|
|
There are many stages we go through to complete your design. Some of them are shown below in a simplified way.
REPAIRING THE PHOTO
The first thing we do is to remove any faults with the photo, due to age or damage.
Repairing Creases or Bends Back To Top
If a photo is damaged, we can generally remove the appearance of creases or bends in it. This is much easier on plain areas than on areas with a lot of detail.
Repairing Scratches or BlemishesBack To Top
In the same way we repair creases or bends, we can also repair scratches or marks on the photo. We can also remove blemishes from the skin or unwanted marks on clothes.
ENHANCING THE PHOTO
If required, we can enhance the photo. This can include changing the colour of somebody's shirt, or making the sky more blue for example.
Adding ColourBack To Top
With good descriptions of each of the colours required, we can add colour to an old black and white photo
AMENDING THE PHOTO
We can remove unwanted objects or people from the photo. We can even replace the background with something completely different.
Removing the BackgroundBack To Top
To aid in reducing stitching time, or simply to bring more focus to the subject itself, we can remove the background entirely. We feather the edges slightly to avoid a cardboard cutout look. If the design is to be stitched onto a different coloured Aida, we make the background that colour at this stage, as the feathered edges will blend to the required colour better. Otherwise, when imported and the background removed, there will be a "halo" of white around the subject.
INTO THE CROSS STITCH SOFTWARE
After trying many different cross stitch software programs, we decided on one that, although more expensive, created the best results when importing photos.
This is the more time consuming part of the process as each stage takes much longer.
Importing and Reducing ColoursBack To Top
When we first import the design, it generally has more than 100 colours. As some of the colours only use two or three stitches, it is not worth having them there, so the first thing we do is reduce it to a managable number. For most colour photos, the best results are about 60-70 colours, although some people prefer less colours in which case we will reduce it to less than 50 if possible.
Removing "Lone" StitchesBack To Top
There tends to be a lot of stitches where the nearest stitch of the same colour is far away. This would mean threading the needle with that colour to stitch just one stitch and then moving on to the next colour. This would be very annoying so we go through each colour individually and remove all the lone stitches, replacing them with a suitable colour. However, we do leave some lone stitches sometimes in the facial features so it does not affect detail. This is a time consuming process.
In the image below, we have highlighted a few examples of lone stitches from one of the colours that we would remove. The selected colour is highlighted in pink with the rest of the colours dimmed.
Blending ColoursBack To Top
To achieve a better transition between colours, sometimes it is best to blend two colours together. We do this when needed mostly in skin tones.
FINISHING YOUR KITBack To Top
When the design is completed, we create a framed simulation of the finished design and print your chart. The chart is created on multiple sheets of A4 paper and can be either black and white or full colour. With a full colour chart the symbols are printed over a block of the actual thread colour, with white symbols used on the darker colours. Next we create some thread sorter cards for your kit, even if you are having a chart only. The thread sorter cards are laminated so they don't fall apart whilst you are using them. For a full kit we then cut all your threads, allowing for 50% wastage and put them on the thread sorter cards for you. After that, we cut your Aida, allowing 2½ inches around each edge for framing so the Aida fabric is 5 inches larger than your finished design. We tape the edges for you to avoid fraying and then put your completed kit together.
|
|
 |
 |
We love to deal with international customers. We have so far had enquiries and orders from the following countries
|
|