Embroidery Coral Sculpture

A few years ago I went snorkeling in a beautiful coral reef. I was mesmerised by the wonderful shapes and colors. One of my favorite types of coral was the one you see in the picture above. And since it is not possible (and very much illegal!) to take this beautiful soft coral home, I tried to remake it with tulle, copper wire and embroidery thread instead.

The project is not too difficult, but does require som patience and is best for people who enjoy working on an tiny scale without getting frustrated.

(Picture of underwater coral was made by AlexeiAVA and can be found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=coral&title=Special%3AMediaSearch&type=image under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 lisence)

1. glass dome with wooden base
2. tulle (white or soft pink)
3. embrodery hoop
4. embroidery thread - coral coloured
5. embroidery needle (large, easy to thread)
6. copper wire
7. pliers
8. scissors
9. small clamps
10. pencil
11. paper
12. superglue
13. drill
14. mod podge
15. cardboard
16. fake moss

To make sure your sculpture would fit nicely in my glass dome, I made a drawing first. I traced the shape of my dome and then drew the shapes of the coral based of the picture I found on wikimedia.org. If you find this difficult, feel free to copy my drawing.

When drawing your own shape, make sure the 'branches' have enough space between them and the lines never touch. You will need some space to cut the tule around your embroidery in step 7.

As a next step I cut some copper wire to size, a little bit longer than the stems in my drawing. I attached them together by twisting them around into 'knots'.

At this point you do not need to worry about the shapes of the wires, you can change those at any time. What matters is the size of the wires (a bit too long) and the correct placements of the 'knots', which should correspond with your drawing.

After you have your wires constructed into a frame, start threading the stems/copper wires by simply twisting your embroidery wire around the frame. Make sure you twist them tightly and leave some wire uncovered at the end. I used some clamps to make sure it would not 'unwire' on its own.

Also, do not cut your embroidery threads short after you've finished covering your frame. You will need long threads for your embroidery later.

After attaching the tulle to the embroidery hoop I used some thin green iron wire to temporarily attach the wired frame to the tulle. Making some knots with some embrodery wire will also work. The shape of the wires should follow the drawing you made in step 1.

Then you can start attaching the end of your threaded wires to the frame by carefully using the leftover threads and embroidering them to the tulle. 'Wrap" the wire around both the tule and the wires a couple of times, then tie a little knot. This is an finicky process, because you need to make sure the embroidery thread does not 'unwire' from your frame.

When your 'branches' are solidly attached to your tulle, you can remove the green iron wire.

The difference between 'regular' embroidery (if there is such a thing) and embroidering on tulle is that both the front and the back need to look the same. Therefore, you must pay much attention to every single stich. I tried drawing the branches on the tulle, but it was not visible. So the pattern I embroidered was mostly improvised, though I kept looking at the drawing for reference.

To create some space to embroider the shapes I used a clamps to attach all the loose hanging threads to the side of my hoop. I used a technique in which I would simply 'backtrack' every stich I made, by literally going straight through the threads I embroidered previously. The drawing and pictures above show you what I mean.

When you get used to this way of embroidering, the process of making the shapes is quite fast and satisfying. In the end you have a beautiful embroidered color shape that looks good from both sides.

The more knots you create, the bulkier your coral will look. To avoid this I dit not create too many knots at the end of my threads, instead, I simply glued them to the tule and the other threads with super glue. After the glue dried, I used some small curved scissors to cut the wires as close to the tulle as possible. As a result you can barely see where the threads end.

(Tip: You now have a beautiful embroidered 2D coral artwork. You could aso leave it like this and use it as a wallhanger. All you need to do is cut away the tulle around the outside of your emboroidery hoop)

The goal is to cut the tulle around your embroidery in a cauliflower-like shape.

I started by cutting around it in a large circle, then making the cuts smaller and more precise step-by-step. I prefer using small, slightly curved scissors.

Remove the tule entirely from the stems. In some places you may have used embroidery threads to attach the stems to the tule. In these places make sure you do not cut the threads, only the tule around it until it is all gone. If you accidentally cut your embroidery thread, use superglue to fix it.

When you are done, you can take some time to 'sculpt' your coral into a 3D shape. Don't forget to test if it still fits under your glass dome.

Drill a small hole in the middle of the wooden bottom of your glass dome. To find middle of your circle, check wikihow: https://www.wikihow.com/Find-the-Center-of-a-Circle

Push the bottom of your sculpture through the hole and use superglue to hold it into place. When the glue is dry, cut the remaining wire with some pliers. If necessary, use sandpaper to sand it flat.

(Tip: hot glue might also work, however, keep in mind that hot glue can melt if you put the sculpture in front of a sunny window. Therefore I used superglue)

I bought some fake moss from the Dutch dollar store (called Action).

Since I wanted the moss floor to be removable I first made a circle out of cardboard with a hole in the middle and cut a slit so I could slide it into place. The circle was large enough to cover the floor and small enough fit inside the glass dome.

Then I used some Mod Podge (glue) to attach the moss to the cardboard and let it dry.

When dry, I cut the excess moss outside the cardboard circle off with a pair of scissors. I also recut the slit, to make sure the circle can still easily slide around my coral sculpture.

Now all you need to do is slide the cardborad moss floor into place, put the glass dome over your sculpture and your project is done!

I hope this embroidery coral sculpture will add some color to your interior.

Thank you for checking out my instructable!