Toile imprimée pour broderie de perles (sans perles) – icône « Saint Élie »

“St. Elijah” — a half-length image of the prophet with a long grey beard, a scroll in his hand and his right raised in blessing.

What the picture shows

The saint is shown almost frontally: a grey-haired elder with a thick long beard and a concentrated face. His dress is layered: a lilac-violet tunic with broad folds, and over it a warm brick-red himation thrown across his shoulder and right arm. His right hand is raised, palm to the viewer; his left holds a partly unrolled scroll with lines of text. The halo is large and golden-orange, built from concentric rings with a pale centre. The ground is cream with faint painted scrollwork; a dark brown border of diamonds edges the field, with fan-shaped segments in the upper corners and an inscribed cartouche below. The fill is partial: beads cover the robes, halo and border ornament, while the ground, face, hands, hair and beard, and the scroll with its text stay printed on the canvas.

What you get

• Natural artist canvas with the full-colour pattern printed on it — no chart to follow on a screen
• Colour key for Czech Preciosa beads
• Beads, needles and thread are chosen separately

Specifications

• Finished size: 170×230 mm (6.7×9.06 in)
• Beads needed: approx. 4,542
• Bead colours: 16
• Base: natural artist canvas

The piece is vertical. Since the hair and beard stay painted, the beaded area is modest, while sixteen colours give deep folds in the himation.