How we work out our designs

The procees of creation an embroidery design is very fascinating and spectacular.
But you hardly ever had a chance to track it from the very start to the finished result, right?
So I want to reveal this mistery for you.
I'll share with you my experience of designing a pattern for our Easter collection - Easter bunny.
The very first and important thing, as in most business, is the conception. Eater in Blackwork - how it would look like? Would in be black&white or in colors? To my mind Easter is a very vivacious event  - it is not only a religious holliday, but a celebration of the Spring and the revival of the Nature as well. And though Blackembroidery is very elegant and expressive I don't think Easter mood could be very well expressed in a single balck color, thus my Easter bummy will be colorfu!
So I search in the Internet for the pictures of existing Easter bunnies to get some notion about this notion and a bit of inspiration.
This is what captures my mind

Yes, I want a Bunny with an egg on the background and plants or decorative elements on the foreground, it would be a mix of natural looking and cute cartoon rabbit. But since the Bunny is white, how can it be highlightened? One of my favorite means is Assissi technique - I'll leave the Bunny blank white without any fill-ins and will surround it with somehow dense Blackwork fill-in.
So, the concept of my Bunny has become clear for me. Now it's time for the technical part.
One of the very first sketches

Still lot of work to do, but at least something...
Well, the ribbon is a good solution, and the pussy-willow is a traditional symbol of the Easter, but something is not appealing in this sketch to me. May be the Bunny? It doesn't look very cheerful, but on the contrary it's like he is on the alert - this Bunny won't suite my conception. Sorry, fellow. I'll try another one.
Couple of days, and here we go! My new candidate:

  Yes, this guy looks better! And though this sketch sends me back to the Shutterstock Bunny, I think it doesn't look like its copy or rip-off. At least, I hope so.
Time to use special software - to proceed the sketch in a special programme that thransfers graphic images into the embroidery pattern. And here is the result:

Oh. I defenetly loke this guy! He looks cunny - as though once you turn away, he will jump off the picture and will rush as a bullet or he would stay but for sure will devour couple of flowers in front of him...  Who knows ;)
Ok, joking apart - now it's one of the most complecated phases of the designing process - stuffing the apttern with fill-ins. Usually, I make up not less than 3-5 editions before I find the most suitable variant.
One of the first clumsy try

As a rule the first try sucks... Still it gives some notions about how I don't want my pattern look like, thus it is   not a wast eof time, but quite a useful experience.
So, does and donts:
the Bunny itself does look good. I'll leave it as it is.
the flower  don't look good. At the very begining I had in idea to use a satin ribbon applique bow. Now I'm about to leave cross-stitches for the bow and use satin flowers instead of the stitched ones. We'll see - I need to make a virtual inage of the pattern with applique flowers on it.
the pattern of the egg - hmmm, something is wrong with it. I need to think. I wanted a dense fill-m, so it is dense and I desided to eliminate the egg's outline so that the fill-in shaped the egg. But this very fill-in is not suitable. Why? I reconned my brain foe couple of days and during that time I put the Bunny aside and concentrated on stitching the model of the Wedding Day coach - and the answer came to me during stitching - I ellaborated this free-style fill-in with the intention to make it unususal, so it is unusual, but think about a needlewoman who will stitch this fill-in! She will curse me - the fill-in is almost incoherent (!) and there is no outline to keep up the count with (!!), so the stitching process will be a chalenge and the result does not worth it... Helas, hours of drawing this very fill-in - to the dust bean! But the unknown needlewoman is preserved from tortures and my reputation is safe :)


To be continued...