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Felt Painting – Glorious Devon by Ann B.

Felt Painting – Glorious Devon by Ann B.

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This is a guest post by Ann B, one of our fabulous readers and forum members. She is planning on updating us as she makes progress on her project.

 

Having decided that I needed (and I do mean needed) to make another picture, I hunted through my design source photographs and fell in love (again) with the picture I took of a horse grazing on a hill in Devon. This was typical Devon, lots of hills and trees and (best of all in my mind) no people or buildings in sight. This is the original picture above. What appears to be sky at the top is in fact distant hills. There is no sky at all in the photograph. I was a little disappointed as I love using silk fibres and neps to produce a realistic sky, but the distant hills would be a good challenge in colour blending and matching. I also felt that the photo was a little dull, there having been plenty of clouds about on the day that I took the picture, so I decided to “photoshop” it a bit to brighten it up.

This is the result. There isn’t a whole lot of difference – I still wanted it to look natural – but you can now
see the fields on the hill right at the back, and in fact I think that there is a building on
the hill on the right. Next I decided that I needed to work on the composition a little. The horse isn’t quite in the best position for either a “Golden Ratio” or a Fibonacci spiral composition. So I took the dimensions of the picture – I would do an approximate A4 size – and I worked out the Golden Ratio figures. I had (I can’t find it now) a book on art which showed how to do this and I made myself an
Excel Spreadsheet with the formulae and formatting which would work out the proportions for me once I had input the height and width measurements.

That would be measurements A-B and A-D on the diagram above. This diagram is not to scale, it merely serves to show where the measurements that the spreadsheet throws up will be. Below is the Fibonacci spiral which largely reproduces the Golden Ratio on one side of the page only. A second, flipped, image imposed on it would produce the Golden Ratio. The Golden Ratio calculations make it easier to get
the right proportions for a non standard shaped “canvas”.

The measurements of my picture are approx. A-B 26.5 cm A-D 20cm so not far off a square. The Golden Ratio figures would then be: A-G 9.9cm; G3-G4 6.1cm; G4-B 10.5cm, across the top and A-G1 6.9cm; G1-G2 5.5cm; G2-D 7.6cm down the side (I usually work in “old money” but it is easier for this purpose to use metric).

In fact I sub-divided the left hand and right hand sections again, drew out the lines on a piece of A4 paper and then sketched in how I wanted to lay out the various parts of the picture. I moved the horse further to the right; I placed the stream on one of the vertical lines; I placed the trunks of the trees on the left onto two of the vertical lines and various other changes of level and subject on or near to intersections of the lines. (This is the composition technique used by Constable in his paintings.) Here is the sketch.

Just to see what would happen I put a tracing of a single Fibonacci spiral on top of the sketch and found that it worked too. The horse was right where the centre of interest should be. The sheets moved a bit when I tried to scan them together but I think you can see what I mean from this:

So now I will sort out my backing felt and start to lay out the picture on it. I had tried to lay out the background colours on some white commercial prefelt and wet felt it but I had overlooked the fact that the prefelt would not shrink as much as fibres from tops, so that was a failure because the size was not right for my measurements. I have therefore cut out a correctly sized backing felt, again made from white prefelt, but of a much larger size so that I’ve got some left over for the next picture(s). I have made a tracing of the sketch and will use that as a template to mark out the placement of the main features by stitching through the tracing. Then I will need to blend some colours and start “painting”. (Click on any of the photos to enlarge.)

Second quarter Challenge, Nuno Felt Surface Design.

Second quarter Challenge, Nuno Felt Surface Design.

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The second quarter is already here, I am not sure how that happened. I think using fabric as a surface design instead of a base is a good idea for the second quarter. Use cotton or silk or rayon or what ever you like to make some surface designs. You can make texture or pattern.

Try a mosaic? (I think one is Zed’s)

or making a picture? I made this to practice machine embroidery on.

Layer some silk

How about some texture?

 

 

Or let your imagination sore, have fun with it.  You can post your experiments good and bad over in the Felt and Fiber Studio Forum. http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/thread/3708/2018-second-quarter-challenge

 

 

New red hat and reshaping 2 hats

New red hat and reshaping 2 hats

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I finished the red the is similar to the blue one I showed you a little while ago.  It’s dry now but I have to add a button to keep the side up. I made the curly ends very long so I think I will have to tack them inside the brim.

red hat with curls 2 red hat with curls 1 red hat with curls 3

I also reshaped a couple of hats. I made them a while ago and lots of people have tried them on and they never look good so it was time to reshape them.

This is the first one:

red pleated hat

I took the buttons off and released the pleats. Then I wet it down and cut strips into it. then folded and wove them together.

Red hat reshaped 2 Red hat reshaped 1

To me the folded up portion it was to big so I trimmed it down. I still have to trim the ends.

Red hat reshaped 3 Red hat reshaped 4

The second is a green one that was similar. Sorry I don’t have a before shot. I was sure I had one on my phone but I didn’t.

green hat reshaped 1 green hat reshaped 2

I am hopping that they sell at the show I am going to this weekend. It’s a new show for me so I don’t know what will happen. It’s in Naven Ontaario Canada.  https://www.facebook.com/events/

 

 

Second Quarter Challenge

Second Quarter Challenge

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This quarters challenge is using a photo to generate a colour palette to work with.  Often you have a photo that has colours that are really appealing but its not easy to pick out all the colours. There are some great palette generators on line. They can help you find all the colours in a picture.

Some generators only give you a few colours some give you a complete palette. I used my Easter soap picture to try them out. Some had a hard time with the yellow and the deep pink but generated nice palettes.

These first 2 are advertised to generate palettes from photos. The first is http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/ It gives you 2 palettes from the picture but only 5 colours each. It gave me red for the pink and completely ignored the yellow.

scshot 1 crop

 

The second one I liked was http://www.palettefx.com/ It gives you a better range of colours and the colours were more accurate to the picture. The nice thing is  that if you click on any colour in the palette it gives you the compliment and the triad.

scshot 2 crop

I thought some people might like to break their pictures into colour and pattern to make a felt picture.  I tried a couple of cross stitch pattern generators.

This one http://www.pic2pat.com/index.en.html generates 19 possible cross stich patterns each one uses a different number of colours. It will generate a palette and pattern if you click on them.

scshot 3 crop

Than I tried this one http://stitchboard.com/pages/pattern/freePatternWizard.php It will make a beading, crochet, cross stich or knitting pattern. It has lots of options and if you join( it says it is free) you have even more options. I did it as a cross stitch pattern.

scshot 4 crop

I couldn’t find any for other kinds of stitching so I googled quilt pattern generator and found the Victoria and Albert museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/quilts/patchwork  It creates a much more abstract picture. You can up load your own picture or you can use pictures from the museum. The thing I didn’t like is the colours are not  bright. The yellow is mustard and not sun yellow. 

scshot 5 crop

I hope that you find these useful and inspirational when you try this quarters challenge of using a picture to pick your palette for making a felt piece. Remember you don’t have to use all the colours in any palette and you could split it and use some in the felt and some in stitching or beading you add after the felting. Please show us what you do here: http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/thread/2196/second-quarter-challenge-2015

 

More Tea Cozies.

More Tea Cozies.

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As promised I will show you the finished tea cozies.

This one is reversible so you can have it red for Christmas if you like. there is no reason you couldn’t put a design on the “inside” if you liked. I just didn’t think about it until after. This one would fit most medium sized tea pots.

tea cozy orange tea cozy orange other side

This one I made so you don’t have to take it off to pour your tea. It is much more fiddly and I finished the edges with blanket stich. I also have to put a button and loop for under the handle. With felt having no stretch it won’t go over the handle other wise. I made this one thinner too. It was mostly because I wasn’t sure it was going to work and hate wasting wool on something that doesn’t work.

tea cozy black

Then I made one for my french press. I didn’t want the coffee drinkers to feel left out. It will be good to have as the only time we use a french press is when the power is out.

coffie cozy

Do you use tea cozies? I only use them when the power is out. The rest of the time my teapot sits on the stove.

 

Draw Winner and a To Small Tea Cozy.

Draw Winner and a To Small Tea Cozy.

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The winner of the Nuno Felt Bracelet Kit is Kate Whyte, Congratulations.

 

I am holding a tea cozy class in February. I know how to make a basic tea cozy but thought I would try some different shapes for different tea pots.  This is one to a little oriental tea pot.

teapot

Here is the template I made. You can see that I traced the teapot and then added to that. The plan was to cut the handle section out and use it to fold over the lid and hold with a button and make a hole for the spout.

resist

Here it is ready for its  rub and roll

tea cozy 2

and this was after a little rolling with the resist out.

didn't shrink

You can see it hasn’t  shrunk much but it just barely fits the teapot. I drastically underestimated how fat my little tea post is. I did not allow nearly enough room to go around it and have shrinkage.  I didn’t measure, I was being lazy and paid for it.   Oh well live and learn.  I have some other tea cozies partially made. We will see how I did with them when they are done.

 

Introduction to Wet Felting at The Fold

Introduction to Wet Felting at The Fold

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A couple of months ago while shopping at The Fold in Marengo, IL, owner Toni Neil asked me if I’d be interested in teaching a wet felting class.  Many of the people who shop there are knitters, crocheters and spinners and she said they were curious about the felting. I agreed and we settled on November 1, class size and I provided her with a class description and supply list along with a list of the items I would be supplying.

I always think when taking a beginners class it’s nice to come home with something you can either use or show people, so I chose to make a place mat.  In preparation, I made a couple as examples and gathered some other samples to show how embellishments can be used.  I also brought along, yarns, prefelt, and some silk for embellishments.

2014-11-02 14.40

I provided a pool noodle, bubble wrap, a template, a piece of polyester curtain fabric for each student and gathered up my samples and other tools to discuss as we worked. In addition, I printed out flyers for the forum, a resource list and a general step by step guide to basic wet felting for future reference.

preparation

The class was held in Toni’s kitchen at The Fold which was comfortable for four people. Unfortunately, they had to turn away a fifth, but I don’t know where we would have put another body.

I was surprised to learn that a couple of the ladies had come from as far away as Beloit, WI and Highland Park, IL which is an hour and half away.  The other two lived closer to me.

layout 3_edited-1

The kitchen was nice and bright.  So sunny, pictures were a little hard to get.

laying out lay out 2

The one thing I learned is that they would have preferred to not have choices as to design.   However, I’m never one to squash the creativity of a group and as it turned out they helped each other and while they followed basic designs they added their own creative touches.

Toni M (not the owner) finished first and was pleased with her first project and decided she liked her organic edges.

Toni

Dana brought some beautiful Churro yarn she’d purchased from New Mexico and made her mat a bit more abstract with a lovely turquoise background.

Dana

Carolynne purchased her roving and yarn to match at The Fold with the intention making an additional five mats of the same design which featured the stripes and abstract yarn design.

Carolynne

Since Candace had just purchased all the merino sheep from The Fold, she chose to feature a sheep on her design that she cut out from prefelt and used yarn for a fence, silk for clouds and some roving for grass.

Candace and sheep

They were all pleased with their place mats.  We worked hard, but had a good time.  Now these knitters, crocheters, spinner and weaver have a new tool in their fiber kits!  I hope they will continue to experiment and join us on the forum.  For more information on The Fold check out their website http://www.thefoldatmc.net

I haven’t taught a class in a long time.  I was tired, but a good tired and had fun meeting new people and sharing my passion with them.

 

 

Second Quarter Challenge: Stewart Stephenson

Second Quarter Challenge: Stewart Stephenson

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As you probably know we have decided to pick a different artists for our quarterly challenges this year. This quarter I have chosen Stewart Stephenson http://www.stewartstephenson.com/home He is a Canadian artist that has a large body of work in a variety of mediums and styles. I think there is something for everyone here.

He has a gallery in Vancouver British Columbia Canada

gallery-img1 stevenson 1 stevenson 3 stevenson 5 stevenson 2stevenson 4

It says he did some sculptures but I couldn’t find any pictures. I even sent them an email asking about them but got no response. If you find some please share them with us. Have fun with this.

Don’t forget there will be a post over on the felting and fiber forum where you can ask questions, discuss and post pictures of what you where inspired to make.

 

Shrinkage

Shrinkage

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A little different angle on the fingerless mitts today. I thought I would how you the shrinkage I get on them. I am using a 23 micron merino for the body of the mitts.fingerless mitt white 1 fingerless mitt flowered 1

The bottom layer is the resist, Next is the mitt when I take it off the resist and then the finished mitt. I think there is more then 30% shrinkage but not 50%. The stems are a single yarn and the flowers are made from prefelt.

There are 2 other pairs without there resists. the stripes are multicoloured merino wool the bluish mitts have a sparkly commercial yarn on them.

fingerless mitt green fingerless mitt blue 1

Tomorrow is blending wool on the carder so I have enough wool to make more. I am down to small amounts of colours and I have no black left.  Just as well we are in for really cold temperatures and then a snowstorm.