"Undine"
by Heike Blohm

Undine
A Seamaid's Tale

I am obsessed with mermaids. I love the flowing curves of the body, the mix of naughty and nice that the sea maid personifies. To be able to move through the play of light and shadow under the water would be a dream. I doubt if I would ever be brave enough to actually go underwater in our world's oceans. As for the swimming bit…does floating count?

Because the mermaid has such a beautiful simple shape, I was able to really play with the fabric to create her. The head, arms and torso are made from softly painted fabrics. The tail section is a layered concoction of fabrics, netting, ribbon, lace and beads. The pieces work together to create the illusion of sunshine filtering through the water and playing upon the coral, seaweeds and fish found there. Layers of machine stitching add more texture and shine. Everything is finished with hand dyed embroidery, threads and lots of beads.

Undine even sports some body art, created from a mix of stamped images and hand drawings. Her hair is hand-dyed mohair that was needlefelted onto her head. Her face was done with simple pencil and pencil crayon.

All in all, Undine is a simple textural sea maid. I hope you enjoy looking at her as much as
I enjoyed making her.