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Felt landscape of spring birch showing close up of hand stitched leaves (detached chain stitch).
Stitching on Spring Birch Landscape

Stitching on Spring Birch Landscape

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My spring birch landscape has been stitched and applied to a backing board so it’s ready to frame. I showed you the first stages of the landscape in this post if you missed it.

Felt landscape of spring birch with free motion machine stitching added.

I added free motion machine stitching to the distant shore. Whenever I start FME on a landscape, I always think that the first few areas where I have stitched look like it’s too much. But I keep going and usually, once more stitching is added, the initial lines don’t feel excessive.

Felt landscape of spring birch with free motion machine stitching added to rocks in foreground.

The next step was to stitch the rocks across from the tree. I considered adding some stitching into the foliage above the rocks but decided to leave it as is.

Felt landscape of spring birch with free motion machine stitching added to tree trunk and branches.

Then on to stitching the tree. I added the dark bits to the trunk and stitching through the felted paper was a breeze, no problems at all either by machine or by hand. The dark branches were added next and then decision time on how to add a few more leaves. I considered needle felting some smaller leaves on the dark branches but then decided I would hand stitch the leaves.

I then hand stitched leaves on to the dark branches using hand dyed lace weight wool thread and detached chain stitch. I added a few bits of grass at the bottom of the trunk as well.

Felt landscape of spring birch stitched to background fabric and wrapped/laced around board ready to frame.

The miracle is that I found a backing fabric, stitched the felt to that and then wrapped/laced the piece around matte board so it’s ready to frame. Since the piece is small (matte size 8″ x 10″), it went quickly and now I have two pieces ready to take to the framers. This piece counts for the year long tree challenge for spring. I have to think about the summer one as it wouldn’t really look different than spring, a few more leaves perhaps?

Nuno felt landscape of winter birch stitched to "matte" fabric and wrapped/laced around board.

The winter birch piece is also ready for framing. I used a darker gray hand dyed fabric for the winter birch as it felt “colder” that way. Now on to the next landscape as the gallery wants me to replace the one that sold last month. (Doing a little happy dance!)

This is the piece that sold called Remembrance. Yay!

Wet felted landscape with birch tree, river and distant trees and mountains. Birch tree from mulberry paper felted to the surface.
More Experimentation with Felting and Paper

More Experimentation with Felting and Paper

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I have continued with my experimentations with mulberry paper and felting. My first post is here if you missed it.

Mulberry paper with embossed leaf laid out over green wool ready to felt.

I have had this mulberry paper with leaves embossed on it for quite a while. I loved the paper but never used it for anything. It is fairly thick and the embossed portions are really thick. The question was whether it would felt easily to the surface. I tore out a single leaf and placed it over a small torn piece of green, short fiber merino batt.

Mulberry paper with embossed leaf laid out over green wool wet down on felting surface.

The wool and paper were then wet down (sorry for the blurry photo) and I felted as I had on my previous paper samples, treating the paper as if it was fabric as in nuno felting. I wondered whether I would lose the embossed lines of the leaf, whether the paper thickness was too heavy to felt in easily and if it would felt differently than the thinner papers I had tried previously.

Mulberry paper with embossed leaf felted to green wool as a sample.

Here’s the end result. You can still see the leaf. It felted very easily and doesn’t seem much different than the thinner papers. I think if I had done a lot of wringing of the felt it would have distorted the leaf but I was careful to avoid fulling in that manner.

Hmmm… how can I use this leaf paper in a design? What would happen if I added ink or dye to the paper before felting? What if I dry brushed paint over the surface of the paper after felting? What else could I do to the surface to enhance the feel of leafiness? How would hand or machine stitching look on the surface? Will it be easy to stitch through? Any other experimental ideas for me? Obviously, more samples to follow.

Wool laid out for landscape with birch tree, river and distant trees and mountains. Birch tree from mulberry paper on the surface of layout.

Next on to experimenting with paper in my landscapes. This is the layout of wool and a paper birch tree. (This also works for my spring tree for our year long tree challenge.) The piece is pretty small and ended up about 7″ x 9″ after felting.

Wool wet down for landscape with birch tree, river and distant trees and mountains. Birch tree from mulberry paper on the surface of wool.

Here’s the piece after wetting down and curbing the edges a bit before felting. Again, I treated this gently to allow the paper to felt in.

Wet felted landscape with birch tree, river and distant trees and mountains. Birch tree from mulberry paper felted to the surface.

Here’s the piece after felting. I plan to add some free motion machine stitching to add more interest in the tree and more branches as well. I will probably add a few more leaves to the tree as well and perhaps a bit of detail to the rest of the landscape. The tree worked well and the paper really stands out to make the tree the focal point of the landscape. I definitely need to do more experiments with landscapes and paper. How else could I use the paper besides tree trunks? How would scraps of green paper felt in to make foliage? What would a variety of colors of paper layered over each other and then felted look like?

I love asking ‘what if’ and trying out these ideas, which lead to new ideas and further experimentation. I haven’t even begun to scrape the surface with how paper and felt can be used together. I would love to hear your ideas for experimentation so please leave a comment with your “what if’s”.

 

Lapwings Felt Picture

Lapwings Felt Picture

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I’ve recently made a new felt picture of lapwings so I thought I’d show you how I went about it.

As you’ll know, if you’ve read my other blogs here, I live on the East Kent coast in the UK and am particularly fond of the local birds. I’ve seen some beautiful flocks of lapwings including at a small nature reserve just along the coast at Oare. I’ve not attempted lapwings before though they are really beautiful birds, so I thought I should have a go.

I’ve only seen lapwings in quite large flocks – I’ve never seen one on its own – so I thought I should have at least 2 birds in the picture. I did a quick sketch to help me decide on the size and stance of the birds

I started with the background. The birds at Oare were on the wet, grassy edges of a lake, very near the sea. Here’s the background laid out & ready to start felting.

I spent a while thinking about how to represent the lapwings’ lovely iridescent feathers and decided on lots of prefelt.

I had some blended greenish wool that was perfect for the main feathers though I had no idea where it came from or what it was. As I made some prefelt I tested out the shrinkage – mostly just to be sure it would felt rather than getting a specific shrinkage.

Then I set about prefelt for all the other lovely colours. The dark green sections are scraps of recycled silk from my favourite source: a charity shop scarf. The others are mixtures of different merino wool colours. I was particularly pleased with the dark section on the right which was a bottom layer of blue and top layer of charcoal grey. It was just the effect I was hoping for. With hindsight I should have used silk for the light green & pink / purple too as that would have given me more shine.

Here’s the prefelt cut up & arranged in a bird shape.

And here are the 2 birds once fully felted but still wet

And here I am deciding how to position the birds on their background.

I needle felted the birds into the background then added eyes, other face details, legs (using recycled tapestry wool) & head plumes. If you look closely you can see I also fiddled a little with the background: needling in extra strands of grass to soften the edges of the water.

The lapwings went straight into an exhibition with 4 other big pictures plus some smaller pieces at my local gallery: the wonderful Horsebridge Community Arts Centre in Whitstable. Here’s my display (not a great photo, sorry).

And I’ll finish with a quick shot of a beautiful painting I bought at that exhibition.  I’ve been looking for something to hang over my bed for ages and I thought this was perfect.

Painted by my friend, the artist Josephine Harvatt. The title “When you wake up it’s a new morning”  is particularly apt for over the bed. I love it. If you want to see more of Josephine’s beautiful work, here’s an Instagram link.

https://instagram.com/josephineharvatt?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Next is a Spring Tree.

Next is a Spring Tree.

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I have been thinking about my spring tree for the 2nd quarter challenge. I have decided I will not try to make my tree a real tree but an imagined one. That will give me more scope to play. I did some thinking and the best way to show flowers will be to do a close-up of a branch.  I did some sketching on my pad for that. I am not a very good drawer but I think it’s not a bad branch.

sketch ideas for a tree and branch  sketch of a tree branch

I’ve decided I want some long, hanging flowers.

sketch of a tree branch

Next, it was off to the internet to look at long, hanging flowers. I think I know how I want to do them.

 

Then I had to have a good rummage to find the felt I used last time. How do things become lost so quickly? Well, I know really, I don’t put things away. 🙂 I did find it, and some felt I had forgotten about. I will try not to lose it again. It is just a white rectangle at the moment. I am trying to decide if I leave it that way or if I felt it light blue for the sky. I am not sure.

white felt for making a picture

That’s as far as I am at the moment. We are working on clearing things that don’t belong out of my studio. I need to rearrange in the house, to get another piece out. Another job for the list.

 

First Quarter Tree Challenge well on its way.

First Quarter Tree Challenge well on its way.

Comments 7 comments

After doing my tree experiments( here if you missed it Tree Experiment ) and being happy with the results I am moving on to doing the first quarter challenge. If you haven’t seen the challenge it is here: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2023/01/01/2023-first-quarter-challenges/

I picked a piece or felt I had and added the sky and snow backgrounds. I used 3 shades of natural white wool for the snow so that it wasn’t so flat. I used Merino, Corriedale and something strong and shiny. the shiny wool may have been BFL or even Mohair.

 

Then I started working on the tree. I worked on a separate surface so as not to disturb the background too much as it is only lightly needle felted. I decided to work in two layers for the tree so this is the darker back layer. I started by just fluffing it up and then using a knitting needle to move fibres around to get a better tree shape. then gave it a dry felting ( just flattening and wiggling it a bit so the fibres stick together) to move it onto the background.

I picked a redder brown for the second layer. I forgot to take a picture of it when it was separate. I must have been in the felting zone. I put the tree slightly off-center. I tried it in the middle and I didn’t like it.

Here’s a close-up so you can see the 2 layers

 

I poked the tree all over to tack it in place and started fiddling with the roots, so it won’t fall over in the wind.

and some more  snow

And that was as far as I am right now.  I will probably fiddle with it more before wet felting it and then fiddling more, of course. I am thinking of adding a shadow but not sure how to tackle it. I am not sure where the sun is.  I may have to go out to the field and look at shadows.

Have you started your tree challenge or maybe you’re going with making something useful or both?

We would all like to see photos of challenge pieces and if you are unable to upload photos directly onto The Felting and Fiber Forum ‘studio challenges’ thread, then please use the link below.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/community-photo-submissions/

Nuno Felted background with handstitched silk paper applique birch trees on the left over tulle pine trees. Two red twig dogwood bushes handstitched on front right foreground.
Winter Birch Update

Winter Birch Update

Comments 23 comments

I have been working on my winter birch landscape. Here are the posts for part 1 and part 2 if you missed them.

I finished appliqueing the birch trunks and adding the machine stitched branches. I’m happy with the trees, now on to foreground snow.

Most of the comments on my last post thought it would be a good idea to add some snow in the foreground. I found a piece of white prefelt which I tore apart and auditioned in the left photo. The middle photo is with wool locks and the right photo is with wool slubs and nepps. I’m not happy with any of them. The one I like the best is on the left but I don’t have a good way to adhere the wool. I could needle felt it in but I really don’t like to needle felt into the silk of the nuno felt. I am thinking the foreground snow is not happening.

Small red twig dogwood bush handstitched on nuno felt for a sample. Sampling different weights and colors of thread for the branches of the bush.

Another suggestion was to add red twig dogwood bushes. That seemed like a good idea to add in a contrasting color. I made a sample here on another piece of the nuno felt background. I used wool thread in dark orange, red and darker red. I first tried two threads, mixing the colors. The branches felt too fat. So I switched to one thread and decided to use the red and dark red threads. I hand stitched the bush using stem stitch.

Next came stitching it on the piece. I do like the addition of the red. Now I am letting it rest for a bit to decide if I want to add the red in one other area of the landscape. I think it might look more balanced if I had a few bushes further in the background. What do you think?

 

A Turnstone Picture: Step by Step

A Turnstone Picture: Step by Step

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I’ve recently finished a felted picture – mostly wet felted but with needle felted elements.  ‘How long did it take to make that?’ I’m often asked when people see my work.  I find it difficult to answer precisely. ‘Quite a long time’ isn’t very helpful so I usually say something like ‘About four days’.  I don’t really know if that’s true. It’s my best guess. As the felt-makers among you will know, most people have no idea how much work can go into making felt, so as I was making my latest picture I thought I’d try to document the stages and see how long it all takes. That’s what I’m going to show you here, plus take you on a little visit to the town where I work.

I’ve already decided to make a picture of a turnstone feeding at the water’s edge so I set about making prefelt sheets for the pebbles.  I live on the North Kent coast and love watching the local water birds: how they look, move and interact with their environment. It’s mostly pebble beach on the stretch of coast nearest to my home so pebbles are a good place to start.

First a piece of natural grey merino prefelt. Then a piece of mixed browns

It takes a surprisingly long time to cut all the pebble shapes

Here’s the grey cut up and an offcut of nuno prefelt which I’m gong to add into the mix.

And finally a sort of orange / yellow piece. 

I use prefelts as they give the pebbles more definition than if I just add blobs of wool. I’d guess all of the above is about a day’s work.

Now I can start the layout. This is going to be quite a big picture so will take up pretty all the space on my standing work desk. Here’s the first layer – natural white merino.

The second layer starts off with pewter for the water. While I’m working on the water section I add some dark blue low lights.

After I complete the second layer with more natural white merino, I lay out different coloured wool on top of the pewter and dark blue. I’ve previously carded pewter wool with a variety of light blues and greens using large hand carders.  I haven’t even thought about adding that time to my calculations.  I use this for the top layer of the water, mostly covering the dark blue which I want to add depth without being too prominent.

Here you can see that I’ve also added all the cut up pebble shapes to the bottom of the picture, plus some scraps of silk cut from old scarves, leaving a white section where I will add the wave.

For the wave I’ve chosen mohair because it has a slight shine and I hope it will be wiggly when felted. Along with the mohair I add lots of silk hankies and wool locks: I’m trying to get lots of texture into this section.

There’s also a piece of sort of knitted yarn that I picked up in a charity shop a while age.  It’s meant to be knitted into a scarf (according to the label) but I lay a line of it under the wave, hoping it will look like the foam from a previous wave. I also pop some offcuts into the wave for more texture. I finish by adding a few locks to the water to look like small cresting waves and I’m at the end of day 2.

A couple of days later I start the wetting down.  Because it’s large, I decide to work in three sections, starting with the pebbles. I like to use voile netting over and under the wool – which you can see in this photo.

I spend a couple of hours prefelting the picture, working both sides.  Here’s the back. I can see the pebble outlines pushing through the white so can be confident the layers are starting to felt together.  At this point I decide to take a break and go for a wander outside.

I work in a small rented studio in the historic town of Faversham, about 8 miles from where I live, in Whitstable.  The studio is in a former industrial building (originally a late-Victorian brewery bottling plant) which is now a lovely not-for-profit gallery, café and shop called Creek Creative Studios. It also includes 32 small studios filled with a good variety of busy individuals including painters, jewellers, potters and glass workers on the ground and lower ground floors; writers, illustrators, stringed instrument specialists, web designers and other small businesses on the upper floor.

Faversham is a gorgeous medieval market town so wandering about at lunchtime (and of course checking out the charity shops) is one of my favourite pastimes.  It’s a lovely sunny day so I thought I’d share a few photos with you.

Top left is the historic market place with its stilted guildhall. Top right is the Shepherd Neame shop: there’s a long history of brewing here and Shepherd Neame is Britain’s oldest brewery. Some days it does mean the town is rather ‘aromatic’. Second right is the lovely Yarn Dispensary. Originally an apothecary, the building dates back to 1240 and has a beautiful, separately listed wooden apothecary interior. It also sells a delicious selection of yarns. Bottom left is an old pub; next is the old water pump in the marketplace and a couple of the other buildings that surround the market place. There’s still a market here 3 days a week plus regular monthly ‘best of Faversham’ and antiques markets at the weekends.

Back at the studio I spend the rest of the day rubbing and rolling the felt until it’s fairly firm.  Because it’s a picture and going behind glass it won’t endure much wear and tear but I still like to ensure it’s properly fulled.  End of day 3.

I leave the background to dry and return to it about 6 days later, as I start to think about the turnstone or turnstones.  Working from my own photos, I roughly sketch a couple of birds and cut them out so I can see how they might look.

Although I like the 2 birds they are a bit small (the waves round here aren’t that big) so I decide to go for one pecking bird but bigger than the sketched one.  First step is to make some prefelt for the feathers.

Here it is as I’m starting to wet it down (left) and as a light prefelt (right – apologies for the poor quality of the second photo)

I cut up the feather prefelt and lay out a general bird shape.  At this stage I am leaving the head large and a bit vague.  I’ve learned that it’s better to make it too big and cut it to size later rather than trying to get the exact size and shape and risk having to add more wool or felt.

Here’s the bird felted and with a lightly trimmed head.  Sorry it’s not a great photo as it’s electric light and I’m casting a shadow but I hope you can see it well enough to get the overall idea.

From layout decisions to the felted bird has taken most of day 4.

The next stage is to needle felt the bird into the background and needle in the eye and legs as well as refining the beak. For the legs I used some of the orange-ish prefelt I made for pebbles, adding strands of wool on top.

Using a broken needle I pick at the wave to raise some of the texture from the silk hankies and wool locks.  I’m not sure whether it’s visible in this photo but it does make a difference in the actual picture.

I didn’t take progress shots of the needle felting but I’d say it took a good half day.  It’s difficult to know when to stop fiddling around with it and declare it finished.

So, here is the final picture before framing.

And a shot in its frame. 

Frame size is 63 x 86 cm (approximately 25 x 34 inches)

I used an adhesive hook tape – like the hook side of Velcro – which I stick to the mount board. The hooks hold the felt in place without impacting the fabric.

So, it looks like my 4 day estimate was a bit low.  Next time someone asks how long it took me to make this picture I could say ‘About 4 ½ days, oh, plus the carding, the nuno prefelt and the framing….’ .  Maybe I’ll just settle for ‘About 5 days’.

Do you try to work out how long you spend making things or just go with the flow?

side view of a bowl with a picture of a hobbit house.
Making a Pin Cushion

Making a Pin Cushion

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For Christmas this year my granddaughter gave me a small bowl. Her mother says she saw it and was excited and adamant that I would love it. We have no idea why. She is right I do like it but maybe not for the reasons she thinks. I love it because it’s from her and because she is so sure I would. I do not think she knows what Lord of the Rings or Hobbits are.

side view
inside
bottom

I wanted to think of some way to use it that wasn’t just popping it in with the other bowls in the cupboard. I decided on a 3D scene to use as a pin cushion. And what else could I make for the scene but a hobbit house?  I started with a dryer ball to save time filling it and some green/brown mixed roving to make the top and the hill.

I had to make a hill for the hobbit to live in. I made the hill with the same green brown wool. For the front of the house where the door will go, I used much more of the brown/burnt grass colour. Then at our last meeting as part of the felting machine test, which you will start to hear about in Jan’s next post, I used Jan’s needle felting machine to attach the front of the hobbit house to the hill

This is as far as I have made it. I need to make the door and attach it, then the hill is ready to attach to the wool base in the bowl. Now I have to decide if I am happy with the green “grass” I think it may need a little bit of brighter green.

I suppose I should go do some research online to see the colours that are used. So far I was just going with the picture on the bowl. It’s a slow project but it is coming along. Slow and steady wins the race….right?

student working on felted pictuer with wool and tools scatered around the table
2D felted landscape workshop

2D felted landscape workshop

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Saturday, Feb 11th, 2023, was the date scheduled for the next 2D felted landscape workshop at the local guild. Before Xmas we had a lot of workshops have to reschedule. Either the weather was against us, or the instructor or the students had caught the flu going through town. (Technically that is better than covid but it still sounded awful.)

In the aftermath of the sudden arrival of winter the weekend before, I had been left fighting Glenn’s generosity (he gave me his cold). I had noticed I was feeling better each day from about Wednesday so by Saturday I was pretty optimistic that I had defeated most of it and would be able to teach. (I had been avoiding Glenn but it is a small house.) I had spent the week slowly gathering supplies, sorting out all the things the students would need and had Glenn do a run to Dollerama for the missing items.

Saturday morning started very early, Glenn loaded the supplies, samples and many bags of different fibre. When everything was in the car, there was still room in the front seats for both of us.  Seeing out the back is not that important, I have side mirrors! So, off we went to the studio to set up before the workshop.

 1) small grey 4 door Kea Soul with Glenn bringing in as much as he could carry each trip. The parking space is still covered in snow and the Dairy Queen on the other side of the street is not yet open. 1) small grey 4-door Kea Soul with Glenn bringing in as much as he could carry each trip. The parking space is still covered in snow and the Dairy Queen on the other side of the street is not yet open.

2)  clustered around or on the table outside the studio; 12 giant zip lock bags, 4 large bags, one file holding plastic box, and Glenn placing the last 2 mid-size clear ruff totes on round plastic topped table. There are “caution wet floor” signs in the foreground and off to one side.2)  clustered around or on the table outside the studio; 12 giant zip lock bags, 4 large bags, one file-holding plastic box, and Glenn placing the last 2 mid-size clear ruff totes on a round plastic-topped table. There are “caution wet floor” signs in the foreground and off to one side.

Glenn unloaded the car and set up the extra tables in the studio so I could set out the student’s supplies and set up the examples.

3) Class room set up with each students notes, foam pad, frame, needles set out at there place. To the right are examples of my work (including the Mr. and Mrs. Mer to show 3D Dry Felting). In the background, Glenn is reading and you can see a smaller table full of other supplies we will need as well as a 5 foot table overflowing with bags of wool. (There are a couple bags sitting on my walker).3) Classroom set up with each student’s notes, foam pad, frame, and needles set out at their place. To the right are examples of my work (including the Mr. and Mrs. Mer to show 3D Dry Felting). In the background, Glenn is reading and you can see a smaller table full of other supplies we will need as well as a 5-foot table overflowing with bags of wool. (There are a couple of bags sitting on my walker).

4) Close up of examples of 2D and 3D needle felting and 3 books (Art in Felt and Stitch, Jaana Mattson's Landscapes in Wool: The Art of Needle Felting and Painting With Wool Landscapes) I had brought for the students to look at.4) Close up of examples of 2D and 3D needle felting and 3 books (Art in Felt and Stitch, Jaana Mattson’s Landscapes in Wool: The Art of Needle Felting and Painting With Wool Landscapes) I had brought for the students to look at.

In the student’s notes, I gave them a list of books that may be of interest if they enjoyed 2D picture felting.

  • Painting With Wool Landscapes by Bethany Harris
  • Creating Felt Pictures by Andrea Hunter
  • The Art of Moy Mackay by Moy MacKay
  • Art in Felt and Stitch Felting Book by Moy MacKay
  • Jaana Mattson’s Landscapes in Wool: The Art of Needle Felting  by Jaana Mattson
  • The Art of Felt Felting Book by Loumange Francoise Tellier (inspirational)

5) Three bins and a bag of other things the students might need or could try. Fake clover tools, bags of scissors, extra needles, pins, small pet brushes that work like mini carders, and a bag of permanent markers are arrayed on the table. There are also a couple more small samples of felting and using different types of backing or ground felt.5) Three bins and a bag of other things the students might need or could try. Fake clover tools, bags of scissors, extra needles, pins, small pet brushes that work like mini carders, and a bag of permanent markers are arrayed on the table. There are also a couple more small samples of felting and using different types of backing or ground felt.

6) 13? Bags of wool on a five foot table over flowing with one on the floor and two bags on my walker.6) 13? Bags of wool on a five-foot table overflowing with one on the floor and two bags on my walker.

7) Well-padded rolling desk chair with green and black pillow sits behind a folding table with all the students’ supplies.7) Well-padded rolling desk chair with a green and black pillow sits behind a folding table with all the students’ supplies.

I found out that one of my students had hurt her back and was not sure if she could make it or how long she would be able to felt, so had one of the comfy chairs and pillow ready for her arrival.

8) A close up of one of the students workshop supplies, with various candy and chocolates for stamina (keep watching the pictures and you will see more of the candy selection).8) A close-up of one of the student’s workshop supplies, with various candies and chocolates for stamina (keep watching the pictures and you will see more of the candy selection).

Most of the students had chosen an image from a selection I had sent earlier in the week. We wound up with two students working on the tree in winter with a fence and two on an ocean image. Since I had not heard from all the students I thought I better bring all the colour options so I would be ready for whatever they wanted to try. We had two missing students, one was a booking error that had been corrected but was not on my list, and the other was actually missing. ( I found out when I got home that she had not felt well and had tested positive for covid that morning!)

I had set out the student’s supplies; Name tag (rectangle thick wool felt): (safety pin & sew-on pin, sock yarn, piece of scrap paper and Marker).  Foam Kneeling pad, 1 sheet of 100% wool felt (enough for two 5×7 pictures), 1 sheet of acrylic craft felt, I sheet of card stock (to make a window mat), a Plastic ruler, a Wooden Frame with a mat from Dollarama, XXL Project bag, bag for the needle, 21 pages notes and Felting needles.

  • 2x  T36-333 needles (Blue)
  • 2x  T38-333 needles (PINK)
  • 2x  T42-222 needles (Turquoise)
  • 1x Crown 40-111 needles (Orange)
  • 1x Reverse 40-222  needles (Green)

We started with a name tag; making your name in yarn to practice eye-hand coordination and get used to the needles.   I usually review what’s in the notes, the basics of history of landscape, mentioning the golden mean and the rule of 3’s for photography,  a review of perspective, some of the techniques that apply to pastels, acrylics and watercolours that can be used with wool.  As well as blending fibres by hand or by hand cards to get the colours you want. I also chatted briefly about ways to transfer images to the felt.

I didn’t go into as much detail as I usually do since I was starting to feel a bit more brain-stuffed up than I had been when I arrived and started to set up.  I was sure I was feeling better, but this cold seems to keep trying to sneak back and hit you again. Even so, the students did very well. Maybe not overloading them with info helped.

This time everyone wanted to use the “lightbox” (or window) method so I reminded them that the template version, which is good for thicker felt bases or dark-coloured base felt, was in their note if they needed to use it in the future.

9) Student with ocean view with lots of blues teals light teals, grey and white wool strewn around. There are is also a package of rockets candy rolls in the foreground9) Student with ocean view with lots of blues teals light teals, grey and white wool strewn around. There are is also a package of rockets candy rolls in the foreground

For each image I had two copies of the original image (in case they chose the template method), a colour blocked version and a colour saturation image to show hidden colours they may want to consider.  I can do this with Microsoft Word 2010. (Sometimes things work and upgrade then lose the effects you want.)

10) The second Ocean image again has fiber strewn around it. In the foreground, my male cardinal on a branch, using the template method for transfer. Like Watercolour painting, layers of thin colour for the back ground and a thicker more like acrylic approach to the bird.10) The second Ocean image again has fibre strewn around it. In the foreground, my male cardinal on a branch, using the template method for transfer. Like Watercolour painting, layers of thin colour for the background and a thicker more like acrylic approach to the bird.

Normally each student has chosen a different image, this time one of the ocean images was popular and the tree in winter with a fence and hill had found favour with the other 2 students.

11)student working on background behind the tree first. This time the fiber is a mix of white, grey, green-grey, light blue and brown with gray. In the foreground there is the green handle of the clover tool rake (originally designed to clean a clover brush) but works very well to hold down the wool as you felt, it keeps your fingers away from the pointy end and less bloodshed.11) Student working on their background behind the tree first. This time the fibre is a mix of white, grey, green-grey, light blue and brown with gray. In the foreground there is the green handle of the clover tool rake (originally designed to clean a clover brush) but works very well to hold down the wool as you felt, it keeps your fingers away from the pointy end and less bloodshed.

12) The second tree image is having its fence added. in the foreground are a works in progress of a night winter tree and on the cheap Dollar Tree craft felt a pair of sheep (you can just see the eye) a pair of hand carders sitting on a copy of the students 21 pages of notes. Next to that is a brass nautical caliper, a wooden frame with an XXL project bag and a box of mini boxes of smarties (candy coated chocolates).12) The second tree image is having its fence added. in the foreground are works in progress of a night winter tree and on the cheap Dollar Tree craft felt a pair of sheep (you can just see the eye) and a pair of hand carders sitting on a copy of the student’s 21 pages of notes. Next to that is a brass nautical calliper, a wooden frame with an XXL project bag and a box of mini boxes of smarties (candy-coated chocolates).

Winter trees were also popular.  I reminded the class that they could play God and move, remove or change trees, clouds or anything else that offended them. It was their landscape and they could adjust it so it would suit their liking.

I talked about how to think like a watercolour painting with washes and layers of thin wisps of fibre building up to a final image (not the fastest way to work but it can be very effective as in the fox who still needs to have whiskers added and I’m at about 30 hours). I also mentioned that after laying in the trunk and main branches, wisps of fibre worked well to create a hallow of tiny branches for the winter tree.

13) The first tree picture, Using a 5x7 opening to check the framing of the image. Behind the image and card stock mat is the foam kneeling pad that we were using as a felting surface.13) The first tree picture, Using a 5×7 opening to check the framing of the image. Behind the image and card stock mat is the foam kneeling pad that we were using as a felting surface.

Using a mat or just a card stock stand-in for a mat will give your eye and brain another view of the image you have been working on.

14) The second tree picture, held up to getting a quick check for position in the mat.14) The second tree picture, held up to get a quick check for position in the mat.

Both trees look great and are their own tree, even having used the same inspiration to start with. The same individual personality happened with the stormy sky ocean picture.

15) a vary active roiling sky with sea and beach underneath, there is a seagull added to the right side. 15) a very active roiling sky with sea and beach underneath, there is a seagull added to the right side.

16) a turbulent sky and sea with a beach in the foreground.16) a turbulent sky and sea with a beach in the foreground.

Both have great movement in their pictures, again when using the same image each saw and focused on different aspects of the image.

I have found sometimes after working on an image for a while I need to take a break. I will put it aside and come back to consider it again later. I may decide “yes I am happy” and the picture is done or I may decide it needs a bit of fibre added here or there to complete it. Sometimes using a card stalk mat will help me consider the image, looking at the picture in a mirror or turning the image and the felt picture upside down will help you see what you are looking at, rather than what your brain says it thinks it is looking at. (It makes it easier to see the negative space and compare the image with the picture you are making).

I hope they had fun and I hope that this opened up a new expression of creativity with wool.

The class finished up early but they also took a much shorter lunch than the last class. I had given each student a project bag (giant XXL zip lock bag) to store their extra wool, felt samples and needles in. They had the leftover fibre from their first picture and a couple selected a second image to try. A different water picture and a sheep in a field of snow.  it was impressive how far along they got in an hour on their second images.

17) An hour in on a second image of a sheep in a snowfield and snowy sky, sitting in a card stalk mat17) An hour in on a second image of a sheep in a snowfield and snowy sky, sitting in a card stalk mat

I seem to have missed getting a shot of the other ocean image! I was really only working at about 90% efficiency. It took me about an hour to pack up the workshop supplies and Glenn loaded them back into the car. Then put away the extra tables (I think tomorrow is a spinning workshop and they will need the space).

There is a very good restaurant across the street from the building the guild is in, I think I get a happy Sherpa by making sure I linger in the parking lot while he runs over and orders dinner. It was very good, the car smelt like hot pizza all the way home.

Nuno Felted background with four handstitched silk paper applique birch trees on the left over tulle pine trees. Auditions of foreground birch trees overlapping other trees in the distance.
Winter Birch Continued

Winter Birch Continued

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Blue and white nuno felted background with tulle pine tree shapes on the left and birch trees cut from silk paper on the right.

Here’s where I was with Winter Birch the last time I wrote about the project. I was trying to decide how to represent the pine trees in the distance. This is black tulle burned with a heat tool to represent the trees.

Tulle pine trees created by burning with a heat tool in greens and navy blue.

I made more tulle trees in the same manner with dark green and navy blue tulle. In theory, it seemed like a good idea to overlay these over the black tulle trees. But then when I did that, the trees were just a mish mash and you couldn’t really see them. So I decided to just use the black ones.


Nuno Felted background with silk paper applique birch trees over tulle pine trees. Audition of how pine trees will look in the distance.

Here are the black trees with the birch in place before I stitched them down.

Nuno Felted background with tulle pine trees hand stitched in place with feather stitch. Close up.

I hand stitched them down with a dark variegated thread and used feather stitch. It added a little bit of green but nothing you could see from a distance.

Nuno Felted background with handstitched silk paper applique birch tree over tulle pine trees.

Then I moved on to the birch trees on the left that are in the background. I hand appliqued the silk paper birch trunk in place and then free motion machine stitched the branches. I want the branches to overlap and not appear all on one “level” so that is why I am stitching each trunk and branches separately.

Here is the progression of the stitching on the background birch trees. This always takes longer than I think it should. But I did like alternating between hand and machine stitching.

Nuno Felted background with four handstitched silk paper applique birch trees on the left over tulle pine trees. Auditions of foreground birch trees overlapping other trees in the distance.

Here I am auditioning the foreground trees over what I have stitched so far. I think I will probably stitch down the background birches on the right side first but I do like to see how the overlapping trees affects the piece. I am also trying to decide if I should attempt adding more snow to the picture. What do you think?

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