Art Nouveau - Underwater

As you can probably tell I love Art Nouveau designs. Up until now I have mainly focused on the Art Nouveau floral and bird designs but the artists of this period also used a myriad of animals, insects and sea life. Their fauna fascinate me because though they are decorative art, they also have a very realistic look. And especially fascinating are the expressions they achieved with so few details. The characters almost have *attitude*! I think the octopus below definitely has attitude. :)
With summer approaching in much of the world, these designs would be perfect for decorating - linens, curtains, ourselves. They can be used individually of course, but I have also designed them with combinations in mind. The screen shot below shows a possible layout using all the designs. I used several metallic threads in stitching my samples. These designs really lend themselves to metallic thread as many have one sheer color stitching over another. You can use regular metallic, threads such as Madeira Super Twist and I think variegated would also work great.