Snow and Ice – Guest Post Carole G.
This is a guest post by Carole G. one of our forum members. You can follow her here:
https://www.facebook.com/BagsaLicious/
https://craftybeetle.wordpress.com/
During a recent very cold winter with thick ice and deep snow, I was inspired by the start of the melting process on a stream – the ground was frozen, the rocks covered in snow but little by little patches of water were starting to appear under the thick ice and white snow. It was the magic of the slow melt that influenced this piece of felt work.
I started off with a blue layer of felt and built on it in white, my fibres included merino and silks. As I wanted patches of blue to show through I let the background blue peep through in places and added runs of blue into to the top layer of white.
Here is a close up of the fibres showing how the silk adds a new dimension.
I partially felted the piece then stitched buttons in by pulling the loosely felted fabric over the buttons and sewing them in at the back of the fabric. I continued wet felting until I was happy that the button shapes were sturdy and then removed the buttons to leave stone like shapes in the piece.
And this is how it looked as a whole piece.
Although happy with the effect I felt the piece needed sparkle it needed the magic of the snow and ice so I embellished with beads both matte and sparkly and added stitch to create this ice and snow piece.
You can follow my creative meanderings on both:
16 thoughts on “Snow and Ice – Guest Post Carole G.”
I love the colour and texture on your piece. The blue merino and sparkly beads certainly give a feeling of directional flow.
Thank you Antje, it was an experiment in replicating the ice and snow just as it started to thaw over a small river.
I love this, it’s so evocative. I can feel both the cold and the fluidity. Thank you for sharing it.
Thank you, Lindsay, so happy you felt what I was seeing.
Thanks for the great post Carole! I agree with Antje and Lindsay that it definitely gives us a cold and frosty feeling.
Thanks, Ruth 🙂
It does look just like a melting stream as you descibe. You’ve achieved an icy look and the beads are the perfect finish. Lovely piece!
Thank you Lyn and Annie 🙂
Absolutely gorgeous Carole! You really captured the iciness, movement and textures. Brilliant idea to use the buttons for textures. How did you remove them? Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Marilyn, I cut the thread at the back and eased them out and they left these lovely snowy stones behind.
Thank you for sharing – I’d love to know how you removed the buttons too. Thank you Carole.
Thank you, Kay, they went in mid felting, with stitches to hold them in place then when I had finished the felting I cut the thread at the back and released the buttons – one experiment that turned out as I had hoped 🙂
Sorry for my ignorance Carole, but I still don’t understand. So the buttons weren’t sandwiched between prefect and fabric or prefect and prefect, just stictched to the back, is that right? Thanks again!
Yes, they were stitched into position with a short running thread at the back of the piece when it was at the pre-felt stage. When the piece was felted I cut the thread at the back of the piece and was able to remove the button and leave these little cushions behind. I am sure that there are many ways to do this but this worked for me, good luck if you are having a go.
That’s really nice, Carole 🙂 I love the edge where the blue shows more too.
Thank you Zed, yes I like that too, it wasn’t intentional I think it happened because of the buttons.