Jenny's Art Contest Week 18: 'Delicate' Submission

As an artist as well as environmentalist, I can't help but leap at the chance to blur the lines between the two. Jenny's recent art contest posting has provided the perfect opportunity for me to do so and stretch my creative wings.

When I think of the word 'delicate,' coral reefs come to mind with immediacy. What most mistake for underwater rock formations, are actually vibrant communities of symbiotic relationships.

Small animals, called polyps, excrete calcium carbonate structures around them over millennia to form what we know as coral reefs. They are extremely sensitive to temperature, light and salinity fluctuations.

With global climate change, and changing ocean chemistry (i.e. ocean acidification), the fate of the world's coral reefs is uncertain. Worldwide, corals are bleaching due to the changes we're driving in the sea. They expel their symbiotic zooxanthellae (small algae) effectively dying under the stresses we're putting on them.

So for this week's challenge, I crafted a red crop top that incorporates a bleached coral structure I found while diving. The red color of the top conveys a sense of alarm over the bleached piece that I placed to fall right over the heart area.

Check out the making of documented below:

STEP 1 - Sew holes up in old dance top.

STEP 2 - Glue broken tip of coral back on.

STEP 3 - Create a pouch in the shirt where the base of the coral can sit.

STEP 4 - Pin sites for attachment. (Ouch! -.-)

STEP 5 - Sew fishing hooks onto the shirt to hold the coral in place.

STEP 6 -Try it on!

VOILA! Not something you can move around a ton in, but an elegant, wearable art piece nonetheless :)