Anatomy of a Pew Pew

Anatomy of a Pew Pew — a tongue-in-cheek “anatomical diagram” of a bullet that uses deliberately goofy slang labels instead of the actual technical terms, the way firearms enthusiasts on the internet sometimes describe things to take the air out of overly-serious gun discourse:

• Bang Button — the primer, the small impact-sensitive cap at the back of the cartridge.
• Metal Holdy Thingy — the cartridge case, the brass cylinder that holds everything together.
• Magic Fire Dust — the gunpowder / propellant, the small dotted scatter between the case and the projectile.
• Freedom Seed — the actual bullet / projectile, the part that leaves the barrel.

I bought this chart off Etsy years ago and now can’t remember the shop — it shipped as black-outline-only with no fill colours. I added the colour and shading myself: DMC 1 for the primer’s white tin, DMC 729 old-gold for the brass case, DMC 921 copper for the projectile body with DMC 922 light copper and DMC 3825 pale pumpkin worked over the top to give the bullet a small highlight / shiny spot on the seed, and DMC 414 dark steel-grey for the diagram’s lettering and indicator lines instead of stark black. Stitcher’s mark TT 22 in the lower right.

Stitched on 16ct Picture This Plus Storm Aida — a soft mottled hand-dyed pale grey-blue that reads as the kind of textbook-page background a real anatomy diagram would sit on, without me having to stitch any background.

Made for one of my best friends — a captain in the U.S. Army National Guard who officiated my husband’s and my wedding. I gave it to him on the day we got marriednas a thank-you. Finished October 10, 2022.

FFO’d in a black shadow box so the piece sits behind glass with depth — and the bottom of the shadow box is dressed with spent brass casings from one of our shared range sessions, lined up along the inside lip of the frame.