Further experimentation

Remember the Mucha transfer and the 14ct needlepoint mesh? I haven't started work on it yet because I'm not done with Arhelon, but I knew when I made the transfer that the image would be better served by using a smaller mesh, like, oh, say, an 18 count. Well, the 18ct canvas that I bought on eBay arrived today, and in the nature of further experimentation, I decided to make an identical transfer and iron it to the 18 ct just to see how it looked (the canvas isn't wasted if I don't use it, I can either use it with a charted design, or I can iron another image on the back side).

The first thing I found out is that printable t-shirt transfer sheets for dark fabric aren't the same as t-shirt transfer sheets for light fabric. For some reason, the image didn't transfer to the canvas at all. I mean, not even a spec. I have no idea what I did wrong, but I'm sure it was something. So mysterious.

I have more light transfer sheets coming, but I'm too impatient to wait, so I used the leftover piece from the first transfer, and ironed that on the 18 ct mesh. There was enough *ink* left to make a transfer. The design was very faint, of course, but still visible.

I positioned the plain paper printout of the image under the new printed mesh...

and used a sharpie to trace the most important outlines. 

 Here are both of the canvasses side by side- the 14ct (on the right) is prettier of course, because it has far more ink. But even at a distance, I can see that I'll get much more detail in the finished piece if I work the 18 ct (with embroidery floss most likely).

And even though the colors aren't perfectly transferred to the canvas, I can refer to the printout for help. I will probably do both faces though, just as a comparison, though I doubt I'll needlepoint both full images- there are far too many other designs I'd like to tackle.

But I'm not starting either one until I finish Arhelon. I'm over half done now. Woohoo!!!