From Start to Finish

This is a step by step journey from inspiration to the finished article. I was inspired by this picture.

I had a piece of hand-dyed fabric that looked like the table top with shadows and light that would be marvellous for a background. 

The first thing I did was to play around with the above picture in Photoshop and see what effects I could get. 

 




 


















The above are some of the results but I was most taken with the last two and in the end I used the very last one with hints of the one above to inspire me. 

I stitched the outlines onto the background fabric adding plastic and wax, and used a small heat tool I cut out areas of the plastic and heated the wax so that it ran unevenly. 

I added more stitching and overlaid threads and wool. I worked heavily into the fruit shapes to make the stalks look solid.

Then I used net to get the shadowy effect and to highlight certain areas. 
 

And below is the finished piece. I worked on it for about a week perhaps a bit less. Once I got started I was full of enthusiasm and worked every moment I had. I added the shaped border to represent a table cloth. The fabric background highlighted the apple shapes and continued the theme of light and shadows. All in all I was pleased with it!