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Author: ruthlane

When I discovered felting in 2007, I finally found the creative outlet for which I had been searching. I love that the versatility of fiber allows me to “play” with a wide variety of materials including wool, silk, fabrics, yarns and threads. Creating one of a kind fiber art pieces to share with the world fulfills my creative passion.
Screen Printed Felt Journal by Ruth Lane
Late Summer and Fall Online Classes

Late Summer and Fall Online Classes

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We have online classes coming up over the next several months. If you are looking for a new learning experience, please join us. The classes are listed below with a link to each class page. If you want to take the class but registration isn’t open yet, there is a place to contact us so you can be added to the student email list. You will then be notified when registration opens for that class. Make sure you include which class in your inquiry. You don’t need to be present at any certain time to participate in a class and you will receive PDF’s to keep with all the relevant information learned in the class.

Screen Printed Felt Journals by Ruth Lane

All four modules of my class, EMBELLISHING FELT WITH SURFACE DESIGN TECHNIQUES – A MIXED MEDIA APPROACH, will begin on August 12th. Registration opens today for these classes.

Nuno Felting with Paper Fabric Lamination

Experimental Screen Printing on Felt

Free Motion Machine Stitching on Felt

Printing, Stenciling, and Playing with Thickened Dye on Felt

Click on any of the links above to find out more about the class and to register and join in the fun.

Hanging Felted Spiral with Helene Dooley begins on August 26 and registration opens on August 12. Learn to felt this cool hanging spiral. Find out more here.

Felting Fantasy Fish with Galina Titova will start on September 6 and registration beings on August 23. Developing your own fantasy fish is such fun, will you join Galina?

Teri has two classes coming up in October. Creating a Felted Concertina Hat and a Felted Bags class.   Registration opens the first week of October and class begins on the third Thursday of October. So if you want to learn how to make hats or bags, this is a great opporunity.

Our Wet Felting for Beginners class is always available. You can start any time and follow along at your own pace. Register here.

 

Caustic Lino Block Etching and Online Exhibition

Caustic Lino Block Etching and Online Exhibition

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My local group met before our summer break and tried some caustic lino block etching. I have wanted to try this technique for a while but hadn’t gotten my nerve up to be playing with caustic substances (100% lye). Then I found some instructions that seemed straightforward on this blog. (I am just giving the basics here, click on the link for the full instructions if you want to try it.) We followed the instructions, didn’t have any chemical disasters and etched our blocks.

I decided to do some small samples to test out the process before the group meeting. I already had some small lino blocks cut, I think these are about 3″ x 4″. I transferred the design with pencil and tracing paper, then painted on the resist area using Golden GAC 200 medium and let that dry.

Here’s the set up with the blocks in place. You can’t use anything plastic or the lye will eat it.

Here’s the mixture of lye and wheat paste that is applied to the lino blocks. The areas that are not covered with the GAC 200 resist will be etched away. The trial run, I left the lye in place for about two hours. Then the goop is cleaned up and the lino blocks cleaned with a toothbrush in soap and water. Then I used a standard blue ink pad to print these as I didn’t want to get out my full print making ink setup.

Here’s the resulting prints. Interesting, they look so different than the usual hand cut lino blocks. Once the group was here, we repeated the process and etched four more blocks that were 4″ x 6″.

Here’s Louise’s block on the left and the print on the right. I love the organic feel these prints have.

This is Paula’s block and resulting print.

Poppies for Sally in her block and print.

And mine is based on tree rings. I’m thinking about this as a theme for my upcoming art and design class.

I thought this process was relatively easy compared to carving a block and you can really get some fine details and a very different look than carving. I will definitely be doing more etching of lino blocks. Next I will have to try and print with these on felt and see how they come out.

Recently, we had our in person exhibition in La Conner, Washington for the class I have been participating in for nearly three years. Many of you don’t live close enough to attend but we are also having an online Meet the Artists event that anyone can attend.

You are Invited to an Online Exhibition and 

Discussion with the Artists of the

Bachelor Buttons Level 3

Advanced Experimental Stitch Class

Join Tutors Gail Harker and Penny Peters at a free online venue 

Tuesday July 19– 10:30 am – 12:30 pm  PDT

If you would like to attend this free event, you do need to sign up in advance. You can sign up here:

https://gailcreativestudies.com/portfolio-item/level-3-stitch-online-exhibition/

Join us online  (no fee) to view our Level 3 Advance Stitch student’s exhibition of creative stitched artwork. It will truly have you dreaming of wonderful possibilities there are for people just like you.  

Each of our participating artists will have a chance to talk about their experience working through this coursework, in spite of pandemic conditions!  There will be time for questions and answers with the artists.  

The event will be starting at 10:30 am PDT (West Coast US Pacific Daylight Time) and run until 12:30 pm PDT. To convert to your time zone, go to: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

 

Two Nuno Backgrounds

Two Nuno Backgrounds

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After putting my work in two different galleries, I felt a moment of panic because I have no more artwork that would be ready to go if anything sold. Better get to work!

I still had more of this dyed silk that I used for the Weeping Birch piece.

This is the fabric after I nuno felted it to black pre felt for the weeping birch piece. I had some red prefelt of the correct size so I decided to see what the fabric would look like with a red wool base.

Here is the piece after felting. It definitely has a different feel than with the black wool. Now to decide how I should move forward with this piece. What do you see? It’s always so interesting to hear what different people see in the same background.

 

This is the nuno background that I used for Summer Fireworks. It was felted on to white pre felt. Since I was already using the red prefelt, I decided to back the dyed silk from the same piece of fabric with red pre felt. How different would it look?

Here is the silk fabric nuno felted on to red wool.  I see trees and bushes at the top of this with perhaps grasses or flowers at the bottom? Or maybe roots and the underground at the bottom? I will show you my progress as I get further along in the process.

I definitely enjoyed seeing the difference that the pre felt wool color makes in the end nuno felted result. I will have to try out more colors when I get the chance.

Another Historical Sample

Another Historical Sample

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I showed you a historical felt pattern sample recently where I used a water soluble stabilizer to create the pattern. Obviously, in ancient times, this product would not have been available. So I needed to try a more traditional method.

I decided to try a different design based on wings. The pattern was printed twice and put one over top of the other in a mirrored pattern. The paper design was covered with plastic so I could lay wet wool down on top of the pattern. This is the method that Ildi uses, thanks again Ildi!

Next, wool yarn was wet down and applied over the pattern. Pre yarn would work better, but this is what I have in my stash.

The colors chosen were two shades of blue, one leaning towards blue green and the other leaning towards the violet side of blue. The fiber was wet down and laid in place. Layout definitely takes time with this method.

Then another layer of the dark blue was laid out on top of the wet wool pattern. I didn’t need to add any water to this wool as there was plenty already available. Next on to felting. The piece was kept in between plastic for the entire felting process but then with fulling, the piece was rolled against itself. Big mistake as this caused the yarn to fragment and pull free in some areas. Sigh.

Here’s the piece after felting and the black was not a clean line. Again, this is partly from using a twisted yarn instead of a pre yarn but also due to the fulling method.

I shaved the black but it is still not as clear as I would like. The design also had very sharp points where I cut the yarn and the ends didn’t felt in as well.

This is the sharpness that I would prefer. These two pieces were made quite a while ago. I made all the felt, then cut out the shapes and appliqued (hand stitched) them down. I then couched a green yarn around the shapes. This is a traditional ram’s horn design that is seen frequently in the Central Asian areas.

Have you tried any traditional felt patterns? I would love to see your results. You can upload photos here.  Or you can show us over on the forum.

Framed Artwork and New Gallery Representation

Framed Artwork and New Gallery Representation

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Lots of people asked to see my recent landscapes once they had been framed. I get my work professionally framed with a narrow, black wooden frame. If you’re in Whitefish, MT and need some framing done, I highly recommend my framer, FoR Fine Art. They also have a wonderful art gallery in Whitefish and Bigfork, MT and Tucson, AZ.

Here are the two biggest pieces after framing. They are approximately 20″ x 30-32″.

Here’s a couple more that I completed over the winter.

And the last one with it’s new frame. I have been working on getting new gallery representation and contacted a couple of places. I heard back from Northwest Handmade in Sandpoint, ID. I took 16 pieces over to them and will be taking them some snow dyed silk scarves when we go back by there in July. Yay, happy dance.

I decided to make a few more 5″ x 7″ pieces to take with me but didn’t get a chance to show them here. These are included in the 16 pieces that went to Sandpoint. If you happen to be in the area, please stop by and visit Northwest Handmade!

The five framed pieces shown at the top of the post weren’t ready when I went to Sandpoint. I picked them up from the framers and the next day, I heard back from 4 Ravens Gallery in Missoula, MT. They were interested in carrying my work too! Wow! Those five landscapes will be on display towards the end of June. Again, if you happen to be in Missoula, MT, please stop by and visit 4 Ravens Gallery.

It is great to have two galleries carrying my artwork but now I have to get busy and make some new pieces to replace any that sell. (I’m being hopeful and thinking positively.)

Creating A Nogai Floral Design Using Sticky Fabri-Solvy

Creating A Nogai Floral Design Using Sticky Fabri-Solvy

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As I told you in my last post about our trip to New York City, I visited the Met Museum’s Watson library. I am doing research on ancient felt making patterns in and around Central Asia.

This is one of the books that I found in the library and it had loads of illustrations with different patterns. But, the book was written in Russian. I went ahead and scanned the illustrations and hoped that I would be able to get it translated when I got home. It took me a few days to realize that I knew someone who speaks Russian, Galina! She is a member of The Felting and Fiber Studio Forum and will be teaching another Fantasy Fish online class soon. Galina kindly translated for me and also told me a little bit about the book. The book is about the Nogais, a Turkic ethnic group, who now live in the North Caucasus region. This is “next door” to Central Asia and since these were nomadic people, I think I will include their patterns in my research. The book was written by Fatima Kanokova and her doctoral thesis had a theme of “Decorative Art of the Nogais.” Thanks so much Galina for your help!

I took one of the floral patterns from the book and enlarged it. I then painted it on paper in the colors I was going to use. The colors were limited to what size and color of prefelt I had available. I used a very lightweight commercial prefelt and decided I was going to need at least two layers and then a backing piece of prefelt. I did try and do a little dry felting of the two pieces of prefelt so they would stick together during cutting. This wasn’t very successful. I would highly recommend using a thicker piece of prefelt to begin with and the cutting process would have worked better. Next, I needed to decide how I would transfer the design.

I was thinking of using the freezer paper method like Lyn used with her pigeon/rubber ducky piece but then suddenly remembered that I had some Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy that I had bought for free motion machine embroidery. I did not like using it with the sewing machine  or hand sewing because it gummed the needle up so much. But I hoped it would work with the prefelt.

The Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy has a paper backing on a sticky, water soluble fabric type stabilizer. So I traced the design and cut it out with a craft knife. I cut very carefully, so that I could use both portions of the design for the negative and positive shapes.

Here it is after cutting and you can see the negative and positive shapes that resulted.

Next was to peel the paper backing off and position the pieces on the various colors of prefelt.

Here is the prefelt with the cut shapes of Sticky Fabri-Solvy stuck in place. Now on to cutting them out. I tried cutting them with the craft knife but the two layers of prefelt kept shifting around. So I used a small, sharp scissors to cut out the shapes. Again, I was very careful so that I could use both the positive and negative shapes in the two different colors.

Here are the shapes after cutting. If you look closely, you can see the cutting wasn’t perfect. Again, this would have been easier with one piece of thicker prefelt.

Now to put the pieces together in an inlaid fashion. I used a piece of white prefelt behind the red background. If I had been thinking about it, I should have used a piece of red prefelt. Then you wouldn’t be able to see any movement of the cut shapes if it occurred during felting. But I didn’t have any white prefelt for the brown background piece. I decided to cut the edges of the brown piece and add a red background.

Here’s the brown piece after cutting and adding the red background. I didn’t inlay the brown into the red background, I just laid it on top.

On to felting everything. I covered both sides with a nylon curtain and wet the pieces down. Hopefully, you can see that the Sticky Fabri-Solvy mainly stuck on to the nylon curtain and then peeled off. I washed the remainder of the stickiness out of the nylon curtain and preceded with felting as I normally do. The little bits that were still stuck on the red prefelt dissolved. I’m sure the whole thing would have dissolved without pulling it off with the nylon curtain. But sometimes this type of water soluble fabric leaves a stiff residue and I didn’t want that to happen. So I was happy with it all peeling off easily. I had tried to peel if off before I wet it down but it would have damaged the prefelt. Also, I found that with the stabilizer in place, the pieces fit together easily and held their shape better than the other pieces that didn’t have any stabilizer. It didn’t really matter with the end result anyways.

And here you can see the two pieces after felting. The one on the right had a bit of ruffling edges since the prefelt in the center was thicker than the outer edge. But that didn’t matter because I was planning on trimming the pieces after felting.

Here are the two pieces after trimming. This method worked great and now I have a useful purpose for the roll of Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy that I have.

 

 

Throwback Posts: How To

Throwback Posts: How To

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Jan has still not got any power/electricity at her house so I am filling in with a post. We have a menu item for tutorials but not all our ‘how to’ posts are included. So I thought I would bring your attention to some of the past posts that are mini tutorials. Enjoy!

How to make a felted bangle bracelet.

How to make prefelt.

Felted Cat Cave

How to Ice Dye Fabric

 

Stitching a Felt Kindle Case

All about felting needles.

Making Felt Balls in Bulk

Influencing Shape with Prefelt

Textured Felt in the Washing Machine

Making a Felt Feather

Felting Soap

Dyeing with Avocado Pits

Tips on Beading

Color Mixing Wool

Bubble Hat

Batch Editing in Photoshop

Transferring Photos with Matte Medium

Felt Scrap Bowl Tutorial

Degumming Silk Throwsters Waste

 

I hope you enjoy all the posts and hopefully, there are some that you haven’t seen yet. I am sure that I probably showed a post or two that’s on the tutorial pages but I got carried away looking at old posts. It’s funny how you don’t remember what you posted about!

Road Trip Inspiration

Road Trip Inspiration

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The second quarter challenge is all about finding inspiration wherever you might be. We recently took a road trip across the US, spent a week in New York City and then drove home again. I hope you will indulge me and take a look at a few of the inspirations I saw on my trip.

Here’s a map of the trip which covers approximately 2,500 miles. The red bit at the end is the trip on Amtrak from my sister’s house in Richmond, VA to NYC.

This was a photo I took coming across the US. I think it might be in South Dakota but I have forgotten where exactly.

Edgar went with us and although he is supposed to stay in the back seat, he loves to look out the windshield to make sure we are going in the right direction.

It was amazing to see how many plants and trees were blooming as we got closer to the east coast. I think this photo was taken in Indiana or Illinois. The redbud trees were blooming all along the highway.

Once we got to Richmond, we took the Amtrak up to New York City. Penn Station was a real mess when we arrived, they are doing a massive construction project. We had a bit of an issue figuring out the correct subway, the one we thought we should take was blocked off due to construction. We had a great adventure walking in the rain, hauling our suitcases and bags for 20+ blocks.

One of our first adventures in NYC was to visit the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. In the past, we have been to the NYC Botanical Gardens but this one in Brooklyn is beautiful and well worth the visit. I spared you all the photos I took there and just shared the highlights.

After lunch, we decided to visit the Brooklyn Zoo since it is in the same area as the botanical gardens. It was a beautiful day to stroll outside.

If you haven’t been to NYC before, you might not know about all the wonderful mosaics in the subway stations. This is one I hadn’t seen before.

Another fun side trip was taking the ferry to Governors Island. It’s only a short 7 minute ride but it takes you right out of the city. You can even go “glamping” there!

If you were wondering about Edgar, he didn’t go to NYC with us. He stayed with my sister’s neighbor. Here’s a photo she sent of him watching out the window at her house.

Here’s Times Square where they had an installation about design. The metal structure on the lower right was an interesting addition this month. And of course, you can always entertain yourself with people watching.

Walking through Central Park is another fun source of inspiration. We always end up doing a lot of walking when we’re in the city. We also visited a couple of museums but I didn’t get any photos. I did do some research about ancient felt making patterns at the Met’s Museum Watson library. If you ever get a chance to visit the library, I highly recommend it.

We returned on the train to Richmond and then took off on the way back to Montana (another 2500 miles).

Edgar is watching me on the morning we were leaving my sister’s house to make sure that I didn’t leave without him.

The last couple of trips we took across country, we took our camper but this time we stayed in motels. I have decided taking the camper is the best way to go.

If you have been in a South Dakota rest stop, you will have seen one of these structures. There is even one of the rest stops with a statue entitled Dignity that you might want to see. I didn’t get a photo this time as there was construction around the statue. But you can click on the link above to see it.

The next step with these inspiration photos is to come up with some ideas for a sample for the second quarter challenge. Which photo inspires you?

 

 

 

Remembrance

Remembrance

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I promised after I made a small poppy piece for the first quarter challenge repurposing a piece of nuno felt, that I would make a bigger piece in the same style.

This piece is large, somewhere in the 30″ length and 18-20″ width. This is the layout and I have sprinkled the cut up orange nuno felt over the base layer of green wool. I made sure that the orange bits were roughed up so they would stick down better.

Here is the piece after felting. I have pinned some larger poppies in the foreground made out of painted silk paper. I was distracted by the yellow in the direct center in the sky. I decided to add more yellow so that the one area wouldn’t stick out as much.

I needle felted some yellow across the left portion of the lower sky and a few wisps up higher. I also added some lighter/paler silk paper to the poppies as I felt they were too dark in the first try. Then I added some green locks to the foreground for foliage.

And here it is after finishing and “matting” on green fabric. Now Remembrance is ready to go the framer. Now I just have to find a new gallery to carry my work, easier said than done.

On the Swan

On the Swan

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Recently, a local woman asked me to create a river view in felt for her. I created several watercolor sketches she could choose from so that we agreed on what the landscape would look like and what to include. The client lives on the Swan River here in Montana and decided she wanted a view similar to what she has behind her home.

After hand carding and blending colors, I started on the layout. I used a commercial prefelt background and mostly short fiber merino batts. Somehow, I wasn’t thinking correctly on shrinkage as I went with the idea that it would shrink 30%. But I forgot that I don’t normally full my wool paintings very hard as they don’t really need intense fulling.

I continued working down the picture laying out the distant trees, the river with the trees and mountains reflections and then into the foreground grass and lupines. At the same time I was laying out the big piece, I also laid out a smaller sample. That way I could try different options with final details and stitching. This shows the birch trees from silk paper that I was trying to decide upon. Luckily, I had made the birch tree silk paper several months ago at one of our local group meetings.

Here’s the small sample that I made. I tried the left tree trunk in prefelt and then used free motion machine stitching for the dark areas. The right tree trunk used silk paper which was painted for the dark areas. I also tried out some FME for the branches and the lupines. I didn’t feel that the FME was what I wanted for this piece and opted for the silk paper birch trunks. I had also used some brown/tan wool for the distant shoreline which was way too much if included in the original wet felting process. I ended up cutting out a portion of this sample so that the brown wool was showing much less. I then stitched the two pieces of the sample back together to give the feel of what I wanted in the large piece. This sample really saved me from making some big mistakes!

Here is what I had after wet felting. I had to full this piece very hard as the request was for a certain size. I don’t normally worry about size on my wet felted landscapes and I ended up cutting the edges because I had not figured the shrinkage correctly.

Next I started adding in needle felt details. I added more definition to the distant tress, added a shoreline and added some lines in the water to simulate movement.

Then I stitched some grass in the foreground and stitched down the silk paper tree trunks.

I continued on with details. I added some paint to the tree trunks, I couched down branches and added leaf details with needle felting. I added hand stitching in front of the trunks and some leaf details for the lupine.

Here’s a close up so you can see a bit of the detail in the foreground.

Then I found I already had enough green fabric that worked to finish the piece. My client is getting it framed with barn wood, so this is how I delivered the piece. And the wonderful thing is that she loved it. I’m so happy it worked out the way that she wanted.