Embroidered Siphoned Feather Weed

This piece of work started with my very first seaweed pressing I ever made. I actually pressed this completely dry, before I learned how to press specimens properly, because it is so fine it ended up pressing pretty well anyway.

I used the print to transfer its vague shape on to a 6 inch hoop with calico as a base for embroidery, chose my threads and got started. I wanted to stick to a limited palette that picked out different tones in the seaweed so ended up with a bright pink and purple alongside a vibrant raspberry red, pastel pink and darker duskier purple. I took my hoop out to the sea air and stitched away for 26 hours, all tiny single strand stitches, adding as much texture as I could with French knots. My interpretation is not an exact copy, I took a lot of creative licence and so pleased with the end result.