I started this piece to answer the challenge of making something with the theme of 'animals' and the color 'black & white.'
I found some watery looking fabric and cut 'clam shells' from the dark to fuse to a lighter fabric.
Before I was even half done with this part; I decided to swap the two fabrics around and cut light clam shells to fuse to the dark fabric.
There! I got them all fused in place and quilted wavy water over them to make a background scene for ...
... some black & white angel fish.
At this point I felt the piece needed something else to make it come to life. So I asked for ideas on FaceBook and SAQArtique. And the ideas came!
To make it less busy I toned down the dark in the background with oil pastels...
... and added more sea weed and coral ...
... only to make it busier yet!
Finally I was convinced to only use the orange coral and let the piece be more open at the top. And ta-da, it worked!
Angel Fish
8" X 11"
Commercial cotton fabric, Superior Rainbows & Fantastico thread, Oil Pastels
$135
Detail
