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Various green sheer fabric from my stash.
Birch Landscapes Completed

Birch Landscapes Completed

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When I last posted, I was working on two birch landscapes. I had finished stitching the branches on one and was working out what I wanted to do about leaves.

Blue and green felted background with silk paper birch trees and free motion machine stitched branches.

I stitched the branches on the second landscape with free motion machine stitching.

Two landscapes side by side before leaves are added.

These work very well as a pair. I didn’t do anything to emphasize the “lake” or “water” effect of the background. I thought each person could interpret the landscape as they see it.

 

Now for the leaves. The photo on the left shows the sheer green fabric I had in my stash. It’s a combination of polyester organza and silk organza that has been hand dyed. I ended up using the more yellow green silk organza choices.

Felted blue and green background with silk paper birch trees and cut leaves place on branches.

I cut a bunch of leaf shapes. I don’t use a pattern but just cut them out randomly. I have found that they need to be different shapes to look natural so I just start cutting shapes that are vaguely leaf like. In the photos above, I have laid the leaves on top, again very randomly, to see if I have enough coverage. I ended up adding a few more after I started stitching to fill in where needed.

Felted blue and green landscape backgrounds with silk paper birch trees and cut leaves stitched in place.

Here are the landscapes after stitching down the leaves. Now, I am going to work on stitching them to a background fabric and lacing on to boards, so they are ready for framing. What should I name the pieces? Any ideas?

Demoing Felting Question: “How does that work?”

Demoing Felting Question: “How does that work?”

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Demoing Felting Question: “How does that work?”

Summer is the season of planned and spontaneous demos.  Whether it’s planned, demonstrating felting at fairs, craft shows, fibre or yarn stores, or less planned, felting sitting in front of your home, or waiting at a doctor’s office,  it’s an opportunity to introduce others to the fun of felting. I wanted to chat about this today, since I have recently overhead others say they haven’t signed up to do guild demos because they don’t know what they will get asked at the demo. Also, they have never demoed before and feel that they need to be really good to demo.

Demos are an opportunity for us to show others what cool things we are doing. We don’t have to be masters at what we are showing, but we have to be enthusiastic (without scaring the public) and look like we are having fun. Seeing someone who is enjoying what they are demoing is likely to inspire someone to try whatever they are doing. It is also good to see someone who is just starting to let others know they can do this, too.

jan working on felted pictue of 2 sheep in front of large burlap bails of wool at wool growers co-op 2019 1) 2019 Wool Growers Co-Op Demo

If you have never demoed before, try a group demo where you are not alone and have others who can answer questions and take the lead.  You can also just bring your felting with you when you will be waiting somewhere for a while, like the doctor’s office or emergency department, most people will just smile and watch. (They are usually happy to have something to distract them from why they are there. It’s a good way to get used to being watched while you’re working.)  Spinning is particularly popular with people in the emergency waiting room.

I have found that at most big demos, I have to start talking to people before they will approach. When I first started to demo, it was weaving I was showing. If someone seemed curious, but not brave enough to ask what I was doing, I would ask what type of loom they had at home (even when I was reasonably sure they had never seen a loom before). They usually laughed and started talking to me, often about their grandmother’s spinning wheel! (We will not discuss today anyone loudly saying “look she is making wool!!” while I am spinning, or “Look she is spinning!!” when I am weaving. It’s a bit trickier, so getting Sleeping Beauty’s spindle wheel confused with Rumpelstiltskin’s flax wheel is slightly understandable.) Nevertheless, it was an opening, and I could tell them about the magic of watching cloth appear as you change the order of harnesses, which changes the pattern.

 

Now let’s consider what seems to be the most scary for new demo-ers, what am I going to get asked?

First, you are not required to know everything to demo! If you get a question you don’t know the answer to, admit that, and suggest they contact the local or online group. You don’t have to be an expert! Enthusiasm and looking like you are having fun will inspire others to try. That said, whether I am demoing needle felting in 2D or 3D, I most commonly get a few questions repeated as I am working.  Let’s take a look at some of the most common questions.

The first is “How does that work?”

If you don’t know how the needle’s barbs grab the fibre and push it into the felt or ground fabric, it does look like magic.  I try to show them the barbs along the working part of the needle. If you have a course needle, it’s easier for people to see or feel the barbs (32g or courser).  If they are having trouble seeing, I let them hold the needle, warning them the end is very sharp, and have them run their fingernail over the area where the barbs are located.

*I did have one person tell me they had tried using a needle to felt and it hadn’t worked at all. After I showed her the barbs on my needle, she admitted she had tried a sewing needle. I can see why she was having trouble getting the wool to felt.

 

Doer felting needle 32G diagram2.1) Doer felting needle 32G

Doer needle chart to help ordering triangle needles2.2) Doer needle chart for triangle needles

2019 small muskox landscape, Demoing at a social, under drawing and adding wool, finished image2.3) 2019 small muskox landscape, Demoing at a social, under drawing and adding wool, finished image

 

Common 3-D Question:

When I am working on a 3D piece, I get asked variations on “how do you move the wool where you want it to go?”.

First, the wool moves in the direction that the needle is travelling. Poke in the direction you want the wool to move. While also being aware of the position of your barbs, and thus your working depth, so you are getting the barbs to entangle or move the fibre to the location you want it to be.  It’s easy to say, and sounds simple, but I have seen beginner felters poking vertically (up and down), while trying to move the wool horizontally. It would be more effective if they poked the needle horizontally (moving left and right) or rotated their shape to align with the direction the needle is moving.

You can get quite devious with this concept.  While working on a sheep broach, I had the face quite sheepish, but the nose was not as firm as I wanted.  Who wants a soft-nosed sheep, that is just flaccid, or a limp-nosed un-sheepish aardvarkish-sheep?  If I poke from the outside, into the nose, I will distort the nose, and I will have to add more wool and reshape it.  There is a second way to firm up under a surface structure that you are already pleased with, if you have not finished sculpting the back side. You need to know where the first barbs are on your needle and how far to push the wool so the needle does not emerge past the finished surface.  In this case, I worked from the back of the head, pushing fibre through the sheep’s head broach towards the nose, from the back, to firm up the nose without changing the outer surface. It’s sneaky, but it works.

diagram working from the back of the head to firm up the nose without changing the external shape3.1) Moving the wool to firm up the face if needed.

2020 demoing for delivery guy while i was sitting by my side door. image shows the front edge of a manta wing adding black figer and sculping intersection betweeen colours i am useing a pen tool wiht 2 needles (can hold up to 3 needles) 3.2) 2020 demoing for the delivery guy sitting by my side door

I also usually explained that needle felting sculpture is both additive (like clay) and Subtractive (like Stone). Usually, you use some of both concepts when you sculpt with wool.

Additive:

  • You can make a shape and then add it to your creation. Sara from Sarafina Fiber Arts (lots of YouTube videos, including the Mermaid feltalong) works a lot this way. It has the advantage of being easy to explain what you are doing and is repeatable by other felters.
  • You can build up a body by layers of muscle, which is a great way to study musculature, but not a fast way to sculpt. Most sane people just add the general superficial musculature in a simplified form. You can also just go for cute and make more of a caricature of what you are making.

diagram showing felting across a cercle then folding the cercle along the felted line then felting along the fold to give a shape with a loose edge that can be attached to the maine shape. 4.11) A circle of fibre, needle felt across the diameter, then fold in half. Felt along fold line and as far down as needed, leaving an unfelted fringe giving an edge to attach to the main shape.   Sara creates most of her sculptures this way.

adding fins that have been pre-shaped and the attachment edge left loose to allow it to be (sharkboy under structure and 2 fins)4.12) adding fins that have been pre-shaped and the attachment edge left loose to allow it to be secured to Shark Boy

Subtractive:

  • If you poke in the same spot repeatedly, the fibre under that spot will entangle and compact. Visually, you will see the area that is being poked indent. Which looks like you have removed the wool above the dented area, while in fact it’s just compacted the fibres and moved them in the direction the needle was pointing.

diagram shows stabbing repeatedly in the same spot will both indent and compact that spot relative to the surrounding area.4.2) Stabbing repeatedly in the same spot will both indent and compact that spot relative to the surrounding area.

Hybrid – working with loose fibre (using both additive and subtractive methods to sculpt):

  • I often use loose fibre, use a few pokes to attach it to the area I want to sculpt and then, by careful poking, shape it into what I want to see. I tend to do this more when I am building up the under structure. But sometimes for adding detail, too. This is not as fast as remaking a shape and adding it, but it’s a lot of fun.

Miss Manta demonstrating adding loose wool and sculpting it into place. tail detial corner of mouth and scoops being sculped with loose fiber4.31- 4.32) Miss Manta demonstrating adding loose wool and sculpting it into place.

 

Common 2-D felting question:

When I am working on a picture, people will stop and watch me add small wisps of fibre, layering them to get to the depth of colour I want.  “Oh, I would never have the patience to do that!” OK, that technically isn’t a question, but that gives me the opportunity to talk about the various ways you can approach making a picture with needle felting that they could use.

Like a pastel: (usually a good approach with landscapes)

  • Working from the background towards the foreground.
  • It is easier to overlap images and create depth.
  • This usually makes the most sense for most images as an order of working.

Treating wool/fibre like a watercolour: (slow but impressive results)

  • Slowly layering tiny bits of fibre like washes in water colour painting. The transparency of the application allows the upper layer to be affected by the under layers. If you have lots of patience or just like to putter on a project, this may be your choice.

Like an acrylic (paint by number or colouring books): (much quicker than working like a water colour)

  • If you use a small window to isolate part of your reference image, you can match the colour you see in the little window, mix that colour, and then add it. Move to another spot and match and add that colour. You can think of this more like a paint-by-numbers kind of approach.
  • You can mix larger amounts of colours that occur in various parts of the image, which gives the image cohesion and it’s faster than mixing the same tone multiple times.
  • This is quicker than working like washes of watercolours.

Using a bit of each approach:

  • If you use the work order (like a pastel) from the background /mid-ground /foreground
  • Use colour matching to lay out the main parts of the picture, then
  • Use wisps of colour for blends and highlights in the blocks of colour.

displaying fox picture and working on sheep image. 3-D dragon with hand died silk wings in background more of table display, to right huge fish cat cave eating Struffed cat, table drape has name of guild and just out of from is web site and QR code for contact info5.1-5.2) 2018 Makers fair demo

 

I also get asked about “What fibres are you working with?”

This gives me the opportunity to talk about different properties of fibres. We can use lots of different kinds of fibre, sheep, alpaca, lama, Dog, Cat, Yak, silk, even plant and manmade fibre.  I can show on the fox picture that some of the cream coloured fibre is cat hair. That there is silk in some of the highlights, and the whiskers are horse hair, but I am looking for the outer guard hairs of a muskox, which I think will work better. Most of the rest is various breeds of wool.

  • Different types of sheep have different wool properties. (light reflection/ texture/crimp) fibre preparation; carded or combed, can also be used to affect your picture)
    • Merino absorbs light, so it works wonderfully for shadows
    • Bluefaced Leicester has a higher light reflection, so it works well for highlights
    • Shetland and Coriedale are what I tend to use for most of the image
  • We can also use fibres from other fur-bearing animals; dogs, cats, llama, alpaca, muskox, yak, bison, angora goat or rabbit, etc.

“Where do you get your fibres”? It is usually the next question.

  • Local yarn or fibre shops, online, and local farms.
  • Try to give a few options that are near to where you are demoing, if possible

2017 Ann demoing Blending board at the carp fair. explaining what happens with leftover bits of fiber she dosnt use up in projects. the blending board was poplular with adults and kids watching 6.1) 2017 Ann demoing the Blending board at the carp fair

If the demo is at a fair or large event, remember you may only get a few minutes of their time,  so give the brief version of an answer (I have trouble with this. I can be verbose, I know you are shocked to hear that!). If they don’t look like they need to leave, you can either go into more depth or ask them if they have more questions. If they look interested, but rushed (kids are trying to drag them away to the rides), try to have contact info for the local group that they can track down later. A business card is great to hand out, or a sign with the contact info that they can take a photo of and consult later is helpful too.

2019 Farm show demo, part of table display shows table drape with contact info and name of guild. also a strong selection of felting6.2) 2019 Farm show demo, part of the table display

2025 Dickonson day demo, Amanda getting help with her spinning this kid was facinated by the wheel. adults can also be captivated but are usualy more reserved about trying it out.6.3) 2025 Dickonson day demo, Amanda getting help with her spinning

 

Synopsis:

Smile, engage people by asking them questions, show them what you are doing, and have a contact for more information (it can be an online option if you don’t have a local guild/group). If you don’t know the answer, say so and suggest they contact the local group for more information.

The three important concepts for needle felting are

  • Rule 1) the sharp end of the needle goes in the wool, not your finger (following this rule saves on bandaids)
  • Rule 2) the needle goes into and out of the wool in the same vector (no changing direction as you poke), and
  • Rule 2.5) The direction you poke is the direction the wool will move.

I hope this gives those who have not tried demoing yet some encouragement. It’s lots of fun and you get to meet future fibre people! Have a wonderful long weekend, Monday!  The next long weekend will be Labour Day Monday,  September 1st, 2025! Have fun and keep felting!

Blue and green felt background with silk paper birch trees stitched to felt and machine stitched branches with dark grey thread.
New Landscapes

New Landscapes

Comments 21 comments

I started a couple of small landscapes this past week using pieces of nuno felt for the backgrounds but using the wool side instead of the silk side. I thought the “backs” were more reminiscent of forest than the silk side.

I already had some of the “birch” silk paper that I made several years ago so I used it for making trunks. Here’s my inital layouts for the two pieces. They are both about 5″ x 11″.

I then stitched the trunks down with 30 weight cotton machine thread in a very light grey. You might have noticed that I added a few more tree trunks to the right photo as it seemed a bit bare.

Blue and green felt background with silk paper birch trees stitched to felt and machine stitched branches with dark grey thread.

Then off to the machine to stitch the branches with free motion machine stitching. I only got one of the pieces machine stitched as I got tired with machine stitching. I am out of practice, I guess. Now what to do for the leaves? I could hand stitch, or use some type of applique.

It could be like ‘Thick with Green’ where I used cheesecloth for leaves.

Or perhaps more like ‘The First Leaf’ with green leaves instead of yellow. Or I could hand stitch the leaves? What do you think?

Thanks Carlene for providing me inspiration to create more birch trees!

Felted Cat Cave, a quick how to -revisited.

Felted Cat Cave, a quick how to -revisited.

Comments 8 comments

I am supposed to have the summer off. So far, I don’t seem to have stopped running. So I have nothing new to tell you about. So I am going to share this with you again. I hope you enjoy it again if you have already seen it.  I am at a Demo today. I plan to take lots of pictures and blog about it on July 23. It sounds so far away, but I am sure it will be here the day after tomorrow.

I have been wanting to make a cat cave for some time now. I decided it needed to be bright. I picked some Blue Faced Leicester wool so it would be strong and dyed it chartreuse. Then I picked some purple and magenta for the spikes.

Spikes and Wool

I wanted an oval cat cave. I used my oval hat form to get the shape and gradually sized it up.

Drawing the Resist

I laid out 4 layers of wool for strength and even shrinkage. I put the first side aside, and after laying out the second side, I poked holes to put the spikes through.

Spikes in the Wool

After wetting it all down, I wrapped each spike in plastic wrap so it would not get felted down flat.

Spikes all Wrapped Up

I covered it with a sheer curtain and rubbed both sides for a while and rolled it for a while, and then wrapped it up, put it in the dryer twice, changing the position of the felt each time.  It was starting to shrink, so I cut out the resist and switched to rolling it in a stick blind. I find the stick blinds to be very aggressive and shrinks the felt quickly.  I did do some throwing, too. Finally, I rinsed the cave out in a bucket of alternately hot and cold water, being quite aggressive with it. I then had to stretch the top so it would be domed. I steamed it to heat it and make it easier to stretch. Mostly, I used a wooden spoon to push in a sliding motion to get the shape. Here it is on top of the resist, so you can see how much it shrank.

Finished Cave on top of the Resist

Here it is in use; it didn’t take long for one of my cats, Wu, to take up residence.

 

Cat in Cave

As a footnote, Wu (the queen of all things) is no longer with us. This is one of my favourite pictures of her. She really liked the cave; we buried her in it, here on the farm.

Photo of a 3D dragonfly created from machine stitched fabric. It’s painted in metallic colours of mainly green, pink and blue.
Felted Shells and Fabric Insects

Felted Shells and Fabric Insects

Comments 31 comments

In my last post I showed you my wet felted conch shell made from Merino and Corriedale fibres with ribs made from Sari silk yarn. I liked the shape of this and wanted to make another, this time in off white with pale coloured ribs. I found a site on Etsy selling a beautiful subtle coloured variegated sari yarn but unfortunately when it arrived it was so loosely spun I realised it wouldn’t be suitable for this particular project.

Pale neutral coloured Sari yarn layer out in rows


As I was in the mood for felting I didn’t want to have to reorder so decided to search for a pastel “slubby” knitting yarn which I knew was hidden somewhere in the depths of my yarn stash.

A ball of pale grey knitting yarn with slubs in shades of grey and peach.

It turned out to be far easier to work with than sari silk as it was less inclined to move while felting and it had just the right amount of colour and texture for the look I was after. I was intending to leave this shell plain white but now it’s made I think it will benefit from a bit of shading so that’ll get added at some point.

I increased the size of this one to approx 31cm long x 15cm wide x 6cm high. My spinning group has a coastal theme for our 2026 exhibition so there will be lots more shells being made in various fibres, fabrics, techniques, shapes and sizes.

Two wet felted conch shells. A small one in shades of red and blue. A larger one in white with pale grey and peach coloured ribs
A white wet felted conch shell with ribs in pale grey and peach.


Wet felted spiral shells crop up a lot online and I’d been wracking my brain for ages trying to work out how these are made. I had a light bulb moment back in December when I made this small spiral shell from 10gm of carded Corriedale. Since then I’ve worked out another way of achieving a similar shape and so made this larger version using 20gm of carded Corriedale fibre and measuring approx 13cm x 9cm.

Photo shows two wet felted spiral shells, the larger one is beige, the smaller one is grey.

At one point the shell was sitting next to this bowl and I wondered how the centre piece from the bowl would look inserted in the shell…..

Photo of a wet felted bowl made with blue and turquoise Bergschaf fibres. Felted cords radiate out from the centre of the bowl creating height and interest.

…..I quite liked it so I’m now wondering whether to leave it in there as an abstract hermit crab or make the effort to felt a more realistic looking crab, what do you think?

Beige coloured wet felted spiral shell. Lilac and pale green felt cords protrude from its opening suggesting an abstract life form.
Photo of a beige coloured Wet felted spiral shell with abstract hermit crab poking out of it.

Another theme I’m working on right now is insects, particularly dragonflies and butterflies. It all stemmed from a tutorial by textile artist Anastasiya Goleneva to make this beautiful dragonfly brooch. It’s made from hand and machine stitched and painted calico. At 16cm long x 21cm wide it worked out a bit too big for me to wear as a brooch so instead I’ve put a Command strip on the back and mounted it to the wall.

Having enjoyed making it I decided to do another but using interfacing and my own technique for the body and legs that would allow it to stand and give it a more delicate, longer, slimmer look. One thing I’m not happy with is the “flat” face which suited the brooch but doesn’t look right on the standing dragonfly so version three is underway!

Photo of a 3D dragonfly made from machine stitched fabric and hand painted. It’s standing on an outside table with greenery in the background.
Photo of a 3D dragonfly created from machine stitched fabric. It’s painted in metallic colours of mainly green, pink and blue.

The dragonflies led to my friend Diane asking me to show her how to make a simple butterfly brooch so I made a couple of samples with body and wings made from painted cotton velvet. This fabric takes on a beautiful leather like look and feel when painted with fabric paints or acrylics and remains very soft and flexible. I was thinking of hand embroidering the wings but decided to keep it basic as Diane could add more detail if she wanted to.

…

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Wool mini landscape on red prefelt after wet felting.
Miniature Wool Landscapes

Miniature Wool Landscapes

Comments 15 comments

A few posts ago, I showed you some painted miniature landscapes. Why not try the same idea in felt? So off to my stash to figure out what I had to create these.

Supplies for wool paintings laid out on work bench including various colors of wool roving, locks and colored prefelts.

I found a variety of green wool as well as white, grey and blue for the skies. I also had some locks in black and dark grey and thought they might work well for tree trunks. I had a few sheets of various colors of commercial prefelt to use as a base.

5" x 7" colored prefelts for wool paintings laid out on work bench.

I cut the prefelt into 5″ x 7″ pieces. I thought any smaller might really get difficult getting the wool to cooperate.

Beginning layout of wool on pink prefelt for mini landscape.

I decided to try one first before I made all of the landscapes. I used the pink prefelt and laid out a variety of greens for the foreground and white with a tiny bit of blue and grey for the sky.

Final layout of wool on pink prefelt for mini landscape.

I then laid out the trees with a very small bit of locks for the trunk and a bit of green for the leaves. Now on to wet felting it.

Mini wool painting of landscape after wet felting.

I wasn’t particularly happy with the locks after felting. They went right through the merino and I wasn’t careful enough, as they moved about. Now I had really hairy dark spots that looked nothing like tree trunks. But I was happy with the rest of the landscape. These shrank down to about 4″ x 6″. I probably could have shrunk them down further but since it’s a “painting” and not functional, I decided 4″ x 6″ was a good size. They will fit into 5″ x 7″ frames easily.

Mini wool painting after shaving off excess "hairy" fibers.

Since I wasn’t happy with the hairiness, I decided to shave the piece. I think it looks a bit better now. So on to the other six landscapes.

Final layout of wool on various prefelts for other six mini landscapes.

I laid out the other prefelts and added wool to create more landscapes. Then wet felting them all at the same time. The entire process took me about four hours.

Here they are completed. I like seeing them at thumbnail size as it doesn’t bring out any small details. But I will show you them in a bigger format for those of you who would like to see the details.

Wool mini landscape on red prefelt after wet felting.

Wool mini landscape on yellow prefelt after wet felting.

Wool mini landscape on red prefelt after wet felting.

Wool mini landscape on green prefelt after wet felting.

Wool mini landscape on yellow prefelt after wet felting.

Wool mini landscape on white prefelt after wet felting.

The plan is to get some frames for these and take them to the gallery. My bigger pieces haven’t been selling very well lately so I thought a smaller size option might be an easier purchase for people.

skeleton of a hare standing on hind legs
Hare Today !!!

Hare Today !!!

Comments 14 comments

I had been wanting to go back to needle felting sculptures for some time, so when I came across a tiny picture of a hare in our local free newspaper New Blackmore Vale Magazine,  I knew I’d found what I wanted to do.  Rather than the usual boxing hares, which I may well have a go at sometime in the future, I felt called to this solitary speeding hare.  He only had one fore foot on the ground and was obviously in a great hurry.

Brown Hare running on snowy ground
Original Inspiration

On getting my necessary supplies together, it was clear that I would obviously need a good strong armature for him and a solid base to hold it steady.  Trawling through my drawer of wires, I found what looked like an unused coil of old, cotton covered, bonnet wire (probably pre-WW2).  I’ve no idea what gauge it was but it was obviously strong enough to hold up an old fashioned bonnet brim, so I was sure it would keep the hare upright.  Having  resorted to Google for images of hare skeletons (naturally I wasn’t able to find one in the actual pose I needed, but I did find a couple of useful references) I looked out some other wires which would probably do for the pelvis and rib cage.  I fiddled with the images and printed off one enlarged to the size I wanted to make the hare and then made a tracing/drawing to use as a working pattern.

My idea was to have a base made from two pieces of wood, with  extended leg wire from the only leg actually touching the ground passing though a hole drilled in one piece of wood, and then bent at an angle of 90º. The wire would then be pressed into a slot cut into the underside to stop the hare swinging around when mounted.

image of wire protruding from bottom of piece of wood
Showing the extension of the armature from the grounded foot protruding from the bottom of the base

The second piece of wood would be fixed under the first piece to keep the wire in place and also to add extra weight to avoid the whole thing being top (or hare) heavy.

I would use the bonnet wire for the spine and head, and pipe cleaners for the pelvis and ear armatures, then go back to bonnet wire for the limbs.

While I was working up the armature I first had the leg wire stuck in a heavy reel of wire.

Subsequently, when I was needle felting, the leg wire was passed through a newly made slot in my felt needle felting cushion.

Using more of my scoured merino, which I had bought quite some years ago now from Wingham Woolwork, I started to fill in the inner body.  The wool is scoured but not otherwise prepared, so it required quite some carding to get it into a state where I could use it to wrap the armatures and to fill in the muscles to give some substance to the animal.  Here are some views of that work in progress.

I had of course gone to Google Images for reference pictures of hares from an all round perspective, both for body shape and for colour, from which I blended various colours for my palette.  Here are a few of those.

Then I started adding the “top coat”.  Working on a sculpture rather than on a “painting” was a bit complicated (and painful at times) until I found myself a small piece of polystyrene packing foam to use when I couldn’t rest the part of the hare I was needling onto my felt cushion.

Another complication was transporting the hare from home to the various venues where I was working on him.  In the end I used an empty plastic box and turned him upside down into it.  It was a bit of a squeeze but he just about got in safely.

Bit by bit, over several months, he began to emerge from the fibres.

I had originally thought to use a pair of glass eyes which I had in stock as they were the right colour and had the black surround which can be seen on a real hare.  Unfortunately they were too big so I fell back on giving the hare orange woollen eyeballs and working them up from there.

When he was substantially finished, I added some “grass” and “rough undergrowth” to the “soil” on top of the wooden base.  This consisted of all sorts of odd bits of fluff, fibre, yarn and fabric selvedges, plus some suitable acrylic paint.

4 different images of waste fibres and yarns in greens, creams and browns
Some of the bits and pieces of scrub and grass

The footwire was poked into the hole in the ground and bent under so that he was running across the scrub land. Then, using his carry box as a stand, I added and secured the second piece of wood.

showing clear plastic box topped with 2 blocks of wood on top with needle felted hare attached upside down inside the box. The two pieces of wood are stuck together with masking tape and partly screwed together
showing his carry box and adding the 2nd part of the base

Although the 2 pieces of wood were from the same larger piece they did not look good when screwed together so I painted them green, obscuring the fact that they were not one large piece.  I thought I was done then, but unfortunately one of the pieces of wood started to warp and spoiled the illusion.  Eventually, after some thought, I removed the bottom piece of wood and glued some non-slip matting over the base (having first taped the footwire into its slot in the bottom of the base) and painted the underside the same green as the sides.

Whilst working and looking at the reference pictures of the whole animal, I realised that he probably had had lots of whiskers.  So I looked for more reference pictures of hare(y) faces and saw that indeed he did.  So how to add these essential appendages?

4 images of close up pictures of whiskery hares' faces
harey faces

I have for some years now been collecting cats’ whiskers.  (They make great fishing rods for fishermen living in the countryside of 00 gauge model railway layouts!)

Black paper with many white cats' whiskers
It’s the cat’s whiskers

I would use some of these for the hare.  Initially I was adding a dot of glue to the end of the whisker, poking a hole in the hare’s muzzle and pushing in the whisker.  The problem was that the whiskers were life-size for a cat, but too big for my hare.  The whiskers were actually strong enough to be poked into the hare’s muzzle without first making a hole, (provided there wasn’t a bit of armature in the way), so in the end I just poked them in and through and out the other side, chopping off the protruding bit and leaving the right length behind.  In fact, unless someone tries to pull them out, the whiskers will stay where they are.

needle felted hare's head with whiskers poked through muzzle and protruding ends being cut off with scissors
cutting the poked through whisker ends

I am hoping to find some form of clear box to cover the hare and stand, if only so I don’t have to keep dusting him.

Here he is.

completed and mounted needle felted hare placed on juniper branches to resemble running free
Out enjoying his run, whiskers and all

Since making him, I have inherited a book all about gnomes.

front cover of book "Gnomes" showing front and back images of gnome with pointed red hat, leather belted blue coat, brown trousers and "deer skin" boots. Gnome has brown face and white hair, eyebrows, moustache and beard
Cover of Gnome book

One of the fascinating things I have learned about them is that they can run as fast as a hare and are small enough to take a ride.  So you never know my hare may gain some friends some day.

Final thought – what should I name him, any ideas?  (Don’t say Harry, I don’t think the Prince would be amused.)  I understand that Hares were introduced to the UK, probably by the Romans, so perhaps he might be named after a Caeser!

 

Completed nuno felted landscape with applique and hand stitch on dark gray background.
Grove of Trees – Part Five

Grove of Trees – Part Five

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My grove nunofelt landscape is finally complete. I added a bit of ‘grass’ in the foreground to balance all the lines at the top from the stitched branches.

Completed nuno felted landscape with applique and hand stitch.

I didn’t think that it needed a lot, but just some suggestion of the higher grasses. I also stitched down the loose edges around the entire piece. Now to move forward on getting it ready to frame.

Completed nuno felted landscape with applique and hand stitch on tan background.

I didn’t have a lot of fabric to audition to see how the background matte would look. This is on a piece of tan fabric. To my eye, it is too close in value to the piece itself and doesn’t match with the colors.

Completed nuno felted landscape with applique and hand stitch on medium gray background.

Then trying on medium gray. This is slightly darker in value but still feels very similar to the values in the piece. It doesn’t do it for me.

Completed nuno felted landscape with applique and hand stitch on dark gray background.

Next up is a dark grey background. The darker value is definitely better and brings out the light in the piece. I could use this color, it’s okay.

Completed nuno felted landscape with applique and hand stitch on dark red background.

Then I found a piece of dark red maroon/burgundy colored silk fabric. I won’t use the silk for the background but it was in the color scheme so I thought I would try it. The value is good again, making the light from the back of the piece feel more prominent. The color seems to work pretty well.

What do you think? Would you use a different background fabric color? Or do you like one of the ones I tried?

I’m thinking of naming this one “Golden Grove”. Any other name ideas?

Self-Felting; a Fictitious Fun Felting Class for The Fur-bearing Who Lack Thumbs

Self-Felting; a Fictitious Fun Felting Class for The Fur-bearing Who Lack Thumbs

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Here’s a quick update: I am improving, but it’s two steps forward and a step and a half back.  Unfortunately, the two blog posts I have been working on are just not ready to go yet. So I wanted to tell you about something a bit different, I have been working on. It is felting adjacent and made Glenn laugh a lot.

The local guild is working on recruiting new teachers for our workshops. One of the barriers suggested to the acquisition of new teachers is “the paperwork requirements are intimidating”.  I am easily intimidated by forms, but I didn’t find this process at all scary.

The request was:

  • Craft CV (basically, what’s your background in your craft and how long have you been doing it?)
  • A lesson plan for your first workshop. Giving a suggestion of what you will be teaching, outcome goals for the students and a very basic idea of how you will do this.

Later all the teachers will fill out a spreadsheet that is used to create the schedule, and the web pages.  I made a yearlong catalogue of workshops to be displayed at demos and the guild sale. I used the information the teachers provided, and the schedule the team put together to produce it. After I had all the cut and paste and layout done, there were always lots of spelling mistakes that would be attributed to me….. I cut and pasted! Not my spelling problems!!  Since the pandemic, we are no longer doing a full catalogue, but I am no longer in trouble for other people’s spelling problems.  I do miss the fun of layout.

Now, on to the point of this very odd post.

I wanted to help by giving a non-intimidating sample form, for “New teacher”, of a new yet fictitious felting class. After writing this, I had this odd idea that actual felters might enjoy reading about this very unlikely felting workshop I created as a sample to make the forms less scary for potential new teachers. I have simplified the wording of the original questions again to reduce fear.

__________________

This is a craft CV ( which is just a fancy way of saying “what you have been doing in your craft”). It’s a way to find out about the potential new teacher’s background in what they want to teach. (it doesn’t have to be a stuffy list of all relevant education and exhibitions!) So let’s see what Miaka has to say about herself and her felting background. She has added some extra remarks beyond the questions that she hopes the teacher acquisition committee will take into consideration.

Fiber CV for Miaka Scott-Martin,

Education: Home schooled and self-taught felter.   I have been the Center of the universe for many years, directing my staff in its running. Unfortunately, my staff are not too bright and refuse to do my carefully explained bidding.  I use my love of felting to relieve this stress and utter disappointment.

o             When did you start the craft you are going to teach? In my teens.

o             Have you taken workshops on this topic, or are you self-taught? I developed this technique myself.

Craft experience: I watched my mother weave, felt and spin and assisted in some of these activities. Then, in my teens, I started to experiment with techniques of self-felting. After years of experimentation, I have come up with a style of felting suitable to those of us inflicted by a lack of thumbs.

My technique is suitable for most fur-bearing people who shed. It is easier if you are also able to purr. I practiced my felting for close to 20 years.

Teaching experience: my full-time job has me instructing and supervising the staff, but I must be patient with their inadequacies. I have extensive experience successfully instructing the big barking bad smelling new sibling on how to be the perfect cat.

o             Do you have teaching experience (with adults)? Great success with other fur-bearing people, the furless ones have proved a bit dim.

o             If you do not have previous teaching experience, you can partner with a guild teacher in your field to help give you experience.

Shows and exhibitions: This is not essential. Guild members can participate in guild shows and exhibitions if you would like the experience.

o             Have you participated in any art shows or exhibitions in your field? Alas, with my busy schedule of keeping the universe running, I was unable to enter any shows or exhibits even though I was a family member of the guild my entire life.  I was also unable to make anyone understand my superior typing style of body slamming the keyboard, so all the needed letters were there; you just needed to sort them out on your own.

Portfolio: Show examples of their work in the field of their workshop. (shows that the prospective teacher has not just taken a workshop on a topic, and after one piece is wanting to teach the topic.) Some teachers have a web presence and we can be directed to see their work there.

o             Do you have a portfolio to show us or a website to direct us to? Due to the ephemeral nature of my work and the horror of passing vacuum cleaners, most of my art installations have not survived. Please talk to my mother (one of the Guild librarians) for further details on them. I was particularly proud of my master-work, “Self-felting on white Dining room chair cover”. Alas, this great work too was lost to the horrid vacuum.

o             Please provide a good quality digital photo of yourself for web publicity and teacher bios.

Possible teacher photos:

small black and white cat sitting on cow hide in a spot of sunlight1) Miaka, taking a break from work,

small black and white cat leaning out the back of a cardbord sports car. licene plate says Miaka Rules and has a helow kitty skull and crossbones beside the licence plate car made of the finest cardbord box. 2) Miaka, looking out back of her sports car,

small black and white cat lownging in a patch of sunlight staring at vewer. 3) Miaka, center of the Universe, “Don’t interrupt me I’m Busy!”

____________________________________________________________________

New instructors were asked to write a very basic lesson plan of their workshop, giving an overview, goals and objectives. This gives the committee an idea of how the topic will be covered and that the teacher has thought through and has an organized presentation. This is Miaka’s plan to teach her workshop on self felting.

Outline of lesson plan for workshop

1 day  workshop with longer homework project

Class size; maximum number of fabric-covered chairs that can sit in good direct sunlight. Any Students who are too big to lounge on a chair are required to bring a blanket or pillow that they will fit on.

Prerequisites for this workshop:

  • No experience in felting necessary
  • Must have shed-able fur

Housekeeping

  • introduction of the teacher and what the workshop is about
  • where the washrooms are
  • point out the coffee maker, microwave and fridge
  • Mention local food sources.
  • Gets students to say their names and felting experience

Overview of the course

  • what students will be expected to do and learn
  • What the final project will be.
  • Notes can be given at the beginning or end of the workshop
  • Contact information for the teacher in case the students have questions

Introduction to felting,  (fibres and how it works)

How to grow your own fiber (good diet, lots of naps, dual coat, good grooming, etc)

Tools required

  • Sunny spot with a comfortable sitting item (Chair, couch, other fabric covered object)
  • An un-sunny spot can also be used, but it’s not as warm. This is sometimes the better location to felt, depending on your home cleaning staff.

Shedding

  • Practice shedding with suggestion from the teacher. (use of music, turning and repositioning regularly, long yawns and brief naps may be helpful)
  • Some find shedding easiest at certain times of the year, others are more fortunate and can shed whenever and on whatever they like.
  • Professional shedders can shed a single colour to stand out most on what someone else is wearing.

Self-felting

  • Regular turning and repositioning with constant purring will improve speed of felting.
  • Drool may also be applied but is not necessary for felt integrity.
  • This is not a quick process, and may be best achieved on a fabric surface not regularly used by others.

Problems you may encounter

  • BEWARE of the Vacuum, which can ruin months of good shedding and felting! I suggest “vomit in shoe” revenge if this happens.

Inspection and Positively critique the sample felting produced today.

  • Be positive and make suggestions for use on their masterwork home project. Answer any questions the students may still have.
  • Fill out the workshop questionnaire, since the students lack thumbs, their staff may assist them.

homework student master pieces

  • Students will practice what they have learned in the workshop at home, in a location of their choosing.
  • Suggested time line is working over the summer and have your self-shredded felt ready for the September show and tell meeting.
  • Students will bring in their finished felt for show and tell to a guild meeting. (get your staff to drive you back on the meeting Monday)

________________________________________________

After a teacher has done their CV and Sample lesson plan, the teacher acquisition committee will review the information provided and, if accepted, will pass along to The Workshop Coordinator a list of new teachers. The Coordinator will send out a spreadsheet of questions to fill in for each workshop that the teachers are offering for the time frame she has requested. That looks a bit scary but the questions are not too hard. Like, what time do you want to start your workshop, when do you want it to end? After teachers spend a bit of time answering all these odd seeming questions and sending it back, the workshop team will create the schedule.

  • Fill in the spreadsheet sent to teachers, it will have questions about the workshop and your teaching availability, and what level of students you want to teach.
  • You will also be asked for a couple of high resolution (good number of megapixels) photos for your workshop. What you are making is ideal. Miaka has elected to show an example of shedding for both cats and barking cats, as well as a shot of her wanting to felt but not having thumbs.
  • Availability: Let the coordinator know when in the next workshop time period you will be available. Eg: evening workshops, but not Friday, weekends good, not in March or September. Have holiday plans for April 1 to 4th so not available.

Workshop description (this information is used to publicize the workshop, on the web, at demos, or at guild meetings) Here is an example of what Miaka’s workshop might look.

 

Title: Self-Felting: for those who are lacking opposable thumbs

Instructor: Miaka Scott-Martin
Level: Beginner (B)

Prerequisite: no felting experience necessary, must have own fur, ability to purr is an asset.
Cost: (to be determined by Workshop team, by the number of hours the class runs)

Class size: 10, determined by the maximum number of fabric covered chairs and good direct sunlight. Students who are too big to lounge on a chair are required to bring a blanket or pillow that they will fit on.
Venue: Studio

 

small black and white cat hiding partly under a white comferter while looking at two needle felted sheep4) Don’t let the lack of opposable thumbs get you down and keep you from enjoying the wonders of 2-D felting

Description: 

Have you always wanted to felt, but lack opposable thumbs? This is the workshop for you! We will be creating a self-made 2-D felt. Taught in the guild studio, we will spend the day covering the topics of growing your own fiber, how felt happens, strategies for shedding, and where to shed for best felting outcome. We will make a small sample in class, then produce your masterwork at home. The teacher will provide notes and be available to answer questions if you have trouble during your homework.

Start your self-felting fun today!!!

Example of group self-felting project, in progress, tragically destroyed by a passing vacuum

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5.1) Barking Cat and 5.2) the Center of the Universe,  collaborative felting project in progress

 

Students should bring: On the day of the workshop, bring your own un-brushed fur (to produce the best effect, avoid the brush for a few days to a week before the workshop)

Materials fee: $3 includes all the materials required for the workshop. To be paid to the teacher.

___________________________________

I hope you have enjoyed reading about Miaka’s proposed self-felting workshop, even if you are not self-producing your own fiber to self-felt. There may be a fur-bearing instructor near you, who is willing to provide a similar workshop that you could investigate.

As to her technique, the purring defiantly helps the felting, but I’m not convinced you have to listen to progressive new opera for the best results. This is a slow, careful build up of fiber, and requires time to get just the cohesive layering you are going for. It requires long periods of napping and body readjusting to perfect the felting process. This technique is not advised for those with fur allergies or those who lack fur. <Grin>

Miaka lived to just short of her 20th birthday. Luckily she got her Giant fish cat cave, which I told you about before, early and got to enjoy it for a short time. She continued her self-felting projects, experimenting with various work surfaces, into her very senior years. I am sure if she had run this workshop, it would have been successful, (I would have helped her with notes and photos).

large wet and needle felted fish held up as it were a fishing toffy fish. it is shades of grey finn wool with bits of blue grey silk fiber.6.1) The Giant Cat cave fish, to give you an idea of the size of it

small black and white cat (Miaka)curled up between the fins of her gient fish cat cave. she is blind by this point and had truble finding the mouth enterence.6.2) Miaka, curled up beside her Cat Cave fish. Tiny cat giant fish!

 

If you have the opportunity to share your knowledge with others who are interested in any of the fiber arts, please do. That could be formally as a teacher or informally at a social or chatting at a fiber fair. Sharing knowledge keeps the techniques from being lost or forgotten. Often when teaching, you will have a student try something that is brilliant and you will also learn from them.

Hopefully this hasn’t been too strange a post, I will endeavor to make more sense in my next one.

Have fun and keep felting!

 

 

 

Nuno felt tree landscape with grey, peach and red and dark maroon threads couched down for branches.
Grove of Trees – Part Four

Grove of Trees – Part Four

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I have been working slowly on my grove of trees landscape. I finished stitching down all the trunks and foreground fabrics.

Nuno felt landscape of a grove of trees, all applique stitched down.

So here’s a photo with it all stitched in place. Next up was adding a bunch of branches and I wanted to see how I could do that.

I took a piece of clear plastic and used paint pens on the plastic to look at various color choices. The photo on the left shows white paint pen and the one on the right shows using grey, peach and brown paint pens. The white definitely felt too stark. So I thought I would use a mixture of colors.

Wool threads choices for branches.

I looked through my stash to see what colors I had that might work. I decided to use wool thread as I wanted the branches to not stand out too much. I thought adding “shiny” cotton thread wouldn’t work well.

Nuno felt tree landscape with grey thread couched down for branches.

So I started with grey thread and this photo doesn’t really show the true colors of the thread. I used the grey on the grey trunks in the background.

Nuno felt tree landscape with grey and peach threads couched down for branches.

Then on to adding peach branches to the peach tree trunks.  I couched the threads down using the same thread for the couching stitches.

Nuno felt tree landscape with grey and peach thread couched down for branches. Auditioning dark red and pink thread for further branches.

Then I needed to decide if I was going to keep going with light colored threads or add some darker branches. I tried a piece of pink thread by laying it down on the right and then a dark maroon thread in the center. I decided the darker branches would work the best. As the light in this piece is coming from the back right, the lighter branches give that feeling of light shining on them. The foreground branches would be darker with less light shining on them.

Nuno felt tree landscape with grey, peach and red threads couched down for branches.

So I added a medium value red thread for the three red trees to the right side. Again, all the branches were couched down.

Nuno felt tree landscape with grey, peach and red and dark maroon threads couched down for branches.

Then I added in the maroon threads for the darker trees on the left side.  I also turned the silk that was loose on the top under to the back. I will hand stitch all of the loose silk around the edge down to the back. The piece is now hanging on the design wall. I think I will add some peach “grass” in the foreground just as I have couched down the threads for the branches. But I am letting it sit for a bit so I can see if it needs anything else. What do you think?