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Green nuno felted background with appliqued flower and stitched blue flowers added.
Indian Paintbrush Continues

Indian Paintbrush Continues

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I have been slowly working on my Indian Paintbrush artwork. Since the last time I showed you, I have painted the stems and added some blue flowers in the background.

Full view of green nuno felted background with appliqued flower and stems painted darker yellow green.

Here it is after I painted the stems and leaves. I didn’t add any further color to the flowers themselves as I thought I might do. Once I was finished, I decided I should have left the bottom stems alone so they blended better into the background. I could add more paint on top but so far I have just left them as they are.

Green nuno felted background with appliqued flower and stems painted darker yellow green.

Here’s a closer view of the stems. Next up was to decide if I needed to add anything else. I decided to enhance the blue areas with some hand stitching. I found a hand dyed greyed down blue that was multi valued.

Green nuno felted background with appliqued flowers and stitched blue flowers added.

So I used fly stitch and the thread was a thin cotton slightly bigger than one strand of floss. It’s actually hard to see in this photo but you can click on the photo to enlarge it.

Green nuno felted background with appliqued flower and stitched blue flowers added.

Here’s a closer view of the blue stitching. So what’s next? I’m not sure. I have been looking at the piece now for several weeks hanging up in my studio. Does it need more? If so what? I still haven’t decided. What do you think?

Northern lights in Kalispell, MT 10/10/2024

On another note, I finally saw the Northern Lights here in Kalispell, Montana. I never realized that you need to look through the camera’s lense to actually see the lights very well. Paula took the photo above and I took the one below. Do you see the constellation?

Northern lights in Kalispell, MT 10/10/2024

Felt Vessel Workshop

Felt Vessel Workshop

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I had my first workshop of the fall season last weekend. It was a fun one, Vessels. I like vessels because they do not have to fit anyone when they are done. They can go completely sideways from the original idea and still turn out great.

I had 5 lovely ladies for the day. They had a great time( or seemed to at least) and I had fun too. I love to see people marvelling at the magic of felting and go from very sceptical to amazed at what they have made.

In this class, they all started with the same round resist. Everyone always asks about size. In this case a good sized dinner plate. Very technical.

On to the pictures

Laying out the wool. I like to teach laying out 2 sides without wetting and then go back to do the wetting and wrapping. I don’t know that there is any great difference but I don’t like laying out wool on a wet resist of wet wool.

here they are wrapping one side of the wool around the resist. For those whose layouts grew a lot, we feather the wool towards the middle so it will be more even. You can see the second side waiting to be placed on top, wet down and then wrapped around.

Next, were the embellishments. This part is fun for them and me. I love to see how diverse the ideas are. I usually bring wool, handspun yarn, silk tops, throwsters waist, trilobal nylon, sari silk waist, silk hankies and locks for people to use. I seem to be missing one pot.

Then, of course, there is all the rubbing and rolling. This is the point where I usually gabb on about wool and felt, the eganomics of making felt and sheep….. and anything else that helps pass the time so there are fewer complaints about how long they have to rub or roll. It is a boring sort of thing to do, I usually listen to an audiobook.

We talked about different ways to cut open your felt to get different types of pots and how shaping can change them. one lady said she wanted a pot more like a fruit bowl shape. I suggested turning her pot into two bowls by cutting across the middle. She decided not to but it inspired 3 others to cut their pots at 1/8, 1/4 and 1/3 to get 2 pots as a set.

 

I am missing one there Not sure how that happened. Here are some pictures students sent me of the pots dry

 

Progress Made

Progress Made

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I am making some progress. I refelted the cut diamonds

 

They are now in a bag waiting for me to work on the diamond project.

I did more work on sheep and shepherdess.

Jan made me a wire shape or the shepherdess for me.  Then I wrapped it in some waste wool and used a felt ball for the head. than wrapped that in Corriedale.

Once I added wool it was not stable enough to stand. So I asked Jan about adding a piece of wire front and back to stabilizers. so she took it and started working on it. We added a ball in the bottom but then I decided she was too tall for the sheep I was making, and she cut the ball in half and squashed her down. Jan added a snail tail that stabilises her well. It will be covered by her cloak.

I have been putting sheep together. I make the parts separately. Long snake to cut into leggings and ovals for heads. I made some flat pieces in the 3 colours for the ears. I cut them out but I want to felt them some more.

After I add the ears to the sheep I will add the curls like the orange sheep on the right. I also need to make some clothes for the shepherdess. I think she will be a brunette but I don’t think she will get a face.

Lastly for today, is why felting small things and holding them with your fingers and talking to people is not a good combination.

 

 

Green nuno felted background with foreground center Indian Paintbrush flowers stitching completed.
Indian Paintbrush Applique on Nuno Felt

Indian Paintbrush Applique on Nuno Felt

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Slow progress is being acheived on my Indian Paintbrush landscape that I have been working on. With my other classwork and out of town visitors, it’s not as far along as I had hoped it would be, but it will get there eventually.

Green nuno felted background with foreground center Indian Paintbrush flowers stitching in progress.

I started on the foreground, larger flowers. The center one needed to be completed first as it had overlaps from the flower on the right. The furthest away petal is stitched down first and then other petals are added over top, working forward as I go.

Here’s the progress of the center flower. I am using a very small needle to avoid fraying the cotton organdy fabric. I also push the needle up along side the petal and then back down into the petal. Hopefully, the fabric doesn’t fray as much this way.

Green nuno felted background with foreground Indian Paintbrush flowers stitched in place.

Here’s the piece after all three foreground flowers were stitched down. I’m still thinking about whether the background flowers need any suggestion of stems. If I do add any, it will be thin thread in a running stitch.

 

Green nuno felted background with foreground Indian Paintbrush flowers painted in centers to achieve deeper values (close up).

After looking at the foreground flowers and comparing them to my original photo, I realized that I needed some darker values in the centers and by the stems to create more depth. I decided to use acrylic paint to achieve this. I dry brushed the paint on carefully in very small amounts at a time as I didn’t want to get too much on. It would be very difficult to remove or cover excess paint.

Green nuno felted background with foreground Indian Paintbrush flowers painted in centers to achieve deeper values.

And here it is so far. I will probably add some other shades of orange into the foreground flowers so they look a bit more realistic. I am also going to add some yellow green to the leaves. Then I think that I might add some suggestions of blue flowers where there are blue blotches in the foreground. Perhaps the common camas? How would you add suggestions of blue flowers? Stitching? Painting? More applique? Something else? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

View of finished cowl multicoloured hand dyed with procion dyes wet felted onto margillan silk
Rethinking old sayings

Rethinking old sayings

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My American Aunt, Rose (born in Ireland but she lived her adult life in the US as a religious sister and kids’ teacher) used to have a phrase about nice things.  They were ‘for special occasions and bonfire nights’. I suspect it was from a time when folk had one good outfit in their wardrobe but it’s a phrase that has stuck with me and, while the saying sounds fun, it has led to me not letting go of beauty, storing them up in boxes or in the wardrobes for that ‘special occasion’ to come along.  As I get older I have come to realise that every day I get to be on this beautiful earth is a special occasion and so it is time to get out the glad rags and let loose!  I am finally applying this simple principle to my fibre stash; so in this post I want to talk about some of those gorgeous samples that I made during the various dyeing workshops I have taken over the past nine months.  I wrote about them in my last three posts and you can find them all here if you would like to catch up with them. Adventures in colour Part 1; Adventures in colour Part 2; Dyeing to Eat.

I have to confess, it took a while for me to brave using the results of the workshops – the special occasions and bonfire nights phrase was stuck in my head and I was afraid I might ruin the samples (silly!).  In the end, I decided to simplify things and just play.  I started with a little weaving.  Some time ago I bought a small loom, nothing fancy, it cost less than €13.00.  It’s from Sostrene Grene, it’s a great shop for reasonably priced bits and pieces and it now is online.  Their website is here

Here is a photo of my little loom.  It’s great for playing as I watch TV:

Wooden hobby loom
Small wooden hobby loom with pen included in the photo for size perspective

 

As I did not have specialist thread and as this was just a play, I set the warp up using cotton thread.  Then I got to work, using some of the fibre and yarn which I dyed during the natural dyeing workshop last November.  I also used a cotton yarn for the background of the piece.  Here is a photo of some of the hand dyed fibre:

The final result for the fresh nettle dye. I love the variety of tints!

Here is the result of my first play:

Hand dyed (natural dyes) fibres were woven on a small hobby loom. Background is cotton yarn and highlights are provided with wool skeins merino and linen fibres. beige and yellow colours
Background is cotton yarn and highlights are provided with wool skeins merino and linen fibres.

Next, I decided to use some of the yarn which I dyed during the Procion dye workshop.  At this stage I had purchased proper warp thread and I decided to use a metal hoop for my base. I used a small nylon ring within the hoop and I set this off centre when I was setting up the warp.  Again here are some photos of the fibre and thread used.  I love the vibrancy of these colours!

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And here is the result.  I plan to add nylon fishing line to this and hang it as a mobile.

Hand dyed (procion dyes) fibre woven onto a circular hoop. Autumnal orange colours
Hand dyed (procion dyes) fibre woven onto a circular hoop.

Next, it was finally time to be a little brave and use one of my favourite fibre samples.  This is merino wool which was randomly dyed in the dye pot.  I loved the result as it reminded me of photos taken of deep space by Hubble. Here are two photos of the fibre sample I made.

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I felt I might ruin the effect if I didn’t felt it carefully.  So my layout had to be simple.  In the end I decided to make a cowl with it.   The sample length was 60cm and it was quite thick so I divided the fibre lengthways into two equal bundles being careful to keep the colours intact.  I took the two bundles and stretched both out very thinly width wise, again being careful to maintain the colours.  As the fibres were going to run in one direction I decided to use the nuno technique to stabilise the piece. I used margillan silk for this purpose (measurement length of sample x 2 by the width of the stretched fibre).

Then I cut a resist which was the same length as the sample.  I wrapped the silk around the resist as it was to form the base of the cowl.  I wet this to keep it in place (margillan is so light it has a habit of wandering!).  Then I carefully laid the fibre on top of the silk. (Tip: the start and end of each of the two lengths of fibre were not placed at the edge of the resist to avoid any possibility of creating a ridge).  I wet the piece down, rubbed and started rolling. (lots of rolls to encourage the fibre to go through the silk).  Once this was done I started fulling the piece.  Here are some photos of the process:

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And here are photos of the finished piece.  I am pleased with how the colours have kept their integrity and it has not become a muddy mess!  All set for the cooler weather.

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Next, I took some silk fibre which has been dyed in the same pot.  Here is a photo of the fibre:

Front view: Silk fibre. I can’t help thinking about Hubble when I see this photo!

This time I set it onto a black background.  I was so pleased that it adhered well to the fibre but the black did not destroy the colours.  This was probably helped by the fact that I did not fully felt the piece as I intended to frame it so I knew I could stop my process whenever I found it aesthetically pleasing.  There’s lots of texture in it which I am pleased about.  The black background definitely reminded me of deep space! Once rinsed and dry, I set to work doing some free motion embroidery. Lots of little stars.  I then added some silver seed beads for a little starry sparkle.  What do you think?

Hand dyed silk fibre (procion dyes) wet felted onto black merino free motion embroidery and silver beads for the stars
Mixed media: procion dyes were used on silk fibre which was then felted onto merino. Machine embroidery and hand beading introduced stars to the piece

Next, a quick update on my more recent dyeing exploits.  I attended  wedding recently and I needed a cover up which would tie in with my dress.  I did not have time to felt a piece but I knew that I had some light wool fabric which would be perfect if dyed.  Previous samples from the Mexican dyeing course I attended confirmed that I could achieve the colour I wanted from avocados.   I prepared my fabric (scoured and used an alum mordant) ate the avocados and then I dyed the fabric.  I threw in a little prepared merino and silk fibres too to see what might happen.  Once dyed, I hemmed the wool shawl.  I am delighted with the result.  This is one piece that will not be kept for ‘special occasions and bonfire nights’.  Here is the result:

woollen fabric which has been dyed with avocado skins and stone and made into a wrap. colour is light golden brown
Handmade wool fabric wrap (dyed with avocado skins and stones) natural dyeing

Then I decided to use the merino and the silks which were dyed in the same pot to make a flower.  The colour achieved was a lot lighter but I am pleased with the result of the experiment:

hand felted and beaded flower (dyed with avocado skin and stone) colour is pink tinged brown
hand felted and beaded flower (dyed with avocado skin and stone) Merino and silk fibres used Natural dyeing

Finally, every year, there is a local collaboration between two of our neighbours a farmer and a food producer (we live in a rural area).  They grow a field of sunflowers which members of the public are invited to pick and make a donation either online or through their honesty box to the local hospice charity.  It is always a popular event.  I picked some sunflowers this week and they are now looking gorgeous in my sun room.  I took off the bottom leaves from the plants before placing them in water.  I decided it might be fun to see if I could extract dye from them.  I also made a little pigment.  Unfortunately, the photos do not fully do justice to the beautiful green tones I achieved from the dye, but I thought I would share them anyway:

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I know I am not alone in my need to behave like a squirrel and hoard my treasured items.   I am so pleased that I have taken a tiny percentage of my mine and transformed them into something else which in my view are aesthetically more pleasing.

Now it’s time for you to share.  Are you a hoarder too?  If so, what do you hoard and do you ever think about transforming some of your stash?

Happy creating,

Helene x

 

21) adjusting the Pink Sweatshirt the little pet combs are being used as carders as blend purles, pink and a bit of light grey and white
Part 2, Maureen Shared her vacation, which became A Little Needle Felted Landscape

Part 2, Maureen Shared her vacation, which became A Little Needle Felted Landscape

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Part 2 of Jan’s picture.

Now that i have sat and thought for a while, lets get back to felting fun!!

Monday, July 22nd: I have spent some time to consider, looked at my digitized progress felting, and have decided what to do next. The shadow is not deep enough in the sweatshirt, the spinning wheel needs more definition, and the suggestions of flowers, need more suggestions. Let’s see if I spot anything else I need to improve.

I had a short-staple small batt of yellow that had tiny nepps in it. I would not have had fun spinning it but a tiny pinch and a pair of embroidery scissors shortened the fibres even further and I got the nepps to look a bit more like yellow flowers.

adding the suggestion of yellow wildflowers17) adding the suggestion of yellow wildflowers

I had some carded top in white that I pulled off a staple length, then cut it into short bits about ¼ inch to maybe 1cm long. I then opened out the fibre creating more of a cobweb, that, was positioned where I wanted bits of white flowers to be.

Top cut with scissors 1/4 inch or about 1cm18)Top cut with scissors

That’s a bit better….

19) the wisps of short fibers of white, teased into loose cobwebs to suggest many little white flowers amongst the various greens19) the wisps of short fibers of white, teased into loose cobwebs to suggest many little white flowers amongst the various greens

The yellow is still a bit too intense…yellow can do that, I laid over a light spiders-web-whips of white. It’s getting better. Now let’s try to define the wheel a bit better.

20) I like the wheel, but let’s fix the pink top it had deeper shadows.20) I like the wheel, but let’s fix the pink top it had deeper shadows.

21) adjusting the Pink Sweatshirt the little pet combs are being used as carders as blend purles, pink and a bit of light grey and white21) adjusting the Pink Sweatshirt

Hum. No the edges are too strong but I like the tonal values, they are a little darker looking in the photo than the felt.

The angles are not quite right yet, let me fix that. There is something odd with the shorts too, they’re too short.

seeing more spots that need a bit more work 22) a few more spots that need work

Ah, looking at the angle of the back is not right. I think it was a wisps that extended themselves a bit wider when I wasn’t watching. The angle at the elbow is also a bit off…  I can fix that too.  This may be due to not putting a reference frame in as I was transferring the image and the image slipped a bit as I was using the Sharpie. I will remember to use pins and more reference points next time.

Oh now I have to do a bit of touch-up on Ann’s Sheep so I will get back to this later this week.

 

Wednesday, July 24th:

Marie is having another woolly Wednesday on YouTube, so while I wait for that to start I am continuing to fix the sweatshirt, I am almost done, I think…

nuged wool over a bit to fix the angle on the back and have lenthend the shorts. still fussing a bit with the hint of flowrs too.23) I have nudged the wool over a bit to fix the angle on the back and have lengthened the shorts. still fussing a bit with the hint of flowers too. the sweatshirt looks much better, I’m almost there.

Hum, still missing the highlights

fixed the highights on the sweatshert and i think i may have it to my likely. 24) fixed the highlights on the sweatshirt and I think I may have it to my liking.

That’s close I think I should look at the picture in a mat.

adding mat and frame floating felt by pressure so I can assess it. Yellow arrows show specks on the mat from the frame paint chips.25) adding mat and frame floating  the felt by pressure so I can assess it. Drat! bits of black flecks on mat!

The frame is lint-ing bits of black paint onto the mat, the Yellow arrows show specks on the mat from the frame paint chips. they were very obvious to me in person and they will annoy me if I leave them (13 years of picture framing coming back to haunt me!!!)  I will take it apart and clean it again.

Yes, I think that’s better let me think about it for a bit but I may be done!

took the frame apart and recleaned the mat, dusted the mat and wiped the frame. then put it together again.26) re-matted with a cleaner mat.

I will look into a better mat.  it’s a standard size so it should not cost the price of a full sheet of mat board for an 8×10 mat. I wonder if I can find a piece of acid-free 2py to go with it?

I am going to leave it in this mat and frame for a bit and see if it still feels finished.

I wonder if Maureen will recognize the picture! I am so glad she posted it! You never know where you will see an image or idea that inspire you.

The Quest for Diamonds

The Quest for Diamonds

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Did I get your attention? My quest is to make diamonds, felt ones, that sparkle and shine. As you have heard from several of us the Ottawa Weavers’ and Spinners’ Guild is 75 years old this year. It is our diamond anniversary, so the exhibition theme for our Fall Sale and Exhibition is diamonds. You can interpret that any way you want. I thought Jan and I could collaborate, My part is the diamonds and probably a helmet but I will let Jan tell you about her part.

So now I am on a quest for the best way to make the diamonds. Originally I thought I would use a small resist that I could leave inside to help them be more 3D. I was thinking I could pull and shape them.

Well, that didn’t work out at all. the squares couldn’t be pulled and the diamonds didn’t look right with the middles pulled. It was partly because trying to get them pulled and a bit pointy was so hard. The big reason though is their size. When you try to stretch them you are pulling on two ends of the same fiber.  Jan said kind things about them but truthfully they are terrible. It would only be worse if I tried to make them nuno felt. They look better in the picture than in person.

On to the next idea. I decided, who cares if they are 3D?  Flat would be fine if they are the right shape. Next is a piece of shiny ( probably polyester) fibre from my stash.  I thought it would felt in but wasn’t sure. Also, I decided I wanted August’s page to be pink so I combined the two. I used a piece of white prefelt and pink merino

I added some red sparkly fabric to one corner. It doesn’t look sparkly but it is.

 

Even dry the camera wants to focus on the wool and not the sparkle. It needs shaving but I am out of razors. The next stop Dollarama for the econo bag of razors.

One more try this week. I cut out some silk, some sparkly and some sequined fabric. Wow, is it fiddly to cut without cutting the sequins and they still fly everywhere. I put some face down and then put red prefelt on top.

 

Then some black prefelt and I tried to match up the fabrics to the bottom ones.

I rubbed this longer than usual to make sure the fabrics were stuck. My plan had been to stop at the soft felt stage. Cut out some diamonds and then finish felting. Unfortunately, I was listening to a good book and just kept going on autopilot.  and before I knew it it was done. Now it is drying. I will cut out some shapes tomorrow and see what they look like. We may have to modify the project.

How would you make felt diamonds? All advice gratefully accepted.

Ruth Lane by her three fiber art landscapes at Fibers Reimagined exhibition at 4 Ravens Gallery.
Fibers Reimagined Exhibition

Fibers Reimagined Exhibition

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A group fiber art exhibition is being shown throughout the month of August at 4 Ravens Gallery in Missoula, MT (USA). I have three of my pieces in the show and went to the opening on Friday, August 2nd. The artists were myself, Karen Straight, Melissa Thompson, Angie Evenden, Julie King and Judith Colvin. It was 99 degrees F (37.2 C) so very hot and a bit smokey in Missoula but there was a good turnout despite that.

Ruth Lane and Judith Colvin by the exhibition Fibers Reimagined.

Here is a view of most of the work at the front of the gallery. I am on the right and that’s Judith sitting down on the left.

Karen Straight by her two pieces of artwork at the exhibition Fibers Reimagined.

Here is Karen Straight standing by her two pieces, the needle felted bison and the bear. Karen has written a few guest posts here on The Felting and Fiber Studio and does amazing animal portraits in wool.

Ruth Lane by her three fiber art landscapes at Fibers Reimagined exhibition at 4 Ravens Gallery.

Here’s a closer view of me by my three pieces. If you’re a regular reader, you should recognize these three as I have written about all of them here.

 

This is a needle felted raven by Julie King, she also created the foxes and a couple of other needle felted creatures on the wall by my work.

 

This needle felted rabbit is by Melissa Thompson and her pieces are a mix of fiber, found objects and mosaics.

 

These three felted lamps are created by Judith Colvin. She also creates felted hats, scarves and felt ornaments.

 

This is a mixed media fiber art piece by Angie Evenden. She uses a variety of techniques, fibers and fabrics to create collages of the natural world.

Sunset along the river in Missoula, MT.

This was the sunset after the opening was over. The sun was even redder than this photo shows. Sadly, that’s due to forest fire smoke in the air but it is certainly beautiful. If you happen to be in Missoula, MT in August, please stop by to see the show.

Textured art yarn made from locks on a skein winder
A bit of this, a bit of that

A bit of this, a bit of that

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Hello! The writing of this blog post comes to you on a day where I am quite sleep-deprived, so you will have to excuse my possibly being a little off my writing game…

Allow me to start by showing you some art batts I created a little ago. I love art batts in general, there’s so much texture and colours to look at. I do so enjoy the batt-making process as well, looking at all my fibre and deciding what goes where, and how much… Anyone else feel this fascination when creating textured fibre sandwiches?

Speaking of textures, I recently spun an art yarn using some Leicester Longwool locks in their natural formation and I swoon every time I look at that texture…

Textured art yarn made from locks on a skein winder

This will become a weaving of some sorts, I am handing over the yarn to a fellow Edinburgh guild member so he can create some magic. I told him I wasn’t sure whether I was handing him treasure or a lemon (I believe textured weaving is new to him and I also have some plying inconsistencies on this skein), and he replied saying he would think of it as a pomegranate instead. I thought that was quite funny.

It is one heavy skein, as you might attest by the silly photo I took of it on my head.

Eleanor holds a massive skein of art yarn on top of her head

Finally, I also have news on my needle felted raven! The photos aren’t the best, forgive me, but this chap is almost complete. Unfortunately my customer didn’t like his blue eyes (a colour only present when they are young) so I have ordered some new ones to replace these. Once I do that I think he is complete. What do you think, is he finished? Would you change anything? Feedback welcome.

That’s it for today, let me know your thoughts and have a lovely week!

top of landscape sowing sky sea and rocks with cut outs from the oican
Maureen Shared her vacation, which became A Little Needle Felted Landscape

Maureen Shared her vacation, which became A Little Needle Felted Landscape

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I know some of us are very lucky to live near an active guild.  Many fibre arts people don’t have that source of fibre friends and inspiration. One of our guild members was on a road trip. She kindly brought us along vicariously through her posted shots.  Some were of the spots where she had stopped and spun yarn. One of the shots she shared with the guild particularly caught my eye.  It was a good composition, but the tilt of the horizon bothered me.  I could fix that…..

the original photo of Maureen’s Vacation spinning picture “spinning in front to the Arches at Arches Provincial Park”. not the odd tilt of the horizen. 1) Maureen’s Vacation spinning picture “spinning in front to the Arches at Arches Provincial Park”

Tuesday, July 09th: I was at the Kanata Games Club on Tuesday night, Glenn was busy and I had wool, a nametag size piece of green wool, needles, and scissors, now where is my felting mat and the fine Sharpie I thought I had?  Ok give me a minute, I know where the dollar store is, just down the hill from the gaming. It’s a bit too far to go with the walker, but really close by car. I was back with a garden foam kneeling pad and 3 fine sharps (and snacks) by 6:30 pm.

one print out of the photo to use as a template and another few to use as reference. i have croped the picknick table and some of the width mostly trees2) 6:30-ish pm at the Kanata Games Club.

The piece of green I had grabbed was a bit shorter in length than I wanted. It was also not as rectangular as I would have liked. It’s wool, So not a problem!!! I just added more wool fibre to make it the size I needed.  A bit of work with the Clover multie-needle tool and I had a solid felt base the size I wanted.

I am again using the template method of image transfer and a bit of divine editing of the angle of the horizon.

template method; cutting out the sky then using the remaining image to mark the sky, i have flatened the horizen so the picture is now on a slight angle. i did not add reference marks since the image fit over the felt i was working on. that will come back to hont me later.3) Cutting off the sky and then straightening the Horizon.

sky and horizen in, fixing not squaire felt base 4) Straitened the horizon, and squared up the short corner of felt.

cutting the next section of the photo out and then adding the sea5) cutting the next section out and then adding the sea

Cutting out the rock and the next section of ocean.6) Cutting out the rock and the next section of the ocean.

Continuing to cut away a section of the photo, draw in the new edge then felt in the open area7) Continuing to cut away a section of the photo, draw in the new edge then felt in the open area

I am not the fastest of feltres, this is about 3.5 hours.  Glenn has just finished his gaming and it is time for me to pack up and head home. I am pleased with the progress so far.

 

Wednesday, July 10th:

Resumed felting, ……time for a break, I got over-focused on felting.  Where did I put the camera? On drat, I missed a big chunk of time,  I had better stop for a photo break.

Continuing to cut out a section, then use sharpie to denote the edge, then add wool. replacing the remaining picture to check angles.8.1-8.2) Continuing to cut out a section, then use a sharpie to denote the edge, then add wool.

Laying over the un-felted space with the remains of the reference photo, to see how the image is coming along. You can also see that I have stuck the wool mat in a heavy freezer zip-lock bag. It has not entirely kept the fiber from transferring but the migration has been reduced drastically. This is the third name tag/ picture I have been working with the green base wool on this wool pad. I have been using the same side of the pad but now have rotated the plastic bag. I should last till the end of this picture then I will likely change it for another freezer bag. If you are curious let me know and we can investigate this further, looking into ways to reduce wool transfer to your work surface.

9) My Reference image is now on the computer, note zip lock baggie with all pieces that have been cut out so far.9) My Reference image is now on the computer, note the zip lock baggie with all the pieces that have been cut out so far. it’s above the Right corner of the felting.

I now have my reference image up on the computer, as I am working while waiting for Marie, from Texas, to start Wooly Wednesday on YouTube. You can see the parts of the image I have already cut off in a zip lock baggie so I can refer to them if I need to. (such as the area at the top left where I still need to add a tree in front of the water I have already felted.

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 10.1-10.2) This felting experience was enhanced by the nibbling of blackberries,  just make sure your fingers are clean before getting back to the wool. note the Sharpie it’s double ended (Fine and Extra fine tip)

I am now adding the outline for the right arm. In addition, note the double-ended sharpie (Fine/Extra Fine), and the heavy zip lock bag over my wool felting mat is reducing the amount of wool wanting to transfer into the pad. Blackberries are also very inspirational but don’t let them change the colour of your fingers and then your wool.

the arm is in11) Arm is in

adding shorts12) adding shorts

this is about at 10.5 hours13) This is about 10.5 hours

I still have a lot of detail work to do adding all the flowers a bit more edge defining and tree extensions. But I am quite pleased so far. Time for bed.

 

Thursday;  Finished writing my blog post for the 14th and started writing this one. Ok, I am as slow at writing, as I am at felting. (I did wind up writing about Ann’s Name tag before getting back to finish this one.)

 

Monday, July 15h: I brought the little landscape in to get Ann’s opinion. She said it looked like Maureen’s hair was curly I will try to fix that. I also consulted on the sheep name tag I was making for her.

picture in zip lock bagie, held on to shelf by a magnaet.14) Waiting for a consultation with Ann and I was working on her sheep name tag

I worked a little bit on Wednesday and got the tree in the top left corner blocked in. as you will see when I got back to work at the social. I like to be able to put a piece down and think about what I want to do next, decide on my options and then look at it again with fresh eyes and Reassess.

 

Monday, July 22nd:

By this point, it’s getting down to details and finishing touches. You can’t tell but in person, the straw yellow is not as embedded and solid as it looks in the photo.

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15.1-15.2) Assessing the progress I have made so far.

I have added a bit of a suggestion of wildflowers and fussed with the green undertones but something is not yet right.

Helping your brain to not just look, but see what it’s looking at can be challenging.

When you are working and get to the point you are unsure, it may be that your eye and your brain are arguing.

The eye says “this is what I am looking at” and the brain says “I know what a tree looks like! I don’t have to look at another tree” There are a few ways to help the brain pay attention and actually see what it is looking at. Here are a few I learned while painting but can be applied to felting too (which is painting with wool).

  • Use a mirror to look at your felt image. By reversing the image, it gives a fresh perspective and often you can see a proportion or angle that is not quite right.
  • Photography (camera, cell phone, iPad); look at the felt image as a digital image. You often will spot something off in the photo you did not notice in the work. You can also digitize the image you are working from. It lets you scroll in close to part of the painting to see details,
    • see the image in black and white or
    • oversaturate the image with colour to see hidden colours.
  • rotate your image and reference until it’s upside down (inverted). It becomes easier to see negative space and spatial relationships when the image is not looked at in the usual way.
  • Set your work and image look at it sitting vertically (on an easel or propped up against something so you are not looking down at it) Step back and look at the work.
  • Take a break, go do something else. Come back with “Fresh eyes”.

16) ways to help your brain see what you are looking at 16) ways to help your brain see what you are looking at

Remember that it’s your image, it doesn’t have to be exactly the same unless you want it to be. You can be the god of your landscape and move a tree, make a shrub shorter or fuller or remove it. Do you feel the image needs more sky? Then add it. As long as the image makes sense  (no double points of light sources unless you are on an alien planet with 2 suns) it will be believable. You are unlikely to hang the photo reference beside your finished piece, so move a tree if it offends you. If you are working on a portrait, you have to be a bit more accurate. Then use the above suggestions to help get as close as you can to the original.

I have put my piece aside, so I can think about it and see the image with fresh eyes before I finish the fine details. So I have switched to work on another little project for Ann. (which you  have seen; https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/07/24/name-tag-sneaky/ .) Next time i will show you what i find and how i fix it. Have fun and keep felting!!