Thursday, March 29, 2012

Custom Painting

If you're a longtime follower of our blog, you may have seen past entries about some of our custom paint jobs. We are very proud of our custom painters, and love being able to create one of a kind special pieces for customers, as well as being able to have specially designed pieces exclusive for our shop.
Our custom painter, Jia, has been very busy creating beautiful needlepoint canvases, for customers, and for our shop. She has done baby samplers (the adorable example being one of them!), book covers, wedding samplers, stockings, whimsical phrase canvases, belts, and much more!
One of the pieces she finished recently is this beautiful piece of art. It was custom made for one of our customers whose son is getting married. The piece is dedicated to her son and her new daughter in law and represents symbols that are special to each of them and symbolize their new life together. It is gorgeous, and having been there for the thread pulling, I'm sure that it will look gorgeous once it has been stitched up!
Another fun piece that Jia painted is this lovely version of our Philadelphia Christmas stocking. Our other painter, Jim, had painted a gorgeous version a couple years ago that has turned into one of our shop masters. This customer loved it so much that she wanted to create a similar stocking for her granddaughter. I think it came out very well and love all the different colors. There are definitely lots of opportunities to use specialty threads and stitches.
Another fun piece that Jia has had the opportunity to paint was the fun cummerbund above. It really came out well, and I'm sure that it will look great once it's been finished! If you're interested in having a piece custom painting for you or a loved one, get in touch with Jia at painting@rittenhouseneedlepoint.com. You can send her a picture of something you'd like made into needlepoint, or you can give her a description. You should also consider if you'd like it to be stitch painted, partially stitch painted, or just painted. Stitch painting is a much more labor intensive process on her part, which ads up to more hours and cost, but it really creates the best effect if you like to have everything exact. All of the stitches will be painted, and you won't have to decide where to start shading or blending. Her fee is only $25 an hour, so depending on how big and detailed your piece is, and if you want it stitch painted or not, you will really be able to control how much you would like to spend. She'll do a sketch after giving you an estimate of how long it will take to paint it, and then your piece will get started!