The first project I really want to dive into is my most recent one.  I had been seeing these beautiful minimalist yet also 3d embroideries floating around Pinterest lately and really wanted to try making something similar.

I had a bit of a project block and was just focusing on making dolls for a while and needed to really tackle something new, so to get some inspiration I picked up some behind the scenes books from some of my favorite movies, these are wonderful for getting up close with detail work or just fangirling around.

I was paging through a book on the labyrinth when I saw the most gorgeous production sketch of the goblin king himself.  it was very simple, no facial features but they had sketched in his signature hair and having always been a huge fan of David Bowie I knew this was the inspiration I needed.

Initially it was very easy, I used tracing paper and a transfer pencil to copy the basics of the original image and because I was using emdroidery and not actually sketching I had to alter the placement of some cross hatching to make the image cleaner.  I sized it to a hoop and chose a simple white linen to put it on.

 next up was transferring the image and getting the fabric positioned in a the hoop, the material I used was a 100% cotton which tends to stretch inside the hoop which can make maintaining tension a challenge, I tend to use cheap hoops too though which I'm sure isn't helping.

next comes the tedious part! its all back stitching. I would have preferred if my lines were less broken and at this point I was really hating this piece. It just wasn't looking at all like what I saw in my head, I could only focus on the flaws I could see that I'm sure no one would  notice without me pointing them out.  I used a satin stitch to fill in the vest and then I was ready to start in on the hair be done with what was now a labor of frustration.

Going back to reference pictures in the book I started with  the hair that lies flat and forms the base, I used a single strand of embroidery floss  to satin stitch  all the hair that hits the shoulder then began stitching haphazardly around the crown and forehead, sometimes clumping hair in small groups sometimes letting if go in random  directions. 

 Then I cut several short lengths of Embroidery  floss using a piece of scrap cardboard to help me out. separated all the strands and one at a time threaded them onto a needle, knotted the end and pulled them through the material. after they were all in place I cut them to the proper length of Jareth's signature mullet and used a very very small comb to tease a little fraycheck into the roots to style it.

In the end I really loved it! the hair took around four hours of work and It really made the whole project come together. It was such a roller coaster for me and I'm so happy I stuck it out!

This project will be listed for sale soon, But at the moment I can't quite figure out how to utilize it, It may find its way into being a wall hanging eventually . for now I'm just going to enjoy the fact that the tedious part is done!