365:Day 41 My Sock Creature Part 2

Post for Sunday March 7, 2011

Last night I was up late working on my sock creature: a nudibranch fashioned from an old sock. It was time to start embellishing my spineless soft critter. Paint or embroidery? I decided to keep using embroidery since I had just learned how to do it.

Before I began, this is how my nudibranch looked. A basic shape with some bright yellow colored stitching.

First up was the "mouth" area. Although they do not have ears or noses, they do have mouths. I used what I thought were bullion stitches to recreate this lumpy looking area. I don't know what to call them, but they work.

Since scientists believe that only a small portion of the nudibranchs have been discovered, I figured the Nembrotha could also be hot pink and truthfully I was out of yellow. Hot pink embroidery floss seemed a good color to use against the dark blue. The close up is of the back end of the beastie. I used a raised cup stitch to make the hot pink circles. Basically a triangle is outlined and then the floss is wrapped around the stitches until the circle is complete. I also added a few French knots and colonial stitches. The French knots tend to get burried into the sock and did not show up as well as the colonial knot.

If you checked out the link to National Geographic you will see that my sock nudibranch would fit right in with the real thing. Specifically mine is based on the Nembrotha cristata.  

I finished my mini sea beastie today, but need batteries so that I can take his pic again or is it her? The sex of the nudibranch is much like New England weather, if you don't like it, just give it 5 minutes and it will change. 

Tomorrow night is the big reveal! It is very cool!

Just getting started with the embellishing.