It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do for the challenge of the Edo period in Japan.  I was drawn to the simple scrolls with flowers and branches.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2017/07/07/3rd-quarter-challenge-2017/

I scoured the museum sites and Pinterest.  I’ve been to Japan during Sakura (Cherry Blossom) season and particularly love the trees and flowers so it wasn’t too hard to narrow it down.

Since the scrolls seemed to be pale yellow, I made a batt backing then made another light batt using the Osage hand dyed merino and corriedale as a background. I added some darker fibers randomly to give the effect of lines in a scroll.

I had some left over merino/silk scraps from a scarf I had made for my son years ago.  They were supposed to be tassels, but I didn’t like them and cut them off and saved them.  But they make perfect tree branches.  Here is my first layout.

But something was off.  It didn’t feel right to me.  So, I rearranged the branches.

Next was to make white prefelt for the flowers (commercial wasn’t white enough) and cutting out the shapes in several sizes.  This was not an easy process. Here it is a wet look. The neat thing about the layout is that the branch can be down or up.

I didn’t want to felt it too hard.  But I may have to steam it before or after I add either hand or machine embroidery for details.

Actually the photo shows more texture than with the naked eye.

How do you like the branch, down or up?