Ink: An Unusual Embellishment

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that my Magi #2 pictures from yesterday were from September. So if it looks like I’m much further along today, it’s not that I have smoking needles. I’ve just been such a slacker in the blogging department that I have plenty to catch all of you up on!

One of the last steps on Magi #2 (as on Magi #1) was the applique of Sensuede.* For Magi #2, the applique is used in one section in the robe, and also as the Magi’s hood.

Here’s how the hood turned out when the applique and trim were put in place.

It doesn’t look bad, but it seems to be missing some dimension. It’s a bit flat until the addition of an embellishment you don’t normally see in needlepoint: a tiny bit of ink. Specifically, the judicious use of a brown Micron Pigma pen.

Four nerve-wracking minutes later, the hood was no longer flat:

I did find that it helped to smudge the ink just a tiny bit while it was still wet. It’s not exactly realistic, but we’re talking about a guy without any facial features here. It works for me!

*As an aside, and to answer a few questions I received when first writing about Sensuede: Dorothy Lesher tells me that Sensuede is just ultrasuede (though I’ve seen plenty of ultrasuede that wouldn’t be as nice to work with). Specifically, it’s the name given to some of the ultrasuede sold by Nancy’s Notions. You can buy a sample pack of this, with pieces plenty big enough to work with, at a very reasonable price.