Description

My new niece was the muse for this jellyfish fabric art. I wanted to make her a present to welcome her into this world.

Originally I started off by roughly sculpting with an off-white piece of old towel. Even though towelling works quite well as a sculpting material, I realised that the design of a bunny, with a wire skeleton (and large boobs), was no good for a little baby.

So instead of spending any more time on that, I started messing around with some recycled silk and satin ribbons. I came up with this soft toy jellyfish design, which also turned out to be completely unsuitable for a baby because of all the ribbons (to strangle) and the Bohemian crystal beads (to choke upon). I was quite cross with myself at this attempt, especially when I realised that the jellyfish wasn’t even my sisters cup of tea and she wouldn’t want to hang it amongst her nursery decor. I carried on regardless because I was enjoying the process of sewing and so I added more beads and ribbons and finished it anyway – because I like it!

In the end I thought I would play it safe by sculpting with a new piece of fresh white towelling fabric. However, when I started to think about what to make next, I decided upon the seafood we’d recently eaten off the bbq – an anatomically correct squid!

Luckily, my sister is happy with this gift because her baby can dribble on it.

I’m always really careful in the sea because I failed to get away from a jellyfish once!