A Tribute to French Knots, Part 3: Negative Space

I've been wanting to try a negative space piece for awhile now, but wasn't sure if it would look good at the smaller scale of my calendar squares. Browsing through the search results for "negative space embroidery" convinced me I was wrong. A lot of negative space embroidery pieces use a smaller space for the design. French knots tend to be the favorite stitch for these types of pieces, along with satin stitch. I decided to use my initial as my shape, although I'm not into monogramming. I figured the best approach was to start with something that has a clearly defined shape and is recognizable. 

The most difficult thing to do with a negative space design is to find the center point. I appreciated the details in this tutorial on identifying the center. For an "E," it's definitely the center of the letter, what I used to call "E arms" when I was little. I don't know if there's an actual name for the lines that make up the letter. I used six colors for the knots, rotating between each one. I tried to cut even lengths of thread for each pass, but wasn't exact on this. I used six strands to get the most coverage out of my French knots. This took about 3 hours to complete, so maybe not my smartest choice for a weekday project. I was able to complete the entire outline during my lunch break. 

I like the end result. It's got the right burst from the center and a fade around the rest of the letter. I set a line for myself with the first pass after I did the outline of the "E," so I wouldn't get too crazy with filling the space. If you like French knots, I highly recommend trying a negative space project. Next time, I may try a cat outline or add some other stitches to create shapes around the central design (similar to the PDF pattern I did over the summer - pictured below). 

From EllucyStitches

Details:
Stitches: back stitch, French knots (wrapped 3 times)
Thread palette: SS 704 (3 strands), 201, 301, 401, 501, 601, 801 (6 strands)