Felting and Fiber Studio

Lyn

This is one of my early felted pictures from over 15 years ago that I decided to remake as my style has changed quite a bit over the years.

I laid out a simple background, about half of the size of the original picture…

… then I made an inlay of a boat by thinly needle felting it.

After the boat was in place on the background, I used my own pre-felt to add the body of a seagull, 3 yachts and 7 fence posts – then I added wool yarn for fence wire.

I felted the picture by rubbing mainly from the back then rolled it a few times.

When it was dry I needle felted the seagull’s eye then stitched his legs and beak.  The finished size is approx 33 x 20cm (13” x 8”) and much more my style today.

Annie

I still haven’t finished my hydrangeas picture.  So much for a quieter few weeks!  I have done a bit of work on it though.

This is where I was at in the last post.

I decided that although I love a colour explosion the picture was getting too crowded and the turquoise wasn’t working.

So I needed to shake it up.  I turned it upside down and suddenly it felt better and lighter.

Then as much as I loved the fern I removed it from the top as the hydrangeas felt squished (it will become it’s own picture instead).

Then I turned it on its side and removed everything except the hydrangeas.

While that was a convoluted way to get there I finally found a composition that I liked, just a vase display of the hydrangeas to let them speak without my usual bombardment of “stuff”.

Next job was to work on the detail of the hydrangeas and introduce some contrast, and this is the stage I’m still at, but it’s getting there.  I find a lot of fibre and fabric isn’t light enough or dark enough to give much contrast but I’ve been trying to find the best bits of my stash and found a dark green and aubergine that work quite well.

Lyn

I have a small mauve vase that’s damaged so it can’t hold water, but as it’s of great sentimental value I display it with fake flowers.  The tissue paper flowers I made have become faded and jaded so they needed replacing. Although they don’t look too bad in the photo, the pink and yellow have lost their zing and the camera didn’t pick up the dust nestled amongst the petals.

Recently I went to my local garden centre and I saw springtime ‘felt ball flowers’ in small vases for sale – looked easy enough to make and I didn’t need to buy any supplies as I already have a stock of wire and wool to make felt beads.

Ta-Dah!

We bought wool fibre colour sample books years ago that are not helpful anymore.  What to do with pages and pages of little bits of wool?

After making the vase flower beads I thought maybe I could make lots more beads with the bits of wool.  I knew they would be smaller than those I made for the vase and I was pleased with my first one.  Then I realised that I would be making beads for the sake of it as I don’t have a plan for them.  So maybe the scraps will end up on the drum carder?

I have a stock of card blanks and from time to time I like to make greetings cards using scraps of fabric or felt on the front and finish with a paper insert.  This 6” square card was decorated with cut felt shapes for a relative’s birthday.

What have you made from felt scraps?  They’re too precious to throw away aren’t they?

 

Annie

I knew it was silly to say out loud that I was hoping for a few quieter weeks! Doh!

So I have not finished my hydrangea picture but I have made some strides into it.  It’s sitting on my table at the “messy middle” stage and you’d be forgiven for thinking a colourful whirlwind had passed through for there is not an inch of floor or desk to be seen due to it all being covered in fluff and fibres and fabrics!

Next job is to clear down so I can see the wood for the trees then work on the contrast in the picture and bring some clarity to some of the shapes so it can be read more easily.

I decided not to stick to only hydrangeas, although they will be a main feature, but also to add a hanging fern and some smaller flowers etc to make a display of pot plants and cut flowers in vases. There isn’t enough room in the layout for everything I want to do, so I may need to make another one!

Here are a few W.I.P. photos.  I’m away for a few days, and forgot to measure it, but my guess is about 80cm x 60cm ish (32” x 24” ish).

Lyn

“The Butterfly Chaser” – a picture made using scrap felt.

I cut a paper pattern of a bird in flight and a butterfly then cut the pieces from some lightweight scrap felt.

I made a base from four layers of white merino wool fibres then made it into soft pre-felt.  I then placed the scrap felt pieces on top.

I covered it all with net then wetted and soaped it.  Using a small sponge I gave the scrap felt some gentle persuasion to sink into the white base a little.  After some careful agitation I turned the whole thing over and replaced the bubble-wrap that was underneath with another piece of net.  I worked the felt, between two pieces of net, from the reverse side until the felt was done.

Then I added an outline and detail with needle felting.

Inspiration for a picture can come from the strangest places.

Annie bought me a desk calendar for 2026 that has a different word and explanation of it on each day.  I keep it by my pc and look forward to tearing off a page to reveal a new word.  Apparently ‘Dumbledore’ isn’t just the name of a fictional wizard – it’s also an old word for ‘bumblebee’.

My imagination went into overdrive.  Can a bumblebee wear a wizard’s hat and cloak?  Would he have a wand?  Would a bumblebee visit the plants in Hogwarts? Yes, because the flower of the ‘Mandrake’ plant attracts bees. Harry Potter fans might know the plant from the herbology classes in ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’.

I gathered up bits of fabric and some iron-on double-sided fabric adhesive.  A bit of cutting, cussing and sticking and I ended up with this whimsical picture.

What’s the most unusual source of inspiration that you have found?

Lyn

I wanted a new cushion for my dining chair. I could have stitched one but when Annie showed me a couple of her sample felt patchwork pieces recently …

… I decided to adapt her idea to make a cushion cover.

My first job was to spend hours sifting through a couple of cubic metres of open-weave fabric. I made a choice of fabrics … then the next day I changed my mind so I went through the whole lot again to get the selection shown below.

I made a base of white merino wool fibres then started to randomly place pieces of fabric on it.  I covered about a third of the wool and decided I wasn’t happy with the look so I carefully removed the patches of fabric and I went back to the drawing board for a rethink.

After a bit of pencil chewing I decided on a pattern.  I marked out 25 squares on a large piece of paper then made freehand wavy lines to make the shapes for the patchwork pieces.

As no two shapes were exactly the same, I numbered them before cutting them out to use as pattern pieces for the fabric, so that they could be correctly placed on the wool fibres.

Unfortunately, because the fabrics were all loose weave, pinning was very difficult and cutting out the shapes was like trying to cut water – the fabric went every which way it wanted to.

I became engrossed in the difficult process of placing the pieces of fabric on the wool fibres and forgot to take a photo of that!  I only remembered when I’d already started on the rolling…

… and here it is after fulling, rinsing and drying.

As the wool shrinks and the fibres wriggle up through the open-weave of the fabrics, a wonderful distorted and crinkly look appears – how much distortion does depend on the type of fabric.

This angled photo shows the crinkly effect quite well.

I made an ‘envelope’ style cushion backing from my ‘regular fabric’ stash in a complementary colour.

And here it is giving comfort from the hard,wooden back of the dining chair.

Annie

The hydrangea is one of my favourite blooms, as much for it’s tactile nature as it’s blousy large beautiful heads. If you’ve never shut your eyes and gently petted a giant hydrangea bloom stop reading and mark your calendar for the month they are in show in your part of the world, and definitely do it!

I’ve been meaning to create a picture in paint or fibres featuring hydrangeas for a long time, so I’m going to have a go, fingers crossed.

I would like it to be fairly abstract, definitely not too real, or too twee, but I really don’t know what I’ll get until I start working. I find it hard to work to a fixed creative outcome, I prefer to see what happens!

I’ve only got as far as sifting out some fabrics and yarns – and honestly this is a lengthy part of the process because I have accumulated far too much stuff over the years!

I remembered I made one small hydrangea sample a while ago that I’ve dug out for inspiration.

I’ve also just been laying out another sample to try out various fabrics and ideas but haven’t got very far yet.

Unfortunately all of the real hydrangea heads are brown (or have been pruned off!) at the moment so I’ve only got photos and imagination to work from, so no still life opportunities around this time of year. I suspect I won’t be too true to colour as I rarely am, but as long as they are roughly identifiable that’s good enough for me!

I’m just getting going so have not achieved much in time for our blog post unfortunately, so it’s a good job mum made her beautiful cushion so there is something finished to see.

Annoyingly life admin has been getting in the way of crafting time recently but I’m chomping at the bit and trying to squeeze in what I can, and hoping for a few quieter weeks now so I can get more done. Did I just say that out loud? Uh oh!

 

 

Lyn

I’d originally planned to make an autumn leaf garland, so I made a large piece of felt patterned only on one side as all the leaves would face the same way. It comprised three fine layers of green merino wool fibres topped with one layer of autumn colour merino wool fibres and ‘bits’ of fabric and nepps. Dry layout with close up shown below.

I made a cardboard leaf template to enable me to cut out 30 leaves.

The leaves were stabilised all around the cut edges with watered down PVA, 50/50.  When they were dry I stitched a wire stem to each leaf held in place with thread.

When Annie and I saw the pile of leaves looking as if they had just fallen off a tree, we both thought they would make a lovely seasonal display for a cold fireplace or a large sideboard.  Annie had the perfect colour and shape jug (it was in use in Annie’s house with a display of dahlias but they were nearly finished so reluctantly they got discarded before their time) then Annie went twig hunting in her garden.  After much snipping and choosing and changing our minds, we ended up with this.

Then came the fiddly job of attaching the leaves … without disturbing the arrangement of the twigs and the leaves already in place … not easy … my swear jar is almost full.

Annie

Making a tea cosy has been on my project list for a long time.  In my imagination it has been many themes over time as the seasons and celebrations come and go and none of them have come to be, but suddenly the time was right and my tea cosy has been born as a pumpkin!

It was reasonably quick to make and was a bit of experimental fun.  I am surprised it turned out as well as it did!

I made a couple of samples that helped me test some fabrics (which if I’m honest were going to be a garland but I ran out of steam and moved on to the tea cosy!).  The samples were small at 11cm wide and 18cm wide, see below.

I decided the tea cosy had way more chance of getting finished if I kept it really simple. So I just made two separate sides and stitched them together, adding in a stalky handle at the top, rather than a more complicated and time consuming seamless 3D form.

I was also going to embellish it with a “carved” face but decided against it to give it more year round appeal.

I started with the handle as that seemed most fun as I had not tried a curly cord before.  The cord needed a flat end to be stitched into the seam.  It was not very technical.  I got a small piece of green prefelt then wrapped loose green fibres around it then added a tapered amount on the top that I would make into a cord and then let it dry twisted around a paintbrush.  It worked surprisingly well.  I made it far too big forgetting that the felt of the pumpkins would shrink, but I just cut the end off to make it shorter.

I had planned to make some prefelt to lay on to the flat sides to enhance the creases and shaping but then I changed my mind and just reshaped the fibres I had laid out into two pumpkin shapes.  I used a paper template and reversed it for one side so that I could keep the pumpkin sides roughly the same size and shape during felting.  To give a little extra firmness I added a thin rope of fibres around the outline.

I added fabric scraps and knobbly yarns to give an abstract pumpkin look to the skin.  There were so many interesting pumpkins in all shapes, sizes, colours and textures at our local garden centre so I made my own variety taking inspiration from several different ones.

 

I decided to stitch it together right sides out to keep some of the uneven edge, rather than sewing and turning.  And no it’s not lined, life is too short for that!

Lyn

To make a star garland I made a large piece of multi-coloured, merino wool felt.  It was liberally topped with silk fibres in green, red, gold and pink but disappointingly they mostly sank into the wool fibres during felting instead of shining brightly on the top!  Dry layout photos below.

When the felt was dry, 11 star shapes were cut out – 1 large, 4 medium and 6 small – then the edges were stabilised with pva/water mix (50/50).

Simple hand stitching was added using a very fine, sparkly gold Madeira thread.  The thread is very thin so 4 strands were used at a time – yes – it was often a tangle nightmare!

Small star brads were easy to push into the felt.

Here is a close-up of 3 stars – the large star is 17.5cm (7”) wide.

The garland was strung with Madeira metallic effect yarn.  It’s very strong but lightweight and has no stretch.

The star garland has a ‘wing span’ of 180cm (6 feet) so I was unable to pull the camera far enough away to get it all in and the detail would have been lost – so I spread it out on my craft table and photographed it in two halves!

There are 11 stars – the centre star is in both photos.

Right half

Left half

 

Nuno felt is often associated with wearables such as scarves, vests, hats etc., but if you like to make wet-felted pictures, then do consider what nuno can add – fabric can make detailing in a picture so much easier and can add interest and texture.

In a nutshell, nuno felting is the combination of fine wool fibres (we usually use merino as it seems to work well) gently felted together with open-weave fabric. Patience is necessary when felting to allow time for the wool fibres to migrate through the open weave fabric.  If you’ve never tried nuno felting before, it’s quite simple and there are many free tutorials on the internet.

Before you commit to using a fabric, it can save time and frustration by making a sample so that you can see if the fabric is suitable. Shown below is a sample layout, pre-felting, and underneath shows how the fabrics look post- felting.

In the pineapple picture below you can see how fabrics, cut into rough squares, were applied to a background of pink, mauve and yellow merino wool fibres.

The colourful effect would have been difficult to achieve with wool fibres alone especially where the thin fabrics overlap and show through.

Shown below is the layout, then underneath is the felted picture.

The small section shown below is part of a large cityscape (currently unframed and pinned to a wall as the blue thumb-tack shows 😊).  All the buildings were formed from open-weave fabric. For added interest a little paint was applied to the fabric in places.

In the next example, strings of bunting were needed to fly in the sky on the background of a wet-felted picture.

The shapes could have been cut from pre-felt, but using fabric was quicker and the effect of the multi-coloured fabric worked well.

Bunting shapes were cut from very loose-weave fabric then placed on top of merino wool fibres that had already been wetted and soaped down – in this case it was easier to accurately place the fabric on a wet rather than on a dry layout.

The wool fibres and fabric were very slowly felted together until they formed one piece.

This apple has ‘painterly marks’ formed by scraps of open-weave fabric.

The jug in the picture of flowers below, was made with open-weave fabric for pattern, solidness / weight and texture.

This is a small section of a woodland picture. Open-weave fabric was used for tree trunks as the fabric adds texture and interest and the white adds light for dappled sunlight.

As well as using bits of fabric, a picture can be constructed using all nuno felt.  The final two examples show two different methods.

Full details of how ‘the pigeon and rubber duck in a birdbath’ picture was constructed are in this blog post:

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2022/05/30/second-quarter-challenge-the-bird-bath/

Full details of how the ‘early bird’ picture was constructed are in this blog post:

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2018/04/17/guest-blog-post-the-bird-and-his-breakfast/

We hope that this post will show how easy and how very effective the application of nuno felt can be in wet-felted art work!

ANNIE

I’m still enjoying making more small felt flowers …

…and I’m also making some new flowers on wires to put in with potted houseplants to make them cheerful.

I decided to ‘go large’ with one floral project that could be used as home décor, perhaps draped through an iron bed-frame, banister rail or on a mantle-piece.

However, a flamboyant person could enjoy wearing this as a statement necklace!

I enjoy making felt ‘ropes’ and I’ve turned several of them into multiple-ring bracelets – but opened up they could also be worn as necklaces.

LYN

After months of utility sewing I decided to have some fun and make some pictures for a child’s room by mostly using up scraps of fabric.  The pictures are 5”x7” on a 7”x9” board with 1” matte so will fit into a standard photo frame.

The fabric for the fish was made by scattering small pieces of coloured tutu net onto a piece of white cotton fabric then covering with ‘Solvy’ and machine stitching close lines of an almost invisible thread to hold it all together.

Yes, I do like snails don’t I?  I’ve done several over the years!

I found a scrap of gold material that was begging to be used and it just had to be a ballerina.

A tiny piece of sequin material was the starting point for this bird.

Teddy gave me a bit of trouble – this is the third attempt as I wasn’t happy with the first two!

Sometimes it’s good to have an inspirational quote on display, so I framed a printed  picture of one of my old felt pieces with words on it.

Perhaps we should remember those words when we start a new project but maybe feel a bit overwhelmed by it.

Annie

Recently I decided to make a wet felted pod, I haven’t made a pod for quite some time so it was interesting to go through the process.  Then I made another one.  I didn’t really love the colours of the pinky yellow one, I’ve been more drawn to greens and blues for a while so I made a “woodland” inspired one that I like much more.  But I think I need 3, so am planning to make a purple one, with perhaps some yellowy orange accents.

Pods are a really nice thing to make, they don’t take long and people always seem to love them, they are very tactile. Also they look good with a plant in which always helps!

 

 

 

 

I also have been making felt flowers, but the idea has been to make them as quickly as possible and with limited materials and as simple a technique as possible.  I was asked if I’d do a felt flowers workshop, but only a couple of hours long, and of course people who have never made felt before would love to go home with a finished item!

I’ve made several and I think they are pretty good, hopefully at a level that workshop beginners would enjoy making.

Trouble is that now I’m thinking oooooh I’d like to play with this more and make bigger and more flamboyant flowers and ooh praps I can add more fabric, and what about paint!? etc etc.

I made one with a stem and I also found in my “UFO” box a bright 3 petal flower that I made probably years ago.  But it has interesting possibilities!

I’m halfway through spring beads but they aren’t as exciting as these flowers now, and I’ve got another trees picture on the go.

Lyn

Recently my ‘playing with textiles’ has mostly been unexciting (think curtains etc) so I have only managed to achieve a few greeting cards using scraps of felt.

If you are thinking of using your felt scraps to attach to cards, I’ve got a top tip because felt doesn’t adhere very well to other surfaces! Cut a piece of paper to the same shape, but 2mm (0.08″) smaller all around, as your scrap felt that you want to attach to card.  Hand stitch the paper shape to the reverse of the felt shape using stitches that don’t go all the way through the felt then cover the paper shape with double sided sticky tape. The felt will then attach to the card permanently.

Here are some felt stars cut from scrap felt and used to make a card – perhaps good for a male birthday.

 

Lyn – rosiepink

I’m still using my holly bowl as a fruit bowl on my sideboard, but with spring colours appearing in the garden and the days getting brighter it looks a bit out of place.

So I set to and made a new bowl for the spring.  I laid out a three layer circle of sky-blue merino wool fibres, 50cm diameter (20”), then a fourth colourful layer topped with a few random sprinkles of silk fibres.  The silk fibres dried darker than I thought they would but never mind, on with the stitching!

After a lot of stitching (and a bit of unpicking and swear-jar filling) here it is.

Annie has made a second Winter Trees Table Centre. It was a friend’s 80th birthday and she had said how much she liked the original, so it was a nice idea to make one for her as a present, and she was thrilled with it! As an added bonus Annie has photographed the process to make a new tutorial which will be available as soon as she can glue her bum to the chair for long enough to finish it!

She also decided a spring project would be nice to do and had enjoyed making the autumn beads last year, so decided to try some beads in spring colours. This is a work in progress and most likely will be made into a decorative home item, perhaps in a vase again, not sure yet!

Lastly, you may remember this ball of fluff and fibres and odds n ends…. where Annie pulled apart a picture that was not working and had screwed it up into a ball for later consideration.

On the spur of the moment last week she decided to grab it as it was and try to spin from the blob of bits! She says she probably should have made a batt but nonetheless some interesting yarn happened, and it will be great in wet felting or possibly in weaving. Probably not so much good for knitting! It is deliberately under spun, over spun, and messy. She finds the spinning wheel she has very frustrating since it is a traditional old Ashford and is probably designed for making fine even yarns – it only has a small orifice so not very conducive to chunky bits! and also has lots of hooks on the flyer that catch on all the sticky out bits and it gets in a tangle. A more suitable spinning wheel is definitely on the very long “Want” list! She wraps it on mount board, rather than making a skein or a ball so that she can pick out colours that she likes and cut a short length for felting, it is quite a challenge since it springs about (this one is not plied and has a lot of tension!) but is tamed with cuts on the side of the card that the ends of the yarn can be secured in to.

Do the spring colours that are popping up inspire you to make something new?

Annie (rosiepink)

I made this felted snowy winter trees table centre as my idea for the Q4 challenge which was to create a textile item inspired by the work of Eric Ravilious.  It is approx 60cm / 24″  across.

This turned out to be a double challenge for me as I chose his woodcut work for my inspiration, with a monochrome palette, and as you may know, I usually love love love to use lots of colours.

I just really liked the subject and the way he stylised it. The over sized snow flakes really appealed to me!

I had started off thinking I was going to make a bowl but once I’d felted it I decided I liked it as it was for now.  I may well change that later though.  I did make the centre thicker when laying out the base as I thought it might need the reinforcement if stitched into a bowl due to its size.

The base is made from white Merino wool tops (laid out over a wire ring for wreath making to attempt a decent circle shape!)

Then for the majority of the trees I used some very fragile t-shirt material that I’m really pleased didn’t disintegrate since I couldn’t be bothered to make a sample this time.  I also used some other reclaimed fabrics from other garments and some yarns.

I found it hard to keep the design simple and took it apart a few times after over complicating it (and adding then removing colour!) but got there in the end.  I’m surprised how much I like it as I would not normally have made something in one colour (it’s all shades of blue but does look black in places in the photos).

I noticed I made the branches a bit short since it was more pattern based to make the circle, but in reality they would have been longer and overlapped a bit but I like the way it turned out, and might even go on to make a picture in the same way.

 

 

Lyn

My ‘Postcard from Farley Mount’ depicts the folly that’s a monument to a horse. The little landscape is made by wet-felting pre-felts onto two layers of white merino wool tops then lines of needle felting were added afterwards – it’s approx 15 x 13cm / 6”x5”.

I took inspiration for my landscape from the painting ‘Windmill’ by Eric Ravilious – I liked the very simple depiction of the landscape with its one dominating subject.

Farley Mount is a large Country Park of downland and woodland, with a folly stood on one of the highest hills in Hampshire, and was a favourite picnic spot for our family and friends in the 60’s.

The folly is a monument to a horse named ‘Beware Chalk Pit’ and the story is told on a plaque (photo from Wikimedia Commons) – see below the photo for the wording on the plaque.

“Underneath lies buried a horse, the property of Paulet St. John Esq., that in the month of September 1733 leaped into a chalk pit twenty-five feet deep a foxhunting with his master on his back and in October 1734 he won the Hunters Plate on Worthy Downs and was rode by his owner and was entered in the name of “Beware Chalk Pit”.

Picnics were always a time for my mum and auntie to sit and knit and chat while we children just mucked about having fun.

Cars were small in those days – everything you took with you had to be small to fit in the boot (trunk), so our chairs were very low, metal framed, fold-up canvas chairs.

One time my dad and my uncle came back from a short walk and unfolded a couple of canvas chairs to sit on.

Now, these chairs had seen many picnics and the canvas was getting worn so when my very portly uncle flopped his bulk down there was a loud ripping sound.  He had gone through the seat of the chair and through the seam on the seat of his trousers!

There was no sewing kit to hand so a thin metal hairgrip, like this,

was fashioned into a needle, using pliers from dad’s car toolbox, then threaded with knitting yarn so that the seat of uncle’s trousers could be sewn together with great big woollen cross-stitches!

I did try very hard not to laugh 🙂