In which I embroider a seahorse

I took part in the latest Phat Quarter swap, organised by the fabulous cocoaeyes.  The theme was tiny things, and my swapee was cocoaeyes herself.  Woot!  I love her embroidery, so it was a real honour to make something for her. 

She mentioned she's really into saturated, vivid colours at the moment, so I decided to make something really bright.  I've been interested in seahorses for years, and decided to have a bash at embroidering one.   I looked at loads of pics on the internet, and sketched some composite seahorses.  The tough bit was how many ridges there are on a seahorse!  They're made up of bony ridges, so to look good this embroidery would have to have some good texture.  Here it is. 

I used little French knots for the high points of the ridges, and different shades for the lines between the knots.  One line is a slightly lighter colour than the background shade, and one line is slightly darker.  The dorsal fin is satin stitch, and the background stitches are long and short.  I think I used nine shades of orange for the little seahorse - they were all already in my embroidery box.  And a couple of greens for the seaweed.  The background fabric was a bit of batik from my fabric box.  The frame is 4 inches by 3 inches, to give an idea of scale.