The photos are a decent color representation, but many of the nuances are lost in the picture of the full canvas. Ex: dark areas have multiple colors including rust (see detail pictures) Lots of shine and sparkle added by tiny sequins in the carry-along-yarn that simply will not show, no matter what I try.

To Julie (the influencer and instructor who started all this, and who had to kick me off the cliff edge) and to those of you who recently contributed valuable input, THANK YOU!

MIXED MEDIA FREEFORM CLASS - Four class sessions at what was (when I started) Mew Mews Yarn Shop in Lafayette, CO. By the time I finished the piece, in 2018 (attended some of the monthly FreeForm Club meetings) the shop had been purchased by the instructor of my class, Julie, and is now called Maverick Fiber Arts, at the same location.
The inspiration for this is an undersea ‘garden’. Impressionistic kelp, fish, barnacles, water and ‘flowers’.

I’m taking this class to push me into doing something I’m creatively uncomfortable with. When we had to come up with an idea, I panicked. I had no frame of reference, no idea where this was going, or how to make a scrumble. It took me two weeks to come up with the first inkling of an idea. Then I couldn’t think of how to make what was in my head happen on the needles. When the instructor said (probably in sheer frustration with my whining, whinging and overthinking) “just start!” ….making a scrumble. I finally jumped off the cliff, or was kicked, and I did!

Interesting to me is that I can see, in ascending order of pictures, and the progression of yarn used, just how tentative I was by the paler colors I started out with. As the piece progressed, and I decided it looked ‘flat’ and boring, I was encouraged to add contrast by my classmates, and the instructor. I added colors in the orange range that I don’t normally like, but they injected life and heat, as well as contrast. I also added darker tones, again, out of my normal range. They added drama, and much needed depth.

Is it perfect? No. Are there things I’d change? Yes. However, as an experiment in jumping off the creative cliff, into my ‘no women’s land’, it was very successful! It was often an uncertain and awkward, always creative, and sometimes physically painful journey. But hugely rewarding, in so many ways. My fingers are still sore from sewing it onto the canvas. My neck still hurts from bending over it, but, I’m also smiling!!

Inspiration picture found here with other pictures.
Pictures are part of the Kelp Forest info: Wiki

10 Aug 2015: Class One: intro, color selection and start shapes. Turns out this class is being coached rather than ‘taught’. Which is probably the best way to handle this, as many of us are at different places in our skills, in experience with this technique, and a few are already midway through projects started in a prior class. Plus, it’s an individual journey. Lots of support, personal help and attention by the instructor. Class members also suggest and guide each other, with instructor input. Some classmates are knitting, some crocheting, some using both for basic pieces, and may be using other techniques (ex: embroidery).
HOMEWORK Class 1: Complete some scrumbles. Do I want to make a garment, a bag, an art piece? I have no clue. Somehow, I have to come up with something, in a vacuum.
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16 Sept 2015: Four more classes. Finished many scrumbles, and am now starting to assemble and join them together.. I think this will turn out to be a piece of art rather than a garment. I can’t deal with the added stress of making it garment shaped. I like looking at garments made this way, but those tend to look too busy to me. And, be too bulky for my body.

28 Sept 2015: Just completed my last class. Work will continue and I’ll be able to join the Free Form Fiber group that meets, mostly weekly, to continue work on various projects.

2 Oct 2015: Definitely is ending up as an art piece. Since adding more contrast to the piece it is starting to look more interesting and three dimensional.

Thanksgiving 2015: Project is hibernating in Colorado, until next Summer.

1 Nov. 2017: I worked on piecing it together, adding more contrast sections during the summer of 2016, but made no notes.

Suggestions and discussion with the instructor on how to mount the piece. I want to hang it on a wall. I like the idea of a canvas, but struggle with how to best attach it. I shudder at the idea of it sagging, or hanging badly. Thinking about it.

Purchased (Mew Mews Yarn Shop) some fabulous porcelain hand made fish buttons that I will add. Also some shell buttons (Mew Mews) made from shell, and some paper hand wound tubular beads. I decided, with instructor suggestions, to use a canvas, Now I need to purchase one for mounting. Then I’ll attach the buttons, etc, and use any other purchased embellishments to help secure it to the canvas by stitching through the canvas and the piece.

6 July 2018: Finally! Purchased a 24”x36” “Artist Loft,” Level 2 canvas, from Michael’s (used a 40% off coupon for this pricey thing). Also bought some acrylic paint, brushes, yarn, and craft tulle, any of which can cover the white parts of the canvas not being covered by the art piece. Not sure what I’ll end up using.

12 July 2018: Tied off and clipped a few stray ends on the back of the piece. Soaking in tepid water, with a couple of small squirts of hand washing detergent added. Rinsed and sitting on the draining gizmo. It’s hard for me to squeeze anything. This is the first stage of drying. Typically I roll my piece in a towel, and then walk on it. I’m afraid doing that might flatten the 3 dimensional sections. Instead I put it outside, on a towel, in the (arid and hot) shade to dry. Also there is a brisk breeze, it still might take awhile to dry.

The big surprise was lacey sections opening up-I’d forgotten they were there! That means there is even more need to consider painting the background. Now I’ll wait until it’s dry and try it over the white in case I want to keep some of the white showing through. Also I forgot that it might grow while wet! It’s a bit wider and a bit taller. Will have to check measurements after it dries. I hope it still fits on the canvas!!

13 July 2018: The thicker sections are still drying (see pic with corresponding date on it). I’m really happy that the 3 dimensional nature has been enhanced by the washing and drying process. The flat sections got flatter, and lace areas opened up. I foofed out the more protuberant bits, and fluffed up the grassy looking ‘kelp’.

Although the 3 dimensional nature of the piece is showing up pretty well in the pictures, the sparkle isn’t. I tried to capture bits of it in the detail photos. Even those aren’t showing the intense color and shine of the tiny sequined yarn I knitted as a carry along with sheened synthetics, and also with many of the wool segments. Sequined carry-a-long yarn is shown six pictures up from the bottom, it’s a gold color and wound around a cardboard tube.

15 July 2018: Struggling with the canvas. I painted the canvas with acrylics, ultramarine blue and some water. While I was happy with the watery undersea affect, I was not happy with the color. It took over and completely dominated the project, when I placed it on top. Mulled over what to do. Bought 2 more canvases at Michael’s (this time level 1, at 50% off as that was all they had left), just in case. Also bought a tube of a darker green, and an iridescent white medium.

16 July 2018: Made three new pieces for the project, using yarn previously used, plus a new yarn from my venture through Michael’s. Two bits for the bottom left, one for the upper far left. I think they work well, and seemed to anchor and complete the piece.

17 July: Washed, dried, and attached the new pieces into place. Very happy with them. Now I need to add beads, fish buttons, and perhaps some other odds and ends.

As for the canvas: Finally decided to paint over it with Iridescent medium and a lot of water to try to quiet the color. Inspiration for the lighter color came from the label on the new canvas (see picture). I’d used the new canvas to see what my project looked like on top of white—too stark in the other direction. Less dominant than the blue, at least you could focus on the piece and not be held hostage by the canvas background color. The newly iridescent canvas is quieter than it looks in the stage 3 picture. Drying the canvas, and then I’ll see how it all looks.

Okay! I’m happy with it. The project went on top and now I’m sewing parts of it down onto the canvas. Had to take a break, as my thumb was getting very sore pushing the needle through the canvas.

18 July 2018: Took the canvas to my instructor at the shop. She (and one more from the FFFiber club) were there and we surveyed the background. In the light at the shop/lots of daylight the background still looked too blue, and not quite the right shade of blue. Disappointing, but I saw it too. Came home and added “Deep Green” (almost a Thalo Green) with and without water, added a touch of Aquamarine Blue and a touch of Titanium White.

The benefit of these student level acrylics is they are water based, and the least expensive. They can be cleaned off a still wet canvas pretty well. They can also be manipulated easily, if you keep them wet. They work like a watercolor and have some transparency, if you use water with them. They also dry fast, so you don’t have to wait too long to paint another layer over them. While some of these features can be detrimental, I appreciated them for use here, to make a painted representation of water.

Made one more scrumble lower far right side. That to help integrate the pale blue (mixed with beige) to the canvas color….and to cover the holes left from unpicking the sewn down sections there, so I could alter the painted background. I felt I’d stretched that blue/beige section out too flat, taking away the dimensionality of it when I sewed it down. I’d did not like it. Now I also have some holes to cover, so adding a small scrumble was the solution.

19 July 2018: I’m pretty happy with the color change. The background canvas seems more integrated, and doesn’t look so separate from the project. Sewing down the rest of the piece, and adding some embellishments (ex: embroidered fish scales on the large blue fish) and then some beads.
I had a few sequins that fell from Granddaughter #2’s sparkly new skirt in a recent visit. As we gathered them up we agreed, at her suggestion, to sew them onto a fish. Sadly, this turned out not to be possible. Sadly I don’t have a skinny enough needle.

20 July 2018: Created yet a few more scrumbles. Some new kelp sections got sewn onto the right hand side. Added some mixed beads along the bottom. Still sewing them down, have about half of them left to affix. Hid a few beads, that look like blue snails, in the ‘kelp’. Embroidered a couple of bullion knots into the center of some undersea ‘flowers’. Sewed some more sections on to the canvas, still a few more to go. Finished securing some threads on the back of the canvas.

24 July 2018: With the exception of painting three more canvas outside edges, just to finish it off so it can be hung, the project is DONE!! I’m pretty happy with the experience and the results. Is it perfect? No. Are there things I would like to replace with something else? Yes. That very flat, large fish on the left. Too static and one dimensional. It was an early piece, and I’m living with it, and a few other spots I’d also change if I could. I just might hang this in my bathroom, over a large garden tub we never use (and I wish we didn’t have).

28 July 2018: Painted all the edges using three layers of color. Tinkered a bit more with the background adding a touch more dark green paint to the bottom. Now to add hanging wire and figure out where to put it. Thanks to Kirsten, at Maverick Fiber Arts, for drilling holes for the hooks to put the hanging wire through! I needed the help.

2 Sept 2018: Finally, it’s up, on the wall across from the door to the guest bedroom. Nighttime picture (first one, at the top), no light source overhead, but there is light from the left, in the foyer. In the daytime there will be plenty of natural light when the guest bedroom door is open. Hopefully the sparkly bits will all shine in daylight.(Turns out they do sparkle wonderfully in the daylight!)