As promised last time, here’s a photo of the finished piece I showed being laid out:
I did make a few small changes to it, just moving one piece of prefelt and a few fibres. This is the painting I was working from:
It’s quite texturey, which you can see better from this angle:
Using just a few colours, gives quite a lot of shades when they overlap or blend:
I thought the migration from the prefelt through to the back was interesting:
After I’d laid that piece out I had a flick through my notebook and found another piece for inspiration. It’s a really simple piece, but I’d used some colours I’d blended:
What was different/nice with this one was the sheen, you can see from this angle:
I wasn’t aiming to replicate this one at all, just use as inspiration. I even found a mastching weird pinky red Merino – ‘Damask’ for the base:
I used Rose and Viscose fibres for the shiny parts, and a small amount of Nylon for the matte:
I really like how it turned out, having some matte areas seemed to make the shiny fibres shinier:
I did add some shiny fibres to match the ‘Damask’ background, but not much:
I made a sketch book cover for my daughter for her birthday.
Here is the layout I started with. It is 4 times the length of the book. the background is wet in this picture.
And a close up of the base for the flowers. The stems are some hand spun thick and thin wool yarn. The flowers are some super bright trilobal nylon. to this I added some yarn. I forgot to take a picture of that. I just spiraled it around. The background is wet while I am adding the decorations. The nylon in particular stays put better when the background is wet.
I was not careful to keep the flowers just so. I wanted some distortion, it is more interesting. Next I made the strap for the back of the book. I like this better than two folded over flaps. It means you can put a wider or thicker book in more easily. I uses some really pretty dragonfly fabric I picked up at a destash sale at my guild for the strap.
For a closure I sewed on a ring and looped the tail through it.
and lastly a shot of the whole thing.
I hope she likes it. She is quite a good sketcher.
Here is the last of my nuno felted landscapes that I have been working on for an exhibition in September. This is the largest piece and measures 11″ x 30″. I thought I had taken more photos of the piece in process but I can’t find them. So I must have just dreamed that I took photos 🙂
The background is nuno felted and I did add a bit of hand stitch to a portion of the mountains as one section felt too yellow. I added grey seed stitch to make it match the rest of the mountains. Then I added the fireweed flower in the foreground with hand dyed cotton fabric that is fused down to the felt. If you haven’t seen a fireweed before, here is a bit more information.
Here’s the piece before I stitched the leaves. I added some stem stitch and straight stitch to the flowers to hold them in place and to add a bit of detail.
Here you can see the stitching a bit better. I used wool thread for the hand stitching.
And here is the finished piece. I added machine stitching to the cotton applique pieces as I felt that the fusible wouldn’t hold them completely in place and I didn’t want them to start peeling off. Plus it added more definition to the leaves to bring them forward from the background.
Now I am working on background fabrics for each piece and then framing. Once they are framed, I will post again to show you the finished pieces.
The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur, the end of May was spent preparing for my inaugral participation in this event and the the first two weeks of June were the open studio event itself. It has been hard work but a lot of fun, meeting new people and sharing the magic of felt-making with them.
I confess, I have been thinking of hosting an open studio for several years but had plenty of excuses not to, the main one being that I usually work in my kitchen and dining room, not very practical spaces for hanging / displaying work and not really fair on Mr TB to have strangers milling about while he is trying to relax after a busy week at work.
I did consider using the garage but it isn’t a very pretty space (breeze-block walls) and where would I put all the stuff currently stored in there? Although if I am honest I think most of it should go on Freecycle or to the municipal dump. This year I had a bit of a brainwave, we live in a bungalow and have a guest bedroom at the front of the house, what if I put the guest bed in the garage for a couple of weeks?
The space worked better than I had dared to imagine, the mirrored doors on the wardrobes made the room feel large and airy and there was just enough wall space for most of my ready-to-hang pieces.
It was just large enough to demonstrate felt-making but I was rather ambitious to think I could squeeze up to four students in there for workshops, as it turned out I managed to arrange it so I never had more than one student at a time. As always seems to be the way, in the excitement of completing each case I completely forgot to take photos of their work but since I was teaching 1 to 1, I ended up making a case of my own alongside them, these are what I produced…
I made a short video tour of my “studio”, please come in….
What did I learn from this event?
Allow yourself at least couple of weeks to prepare the studio, price your work, tidy the front garden / drive and redecorate / move furniture if necessary.
Have a visitor’s book to collect emails so you can stay in touch with your new contacts. The open studio event is an excellent way to meet new people with a shared interest. I was surprised by the number of people who returned with a friend a few days later to show them what they had found.
It took me a good hour to put out the signs, blow up balloons etc each morning, don’t under-estimate how long it will take. At least half of my visitors said they were just passing and saw the signs, they are really important!
Most people paid by cash (and even had the right change) but I would have lost a couple of sales if I didn’t have a card reader.
A friend told me she sells a lot of greeting cards at these events – that was a good tip, I had some professionally printed and it offered visitors the opportunity to support my work even if they did not have a lot of money to spare.
What will I do differently next time?
I will bake some of my world famous chocolate brownies as little treats for my guests (if that isn’t incentive to get on a plane to visit me, I don’t know what is! 🙂 ).
Be patient, most of my sales came in the last 2 days of the event.
If I wasn’t running the event from my home, I would not open on a Wednesday, the footfall on Wednesdays was very low.
I will allow longer for the teaching sessions, it always takes longer than you expect doesn’t it?
I hope I have inspired you to take the plunge and participate in your local open studio event, I have met so many wonderful people, from other artists participating in the event, to new and potential clients and some potential teaching opportunities.
I had better get on with moving the bed back into the bedroom, Mr TB is already eyeing the room suspiciously, thinking I have commandeered yet another “wool room”, what he doesn’t realise is that I have felting / textile paraphernalia stashed in EVERY room, but we will keep that to ourselves 😉
I really liked using a painting for inspiration on the last felt piece I made, so I thought I’d do it again and take more photos of the process. I had a look through some photos and found one I liked, then started the search for the actual painting. I was a bit confused because the photo and actual painting didn’t quite match, but I realised the photo was from while I was working on it, so it wasn’t quite finished! I took a new photo of the finished one:
I used a similar technique to the ones I showed last week, thinly overlaying acrylic paint. This looks different because it’s on a different type and weight of paper. I started with a couple of layers of Jonquil Merino, it looks more like a ‘Buttercup’ in the photos, but it’s really a prime yellow:
Originally I planned to do all aditional layers with fibres, but decided to do some more ‘background’ with Merino. I don’t have exact matches for the colours, but they’re closer than they look on these photos.
I realised that I always lay my felt out in a ‘landscape’ orientation, for some reason – it just feels natural – but it meant I was working from the painting the wrong way up. It didn’t occur to me straight away to just rotate the layout. I got there eventually though! So, once I turned it around, I added some black prefelt ‘blobs’ :
Then added some more Merino. I did add it thinly, but 3 photos of a few wisps and a few wisps more didn’t seem to show much, so this is all the Merino I added:
This is the first lot of Nylon Staple fibre I added, the blues and blue/greens:
It looks like a lot, but really isn’t, I think it’s just because it is bright. This next photo is the yellow and green/yellow Nylon added, which again looks like a lot:
When I compared the layout to the original photo, it’s obvious it’s more of a ‘copy’ than just inspired by the painting, but not quite right, either, so I might make a few adjustments before I felt it.
I’ll show the finished piece next time. I forgot how much longer it takes doing a layout when taking photos of the process so ran out of time to felt it.
I finally finished felting the new little bags and they are ready to be stitched. Here they are drying along with a book cover.
Here they are all dry
I couldn’t get a good shot of the nuno inside. Either my fingers or shadow or something made it not work. So this is the best of a bad lot. You can just see the nuno inside.
This one I turned inside out.
and the other side
A close up of the silk ball cut open. I did cut the wool hole to large in the felt and it has shrunk away to much so I will need to do somthing to make sure it stays in place. The other thing that happened was the silk blead. The only one it really effected was the pink one. The yellow effected the colour making it orangey around the silk ball and down one side.
This is what they look like closed, I will iron them in the closed position so they stay flatter.
Here are the last batch with thier stitching done.
I am adding a magnet as a closure.
I practiced the shisa stitch and the variations with some cardboard circles.
The two black ones I think the thread was to fine so it looked odd. I went to thicker thread and that was better.
I am going to have to redo the pink one as it stitches were not tight enough. My friend Carleen suggested I use a metal button on the opposite side as it would be easier than the magnet and stitching. I am going to look at what I have. I plan to add grommets on one side but I have misplace them somewhere. I will have to buy new ones to find them.
I am quite pleased with how they turned out. I hope you like them too.
Have you wanted to be a little more experimental in your fiber art practice? Do you want to learn new techniques and add embellishments to felt or other fabric? Why not try an online class all about embellishing felt? Anyone from anywhere in the world can take these courses, no need to show up at a certain time (you can even wear your pajamas) and the classes are 6 weeks long so you have plenty of time to learn a new technique and try out an experimental approach. My online courses are 4 stand alone classes under the title Embellishing Felt with Surface Design Techniques – A Mixed Media Approach. You can take just one or work through all of them. The classes are only $45 US which is a tremendous deal for 4 weeks of video and written PDF’s plus 2 weeks extra time on the class website with full instructor support. Registration is now open and the class begins on July 6, 2018.
The first module is called Nuno Felting with Paper Fabric Lamination. The bark I created above used this technique.
You will learn the technique of Paper Fabric Lamination and then how to use these pieces in nuno felting. As you can see from the examples above, there are many possibilities with this technique. Click here for more information and to register for the class.
The second module is Experimental Screen Printing on Felt.
You will also be able to use these techniques to screen print fabric such as silk to use in nuno felting. These same techniques can also be used on cotton fabric to use in fabric collage or quilting.
The third module in Embellishing Felt with Surface Design Techniques – A Mixed Media Approach is Printing, Stenciling, and Playing with Thickened Dye on Felt.
This one is really fun and experimental. Learn to make stamps, stencils and how to use a variety of objects from around the house to create your own unique surface design on felt. Develop your own style with designs you have created.
The last module in the series is Free Motion Machine Stitching on Felt.
In this course, you will learn the basics of free motion machine stitching and how to use this specifically on felted projects. Does the thought of machine stitching seem a bit scary? If so, you should take this course to get a handle on how to use your sewing machine to create wonderful embellishments on felt paintings or other felted items.
I hope you want to expand your fiber art skills. If so, click on any of the links above to read more about the classes, see the supply lists and to register. I look forward to “seeing” you in class!
And don’t forget, if you are a beginner, our online class Wet Felting for Beginners is always available.
This class teaches you all about wet felting. You’ll learn how to make a piece of felt, how shrinkage works and how to calculate it and the basics of felting, fulling and creating felt from wool fiber. Click here for more information and to sign up.
In my last post I showed some of the brooches I’ve been making out of Tyvek. This month I thought I would continue with the “man made” fabric theme and show you how I make my Lutradur leaves.
Lutradur is another exciting non woven product which was originally designed for industrial applications including construction substrates, landscaping materials, residential and commercial wallpaper, carpet backings, automotive floor mats and carpeting, and specialized filtration devices. It is an incredibly versatile material which is available in various weights including 25gsm, 30gsm, 70gsm, 100gsm and 130gsm. It does not fray, some weights are translucent, it can be painted with any paint medium, dyed, distressed with a soldering iron or heat gun, glued, stitched, layered and embroidered. In fact, think of an application and you can probably use it!
Lutradur is available in packs of A4 size sheets or by the metre from various suppliers including Spunart in the UK.
My first attempt at using Lutradur was a couple of years ago when I made this leaf using 100gsm…..
I drew the shape directly onto the fabric, free motion stitched over the lines and then painted it with Inktense before cutting out the shape.
You can see how the colour altered once the Lutradur had been zapped with the heat tool. I was pleased with the result but there was something not quite right which I couldn’t put my finger on…..until recently.
Its staring me in the face looking back at these photos, I shouldn’t have sewn around the edge of the leaf! This is that same leaf after a little pruning of those edges and another blast of heat to curl the tips, it looks so much more realistic…..
The underside of the leaf
These are some of my more recent Lutradur leaf creations made from 100gsm…..
Lutradur provides a very stable surface for stitching into.
Each one is drawn first using a Frixion pen. Next I use a heat resistant thread i.e. Rayon, Viscose or 100% cotton to add free motion stitching along the veins.
The fallen leaf which inspired the design.Shaping with the soldering iron.
Once the stitching has been done the leaf is cut out using a fine tip soldering iron. I wanted to retain most of the fabric on these particular leaves so I also used the soldering iron, rather than the heat tool, to target specific areas to cut holes.
The finished leaves painted with Inktense.
I wanted a more lacey look for this next leaf so after stitching and cutting out with the soldering iron this one was distressed using the heat gun. I left it unpainted to suggest a frosty leaf in winter…..
The following photos show a selection of leaves made by students at my recent “forest floor” themed workshop…..
These leaves are fun to make but be warned, as with so many creative projects they can become very addictive once you get started!
I’d promised a mate I’d do a painting for him. He liked a couple of pics that I showed him, but I wasn’t sure they’d work on canvas as the technique is better suited to paper. I thought about doing something different, but really didn’t want to, so started trying to think how I could get the technique could work. I wondered if I might be able to recreate the ‘look’ with a piece of felt, he likes funky fabrics and wall-hangings so it might be even better than a canvas. We’ve used artists and paintings in Studio Challenges and I’ve copied a painting before and liked how it turned out. So, I thought it was worth a try. These aren’t the exact pics I showed my friend, but I didn’t want to do a copy, I just wanted inspiration:
The idea I had in mind was from another painting I’d done, similar in technique, but more structured in columns and blocks. I can’t find the painting and it didn’t have the scribbley ink layer underneath, but these were fine for inspiration. They’re built up of layers, with the scribbley ink as background, then just a few colours used, but overlapped to create more colours, this is just yellow, pink and blue, but has orange, red and indigo from overlapping:
I started with blocks of colour, I chose them carefully and positioned them so they’d stay bright and not get dulled by overlapping:
I used some Nylon tops and silk threads to replicate the inky scribbles. I didn’t want to overdo it though. I put wisps of wool over them. To get the effect of overlapping colours and to soften the shapes a bit, I used mostly dyed Nylon Staple fibres. I’ve dyed heaps of this so have lots of shades. I used colours from adjacent wool patches and in places blended fibre colours together. I also used some trilobal nylon, silk throwsters waste, dyed viscose staple, and other dyed cellulose fibres for more interest and some shine
Giving it a good look over before felting I thought a few areas could do with a ‘lift’, so I added some fibres in contrasting colours too:
I like how it turned out, though this is ‘upside down’ compared to the layout pics:
The Nylon staple worked well to ‘blend’ the adjacent colours and the shinier fibres gave it more depth:
I really like this end:
And, I had to get some close-ups, of course! This is Trilobal Nylon, I used this sparingly, I didn’t want too much ‘sparkle’:
First I wet one side. I use the resist to press the wool down and make sure it will be wet where I need it to be.
Next I add one of the pieces of silk.
Then I add the resist and the 2 pieces used to close the bag.
Next I add the second piece of silk and wrap the wool around everything
I add the second side of wool and wrap that around too.
After I’ve done that to all the pieces I add some embellishments. I am using a multicoloured top for grass on the blue one and the pink one got a rolled up ball of silk scraps. I covered the ball with more pink wool and will cut the top off near the end.
This is after several rollings. you can see they are curling as they shrink.
I cut the slit for the bag and rub it with well soaped fingers to heal the cut edges.
Next will be more rolling and some throwing to get the fulling done. I will show you the finished bags next time and some I finished with some embroidery.
I did make a few small changes to it, just moving one piece of prefelt and a few fibres. This is the painting I was working from:
It’s quite texturey, which you can see better from this angle:
Using just a few colours, gives quite a lot of shades when they overlap or blend:
I thought the migration from the prefelt through to the back was interesting:
After I’d laid that piece out I had a flick through my notebook and found another piece for inspiration. It’s a really simple piece, but I’d used some colours I’d blended:
What was different/nice with this one was the sheen, you can see from this angle:
I wasn’t aiming to replicate this one at all, just use as inspiration. I even found a mastching weird pinky red Merino – ‘Damask’ for the base:
I used Rose and Viscose fibres for the shiny parts, and a small amount of Nylon for the matte:
I really like how it turned out, having some matte areas seemed to make the shiny fibres shinier:
I did add some shiny fibres to match the ‘Damask’ background, but not much:
