well, that's the progress so far...now, I'm off to stitch some more!