This collage was well on the way on the development stage, with the background, beach and green sea, but got totally sidetracked by the wrong foreground! I had put in a dock, with a boat tied on to it and had even sewn it in. However, it was so angular and somehow out of place among the jungle surroundings, that I picked it out entirely. Eventually I came up with the sea serpent, with a light brown back, and stitched in scales, with its long neck and head looking back. And after I had gotten that far, a customer at the fabric store where I work brought up some fabric that was like liquid gold, and coppery-red on the reverse side, and was so glad that she did not buy the whole piece! When I took the leftover piece home, I immediately knew it was the creature’s skin, with both sides coming into the picture! A metallic thread and a scallop stitch provides the scales. And even that needed a bit more: the selvedge of this piece has a gold fringe, and that, along with a bit of the copper side folded over became the ridge down from the head to the level of the water. The red eye is the head of a pin, with some white glitter behind, and finally, the whole piece had finally come alive!. And as for the title: the sea creature seemed closest to what we think of as the Loch Ness Monster – but it wasn’t, not exactly. Moch Ness Monster seemed far more appropriate!