I took a trip on a sailing ship/my fantasy ship of dreams

Mixed Media Ship of Dreams - felt based soft sculpture

This is a new project, an experiment in 3D mixed media soft sculpture. The aim is to create a ship of dreams, a basic shape that is then lavishly decorated with silk, lace, muslin,buttons,beads,metal,embroidery,salvaged objects,gemstones,shells and all sorts of beautiful things. I started off with a basic ship shape that I made from heavy duty white craft felt, stitched it together with blanket stitch in dark blue and went around the top with some blue and white striped nautical braid

I then took three shades of blue embroidery silk and did some layered stitching to the aft to represent the layers of the ocean

I then started the serious decoration. I wanted it to look like a mix of a shipwrecked luxury cruiser and a something out of an 18th century boudouir.

To start I took some strips of muslin and ruffle stitched them to the bottom to symbolise waves

I then took a shell strip bracelet apart and stitched the pieces to the sides to represent planking and mother of pearl buttons for portholes. I also added some beaded thread and silver beads, beautifully tarnished into black

I then took ladder sari silk in greens and blues, bright yellow silk waste, more MoP buttons, cream lace, coloured glass beads and a brass rings and clear charms to decorate the sides

The Forward is the most lavish so far, bits of bright saffron yellow silk waste and green and blue ladder sari silk have been stitched to each side with faux pearls,brass rings, petrol beads, silver beads, log shell strips and red seed beads

So this is what I have so far

The next part is to add more embroidery, a ships wheel, an anchor and more trinkets