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Tips and Info
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Many cross stitchers search mistakenly for Theresa Wentzler designs hoping to find her Peacock Tapesty or Fantasy Collection. However, the designer is actually named Teresa Wentzler. Teresa Wentzler designs are stunningly complex, intricate, and challenging, but the results are beautiful. Her cross stitch designs typically have a fantasy focus.
She has experimented with numerous techniques in her work. Her cross stitch designs are noted to be among the most detailed and challenging available, incorporating numerous blended threads, fractional stitches, and specialty stitches. Her "hallmark" designs are large in size with ornate borders. She's also designed several pieces for wool-cross, or "Victorian Cross Stitch", which utilize wool and canvas and her Celtic designs.
She not only creates fantasy inspired counted cross stitch designs, but she has also added intricate pen and ink drawings in recent years.
Designs by TeresaSome of her most famous designs include:
Other General Themes for her cross stitch designs by Teresa Wentzler include:
They can be found on our family of sites in the following locations:
Meet Teresa WentzlerAn avid reader of fantasy novels since she was in high school, Teresa is inspired by selected classics, fairy tales, fables, and stories of the paranormal. Lavish designs by Pre-Raphael artists, illustrations in turn-of-the-century children’s books, and trends in the arts and crafts movement offer her other ideas. Often Teresa combines her favorite elements from some or all of these influences in her designs.
“I’ve done art work ever since I can remember,” Teresa says. “[Even as] a little kid, I drew these really strange, abstract kinds of drawings.” Describing her style as “realistic fantasy” Teresa adds, “I like to render imaginary subjects with as much realism as possible. Or, if the subject is not an imaginary one, I will try very hard to add something that will give it some extra ‘zing,’ like a decorative border.”
After graduating from high school, Teresa studied fine arts in college for a year. Taking off to marry, she returned four years later to a community college and earned her associate’s degreein advertising art. This training, she says, “helped prepare me for the ‘art’ end of designing – the realities of deadlines, ‘art-on-demand,’ and other aspects of production such as charting and writing directions.”
In 1985, Teresa happened upon success unexpectedly. “I couldn’t find the type of designs that I wanted to stitch as gifts for friends, so as an experiment, I did them myself,” she explains. “I didn’t do it with a possible career in mind. At the time, I didn’t even realize that one could design for a living.” After receiving a positive response to her work, Teresa contacted a marketing firm, which submitted her designs to a cross stitch magazine. The magazine promptly published them and requested more.
The designworks of Teresa Wentzler can be found on her website.
Teresa has developed a large international fan base many of whom participate on a large bulletin board (approximately 4000 registered users) linked to from her site which has been highly active since the mid-1990s where cross stitch fans converge to discuss Teresa Wentzler designs.
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Tips and Info
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Most cross stitch patterns can be easily changed to use African American cross stitch skin tones. At Leisure Arts, we receive a lot of inquiries about what floss colors should be used to change the Caucasian skin tones given in most cross stitch designs to those for African Americans. A range of colors that work well for African American cross stitch skin tones are DMC floss numbers: If you only need three floss colors, drop #838. If the original design calls for five flesh tones, you can add DMC #938 for the darkest tone. When substituting the cheek colors, choose from the DMC range:
The cheek colors you choose will depend on the intensity of the flesh tones around the cheek. You wouldn't want to have the darkest cheek color to be darker than the flesh tone used next to it. The easiest way to choose is to lay the skeins of cross stitch skin tones flesh colors you are using in order from dark to light. Then choose the cheek color from the range given that is closest in intensity to the lightest flesh color and try using it as your darkest cheek color. In most instances, this method will work fine for choosing correct cheek tones. For hair color substitutions, the DMC range: works well with the flesh and cheek colors mentioned earlier. The DMC colors #645 and #646 are close in intensity, so you will probably need to use only one of them. |
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Techniques
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Cross stitching is such a beautiful craft - it's hard to believe there could be a way to make it more gorgeous than it already is! But you can enhance the beauty and add sparkle and depth to many of your works by accenting them with beads, charms, or decorative buttons. Available in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, these embellishments each have their own unique appeal. Most beads are made from glass and can be found in sizes that include seed, petite seed, pebble, and bugle. Charms come in lots of shpes such as hearts, stars, flowers, and more! And decorative buttons are sometimes hand-painted with holiday scenes, animals, floweres, teapots, and many other cute motifs. To attach beads, bring your needle up at the lover left corner of the existing stitch. Slip your needle through the bead and then push the needle back through your fabric at the top right corner, creating a half stitch. Be sure that all your half stitches go in the same direction so that your accents will be evenly placed. When attaching a bead over a cross stitch, your thread color should match that of the existing stitch. If you're attaching a bead directly to fabric, your thread should match the fabric color. When fastening a charm, simply bring your needle up through the fabric, thread it through the opening in the charm, and push the needle back through the fabric. Repeat this a few times to secure the charm. Be sure that the thread you use matches either the color of the fabric or the cross stitches that you're working over. Decorative buttons typically have two holes that are used to attach them to a stitched piece or clothing. Using thread that matches the color of the button, secure the accent the same way that you would sew a button onto any garmet. Although many cross stitch charts call for embellishments, some do not. However, you don't have to limit yourself. Add a few of your own creative touches to your design and watch is sparkle! |
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Tips and Info
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Every time we announce a new design contest, we look forward to seeing the wonderfully creative designs from our consumers. As you know, each entry must be an original design, which means it can't be copied from a published image, such as a product logo, a film character or cartoon, a picture on a greeting card, or any other image that may infringe on a copyright or trademark. In other words, it must be created by the person submitting the design. |
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Read more... [Contest Submissions for Cross Stitch Designs by Leisure Arts]
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Cross Stitch
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