As folks have been creating and sending in corals for the PNW Community Coral Reef, I have been concentrating on creating the large pieces that will anchor our reef. I seem to be getting larger and larger with each piece that I make. It started with the pink coral that I named Audrey 2.
The next big piece was the bleached coral vignette which is a few inches taller than Audrey 2.
And now I am working on my “tube of corals”. The intention with this piece is to create a spiraling piece that will be supported by an armature wire internal frame.
It starts with crocheting a flat piece which will be folded into a tube. This piece is 9.5 feet long. I used an acrylic yarn base which will end up getting hidden by the future corals. I’m saving the outside for my more delicious wooly yarns.
After folding the piece in half, I crocheted it closed along the long edge and made sure to crochet only on one side of each of the ends so it doesn’t get crocheted closed.
It ends up looking something like this. I can fit a finger into the tube which is important when considering I will need to fit sculpture grade armature wire through it in the future.
Now, I go around the piece with the intention of creating a hyperbolic frill along the edge. I started out increasing every second stitch which quickly turned into increasing every stitch as I realized I would be crocheting forever just to get the frill to start. Fairly quickly, it took more than a skein just to get all the way around.
After I was able to get a decent frilled edge, I started creating hyperbolic corals in sections, along the edges.
The weight is really incredible. Hyperbolics use A LOT of yarn.
I chose one end to be the top of the spiral when I wire it and I have included some ringlets which will hang down.
Even without being wired, it is quite beautiful to look at. It also shows just how many more feet I have to go,
I took what I have completed so far out to the Coast yesterday for a photo op in the sun.
While I realize that folks who are making corals for our reef are probably not going to get as involved as this, I wanted to show that you can get as creative as you like when making these beautiful reefy bits.