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Grove of Trees – Part Three

Grove of Trees – Part Three

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Slow progress is happening on my new nuno felt landscape. Again, it’s the find the difference in the photos challenge 😉

I had laid out the background trees at the end of my last post. Now I have stitched them down. I haven’t stitched the more foreground trees down yet because I need to work on the forest floor section at the front.

I wanted to play with some shapes of fallen trees on the forest floor. I had some cheesecloth scraps that worked with the colors so far. I added some shadows on the larger fallen tree.

Here I have added more shadows to the fallen tree. I am using another edge of nylon scarf in a dark red violet and a few scraps of blue violet silk organza.

Then I needed to figure out what to do with the rest of the foreground. Here I have added one layer of orange nylon scarf over the top of the fallen logs. Hmmm…

I changed from one big piece of orange nylon scarf and had multiple strips across with fringed edges. I realize you can’t see it very well in the photo. I put the fallen logs on top this time. Hmmm… still needs something. Aha! My usual suspect, it needs value changes.

Here I have added some darker red violet pieces of scarf amongst the orange. I think you will be able to see the changes more easily in the next photo.

Here it is with more of the darker red violet interspersed among the orange. That gives more contrast, so looking better.

I added the fallen logs back into the foreground and another tree. I am planning on adding more trees but now I need to get some of this stuff sewn down. I hope you aren’t getting tired of this project, still a ways to go yet.

Nuno felted landscape background with fabrics added for background horizon and tree shapes.
Grove of Trees – Part Two

Grove of Trees – Part Two

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I’m working on my grove of trees nuno landscape slowly. I think that some of you may think that this is a “find the difference” in the photos as they look pretty similar. But this is how I work, I add something, take a photo, look at the photo to see if it works, then add something else etc. That means there may be only one small difference from photo to photo, maybe I took something off, maybe I added something.

Nuno felted landscape background with fabrics added for background horizon and tree shapes.

I had the background “horizon” and the large dark tree on the left when I left off. Now to add more trees. There are three little lines added on. These are the folded edges/hems of the nylon scarves I use to add layers of color. I usually just cut them off and don’t use them but I thought they might work for background trees. I tried maroon, yellow and orange. Not exactly what I wanted.

Nuno felted landscape background with fabrics added for background horizon and tree shapes.

Then I added a mid tone grey one. I liked that better as it pushed the line further into the distance.

Nuno felted landscape background with fabrics added for background horizon and tree shapes.

I added more mid tone grey trunks and moved the orange one closer to the “sun”. That looked better.

Nuno felted landscape background with fabrics added for background horizon and tree shapes.

The I added a few more orange ones keeping them on the right hand side where the light is coming in.

Nuno felted landscape background with fabrics added for background horizon and tree shapes.

I wanted to use more of the silk organza for a few more bigger trunks in the mid ground to foreground.

Nuno felted landscape background with fabrics added for background horizon and tree shapes.

And a couple more smaller ones in the same deep red color. I was happy with how it was coming along.

Nuno felted landscape background with fabrics added for background horizon and tree shapes.

Here I have added a few white “branches” to see what that would look like. I am inspired by Wolf Kahn’s tree paintings and was looking at several that showed white marks to denote branches like in this painting. I would need a lot more of the white lines to give the same effect. I will be pondering on that idea a while yet.

Nuno felted landscape background with fabrics added for background horizon and tree shapes.

I decided I didn’t want to add too many layers without starting to stitch down the under layers. So I stitched the darker “horizon” background down to the nuno felt. Now I need to stitch the skinny trees down. I still need to figure out the foreground and there will be more layers of fabric on the larger trees. Still a long way to go. But I’m happy with my progress.

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

Close up of green nuno felt background with foreground stems stitched in place and orange petals completely stitched for center flower.
Progress on Indian Paintbrush Landscape

Progress on Indian Paintbrush Landscape

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I have been slowly stitching down the applique flower pieces for my Indian Paintbrush landscape piece. You can see prior steps here.

Drawn design on tracing paper with cut applique pieces next to nuno felt background with distant flowers laid in place.

I started by laying out the background flower applique pieces for distant flowers. I still haven’t decided if there is more stitching needed for stems and leaves. I’m waiting until I have the foreground flowers in place. I don’t want to add too much detail to the background.

Green nuno felt background with orange flower petals stitched in place with random straight stitches.

I used very simple straight stitching to adhere these small flowers. I purposely made the stitches longer than the fabric as Indian Paintbrush have a frayed edge. I tried to make the stitches random sizes and directions.

Green nuno felt background with foreground stems stitched in place and two orange petals stitched for center flower.

Next up was to add the center flower. I went ahead and added the two stems on the right side to make sure I had the flowers in the right place. All of the placement of applique pieces was done by eye. I didn’t try to mark where they were to go as the markings usually tend to stay when I don’t want them to. I appliqued the cotton organdy applique pieces in place with small stitches, a very fine needle, and one strand of cotton floss.

Green nuno felt background with foreground stems stitched in place and four orange petals stitched for center flower.

Then it was a matter of continuing to add pieces and stitching them in place. I listen to podcasts while I’m doing hand stitching as it is definitely “slow stitch”.

Green nuno felt background with foreground stems stitched in place and orange petals completely stitched for center flower.

The center flower is now completely stitched down.

Close up of green nuno felt background with foreground stems stitched in place and orange petals completely stitched for center flower.

Here’s a closer view of the flower and the stitching. It’s possible that I could add more detailed stitching over the top of the foreground flowers but I haven’t decided yet. I should have made a sample so I could try out some different ideas but I forgot and I don’t think I have any more green silk for a sample piece. That’s what I get for not planning enough!

Nuno Felt Background with appliqued felt rocks and sheer fabric cast shadows stitched in place.
Forest Floor Update

Forest Floor Update

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I have continued to make slow progress on my forest floor piece. Since I showed you last, I have stitched down the rocks and added some shadows.

Nuno Felt Background with appliqued felt rocks stitched in place.

I decided on the final rock placement and then stitched them in place. I moved the rock that is now on the top right over from the left since it was much lighter. This reinforces the feeling of the light shining from behind the trees. Once the rocks were stitched in place, I decided they needed a bit more definition as they kind of looked like potatoes to me.

I remembered a book about nature journaling that I had checked out from the library by John Muir Laws. I decided to look him up online to see if he had some information about drawing rocks. I found a wealth of information on his site about drawing in nature. If you would like to improve your drawing skills, this is an excellent resource.

Photo of forest floor piece with tracing paper and rock shadows sketched in with pencil.

I took the photo from above and printed it out. Then I used a piece of tracing paper to sketch the rock placement. Then I used hatching techniques to give some shape to the rocks. These aren’t specific rocks. I find it much easier to draw/sketch when I have a photo of what I am trying to draw or I can look at a specific rock or landscape. But they look more like rocks than potatoes now.

I decided to use the same blue that is already in the nuno background for the shadows. That would tie all the blue bits in as shadows and move the blue over on to the right side of the composition too. I used a straight stitch to do the “hatching” on the rocks using #12 Sulky cotton thread. Once those shadows were in, I knew I needed to add cast shadows from the rock on to the ground. So I brought out my navy blue sheer fabric to create some cast shadows.

Nuno Felt Background with appliqued felt rocks and sheer fabric cast shadows stitched in place.

Here’s the piece after adding the sheer fabric around the rocks. I stitched the sheer fabric down with #40 machine thread with tiny stitches. Now guess what? I need more shadows in front of the trees. It’s always funny to me that I am working along and when some shadows are added, I can immediately see that I need more. So the next step is more sheer blue fabric to add the cast shadows from the trees. Then I will begin adding more leaves and the white flowers so that it will resemble my original collage below.

Paper collage of landscape of forest floor, white flowers and tree trunks in the distance.

 

Another Nuno Landscape Completed

Another Nuno Landscape Completed

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I have been working away on my nuno felt landscapes this winter. I always sell more work in the summertime, so it’s good to get ahead of the game and get work ready to be framed in the spring. So what to do with this background. I felt like the diagonal lines of color felt too “tie dyed” and needed to break them up. The colors reminded me of summer flowers so that’s where I decided to go with this background.

I played around with a variety of cotton fabric and cheesecloth and laid these out on the nuno background.

I added a small bud to the small, lower right hand flower.

I pinned the pieces in place and added interfacing to the back to provide support for the machine stitching. I could have fused them down but I find that I don’t like the way the fusing flattens the fabric and doesn’t allow “movement” of the fabric with stitching. This is a personal preference and it is easier to stitch if everything is fused in place but I prefer to pin or baste the pieces in place. I also was looking at possibly bringing some of the dark blue up into the area above the flowers. I tested this out by cutting some small bits of #5 perle cotton and laying it down to give the impression of blue flower stalks.

I free motion machine stitched all the green first. I used two different shades of green to give a little depth to the stems and leaves.

I used three different shades of thread in the centers of the flowers and two colors on the petals. I decided to bring a bit of the burnt orange down into the petals to give a look of a bit of shadows near the centers. Last, I added dark brown to the bottom of the centers which definitely helped define the centers.

Lastly, I added blue French knots with #5 perle cotton thread. I then stitched it down to the background “matte” fabric and laced it on to card. So it’s ready to frame. I decided to call this one “Summer Fireworks”. I have run out of nuno felted backgrounds so I guess that will be my next project.

 

Nuno Landscape Design Continues

Nuno Landscape Design Continues

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I have been continuing with work on my green nuno landscape and thought you might like to see how I “play” with the design. I put on layers of sheer fabric, take them off, try another piece of fabric and keep working with the various bits of fabric until I get a composition that is effective.

I’m using a variety of fabric including nylon organza, silk organza and cheesecloth.

I put pieces on, take a look and then rearrange or take pieces off. Or move them around, add more pieces and so on, always stepping back and looking in between steps. What works, what doesn’t? You can see how sheer the  nylon organza is, there is a piece on the top left side sticking off the edge on the right photo.

Sometimes it is hard to tell what changes and it’s a slow process but fun to see what happens.

Once I was happy with the composition, then I pinned pieces in place. I really should have taken the time to baste the pieces in place but I was feeling lazy. On the right photo, I have started to stitch the sheer fabric in place at the top. I didn’t want the stitching to really show that much, so there are tiny stitches in similar color/value thread to hold the sheer fabric down.

These last two photos are of the piece hanging on the design wall. This is really helpful for me, to see it hanging and to be able to back away from the piece and view it from a distance. I had stitched in the three orange flowers in the distance but they were really bugging me. The flowers were too big for the distant hills. They were the size of trees. So unstitching occurred and I removed the far flowers. I haven’t decided whether to add them back into the middle ground or not. The photo on the right is the amount of stitching I have completed now. Once I get all the rest stitched down, I will decide if it needs anything else. I also have to think of a better name than Green Nuno Felt Landscape. Any suggestions?