Sue certainly has the proper perspective on the body shapes of these delightful rotund gals. Toulouse Lautrec would have painted
these models in his studio, real women with a bit of padding on their bones.
Sue has been changing things up a bit. Before she used lighter flesh tones but has now decided to add more of a tanned looked. She was happy with the faces in this piece, one line smiles and dark glasses capture a simple beauty because we all know that working in such a small space and adding too much detail, one misplaced loop can make a sourpuss out of a face.
The bathing suits are once again done in bright colours. The gal on the left is adorned in our spot formula "Carnation"; the gal in the middle is wearing "Razzle Dazzle" another one of our formulas and lastly, turquoise over herringbone, not only gives the swimsuit a great colour but texture as well.
The ocean is done in Cerulean Sea, one of our spot dyed formulas and Sue has lightly dyed a soft blue curly mohair for the wave action.
The sand is all herringbone, with two tones to add shadows here and there. Both Sue and I love the effect of herringbone, always adding just the right amount of texture.
The sky is done in what she calls "Mahone Fog" which she is sharing the formula for.
I try to avoid the classic 'blue' sky whenever possible. It's just a bias of mine as I prefer a more sultry look. Mahone Fog is one of my favourite 'go-to' formulas. Because I use it so frequently, I tend to dye up a couple of yards at a time so it's always at the ready. And if, as often happens there are variations dye lot to dye lot, I just cut it into strips and mix it all up together. I've never been disappointed with this one.
I use ProChem dyes for this formula over 1 yard of Dorr natural wool.
Step 1: Prepare 1/16 tsp #121 (Maple Sugar) in 1 cbw. Dye full yard of Dorr natural.
Step 2: Place dyed wool in large flat pan to prepare for spotting.
Step 3: Prepare 1/32 #441 (Slate Blue) in 1 cbw. Using a tablespoon, spot this formula randomly over the peaks of your prepared wool.
Step 4: Prepare 1/16 #120 (Golden Pear) in 2 cbw. Using a tablespoon, spot half (1 cup) of this formula randomly over the peaks of your prepared wool.
Step 5: Transfer the remaining cup of this mixture into a spray bottle. Spray this formula over the spotted wool, paying particular attention to areas mainly comprising the Slate Blue dye. Overspraying the blue with this remaining mixture will dull it down and create the 'foggy', somewhat antiqued effect I want to achieve.
Step 6: Cover pan with foil punctured with small holes to allow air to escape. Bake in 250 degree oven for around 30 minutes.