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Flowers in a vase: a wetfelted abstract project

Flowers in a vase: a wetfelted abstract project

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Hello all!

First of all a recap of my recent activities to give you a background to my most recent piece.

I have been very taken with preparing and then attending my local Art Trail in the first 2 weeks of September: if you remember, my last post was about how I prepared a few new felted items for it, because I wanted to bring a mix of new and old things.

One of the Bourough of Ealing Art Trail banners on a railing at a local park.
It’s quite the event in our local community!

Here is what my stand was looking like at the beginning of the first day of the BEAT (Borough of Ealing Art Trail):

Kiki Peruzzi's stand at the Borough of Ealing Art Trail 2026 is a small table covered in a white cloth. Some scarves are hanging from a small rack on the left, and the items on the table are all small and brightly colored, with some small white framed artworks and other small items. There are small windows above the stand and the walls behind the stand are bare bricks and crumbling mortar.
My small corner. I actually did not bring a lot of items, as I could always get more from home if needed and I did not want to get a very crowded look.

 

A closer look to Kiki's stand at BEAT 2026. At the center of the image, there is the table with many different white framed artworks, two felted bowls holding small felted objects, and some coaster sets in plastic wraps. In the background there is a brick wall and in the upper part of the image there is a window letting bright light come through.
A closer look at the table. You may be able to spot some of the items I was working on the last time that I wrote a post.

 

The left hand side of Kiki's stand at BEAT 2026, with a closer glimpse to some colorful felted scarves, and some small artworks in mixed media and felt.
Here is a closer look at the left hand side.

I have to say, this event is the most fun one among the various exhibitions and events that I participate in with my local art group, the Ealing Art Group: we meet tons of people, and our families and friends are encouraged to pass through. We set up demonstrations of our art in the little yards in front of the hall (weather permitting), to pass the time and  to call passers-by inside (some of us tried also to improvise a little dance routine to catch the attention of people going by, but we felt that it was a bit too much in the end..). And we chat a lot among ourselves, as it is the only time in the year when we actually pass hours together in the same room (the other exhibitions are manned or womaned on a rota as a group, whereas each of us has to take care of their own stand in this one).

Kiki Peruzzi smiles while demonstrating wet felting outside of the Art Trail venue for her local art group. There is a white plastic table set in front of a brick wall decorated with colorful bunting. On the table there are some wool bags in white, teal, grey and pink. There are also a green sprinkler and a plastic container with some water, and on the right there is a small log on top of some white netting and bubble wrap. Kiki is holding some wool in her hands. She is wearing a white sleeveless top and dark blue short trousers.
I had an interesting time demonstrating wet felting while battling the wind and chatting to visitors: you can see it in my please-take-that-shoot-quickly-before-it-all-flies-away smile! I like to think that at least I caught many children’s hearts by giving away wisps of pink and green wool all during my demos!

This year we had a brilliant attendance on the first weekend, weirdly not matched by proportionally higher sales, and usual good attendance on the second weekend: we think that it was because other non-related events were going on in the area during the first weekend, so more people were out and about.

While I was in the middle of this, plenty of new ideas for felting and mixed media pieces were coming to my mind of course: I do not know about you, but that is what happens to me whenever I have no time and I can chat with other creative people and see what they make.

One of the ideas that I thought that I could start on without much fuss was a new wet felted piece about flowers. I need to explain that the artist exhibiting her watercolour pieces right in front of me in the room, and a good friend, is very fond of representational abstract artwork of bright flowers, and I was inspired to make a bright and colourful small piece. What I really set up to make in the end, though, was something quite different.

First of all, I considered that I had bought two canvases 65 x 90 cm (25.6 x 35.5 inches) that I had never used yet, so that a bigger artwork was in order. And, most of all, the base prefelt that I prepared for my artwork was in pewter, as I did not have enough wool of a brighter colour and also, to be totally candid, when I actually got to it, I did not feel like a brighter colour for my base.

So, you just have to take my word for it, my initial idea was of a jolly and quick little flowery piece, but good intentions did not last the first five minutes of actually setting up to make something for real, as it so often happens to me.

I put my chosen canvas on the working table to understand the approximate size of my base felt and started to lay the wool out, from the setting up of the edges to the filling of the area inside them with two layers of Merino wool. In hindsight I maybe should have gone for my usual 3 layers for the base, but as I was laying out the wool to cover the whole area I had started panicking that the project was too big for the time that I had, and so I was trying to cut times where I felt that I could. That resulted in a coverage that was not as good as I wanted for it, also because in the following steps I ended up deciding to not cover all the base with other colours so as to provide another layer on top of it, as I often do instead.

That is how I started:

There is an oval table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap. On it there is the outline in pewter wool of a big rectangle
The size for this new piece was almost at the limits of what I can make on my table when it is closed.
On an oval table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap there is a big rectangular shape almost completely covered in a first vertical layer of wool.
I tend to layout my base layers not very carefully, as it is supposed to just be a support base to the actual piece. This was my first layer.

After laying out the base and lightly wetting and soaping it, I started laying out the colours for the background from the darkest greens and greys to the lightest (light lime green, yellow and light greys and white):

On a table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap, there is a work in progress wet felted piece by Kiki Peruzzi. The piece at this stage is a big rectangle in wet pewter wool with a build up of background wisps of wool in dark and lighter green, dark and lighter grey, light yellow and white on it.
I tend to have light coming from the upper right hand in my pieces, it just works this way for me in most cases. It is also true that the table that I work on has light coming from the right naturally anyway, so maybe that is one reason.

I wanted a good contrasting area, so I went for pretty dark hues in my background, but that meant that the whole piece was already fast moving from a jolly uncomplicated colour riot to something more meditative and sober. I also realised that I wanted to not completely cover the pewter, as I was more and more reminded of my recent tondi pieces: it is just not possible to go completely away from your memories, I find.

I laid out my flowers in colours that were very bright and close to each other (two reds, a salmon, an orange and a yellow) and I added touches of darker shades to build their depth a bit, without going for realistic description. I wanted some white flowers to make the composition pop, and I went for some in white Merino wool with a center of natural yellow eri silk fiber, and some in white eri silk fiber with a few touches of bright blue mulberry silk fiber, for the shiny effect of silk that is reminiscent of oil paint shine.

I also realised that I needed some kind of vase or holding shape for my bunch of flowers, but I did not like the idea of a too solid shape when my flowers were just quick brush strokes of colours, so to speak. I went for just the outline of a vase in dark green, that could be variously interpreted and avoids weighting down the composition.

Here is what it looked like before the wetting, it seemed to me well full and with a background on the darker side, because the base in pewter was already wet at this point:

There is a work-in-progress wet felted piece on a table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap. The piece is rectangular and has a background in pewter, different hues of green and grey, with some yellow and white. The top layer has wisps of wool in bright reds, salmon pink, yellow, orange and white in different directions to expressively suggest flowers in a dark green vase. The upper layer of wool is not wet yet.
My composition before the wetting: the wool always looks more when it is still dry.

Then, I wetted and soaped the whole, and rubbed it gently under the netting. A bit of rubbing by sander followed, and I went on to the rolling very quickly. I do not need to roll it very much for my purposes, but I added a bit of additional rubbing against the bubblewrap in this case.

There is a rectangular wet felt piece that is almost all covered in bubble wrap for rubbing with a sander, on a table covered in white towel and bubble wrap.
Ready for a bit of sander rubbing.
A pewter work-in-progress felt piece is rolled into bubble wrap and rests on a table covered in a white towel and bubble wrap, ready for the rolling. On the table in the distance there is a glass half full of a clear yellow drink.
And here we go with the rolling, after some rehydration with an Italian favourite soda drink called Cedrata.

After drying it, that is what it looks like:

A wet felted artwork by Kiki Peruzzi is resting on a white canvas. The piece is rectangular, it has a pewter base layer and green and grey, yellow and white background. This abstract piece represents a vase of bright flowers in reds, salmon pink, yellow, orange and white.
This is before the ironing and to test the size of the finished felt on the canvas: it fits nicely as I wanted (I like my canvas to be seen all around the edges).

Because of the rubbing against the bubblewrap, it ended up with the piece developing a bit of movement around the edges, so that I had to iron it a bit to flatten it again after the drying.

I feel that it looks a lot less full than what I wanted, and I am pretty divided about it: do I work on it more or do I call it done? What I am thinking is that this piece would be closer to my idea if I added stitched fabrics in colours similar to the flowers to full up the areas in and around the flowers. I can not really explain well the idea that I have in mind, but I am thinking floating pieces of fabric here, very lightweight and not realistic. I also am very into textural pieces more than flat pieces, so I miss that textural element in this piece, though I understand that it is not what everybody looks for in an artwork, but I am really drawn to textures and 3D elements.

I have asked opinions about it to some of my artist friends during our breaks from the Art Trail work: mostly, they feel that the piece is fine as is, while some agree that I could work on it a bit more. I feel that they do not see in their mind what I could do with it and the right fabrics, because none of them are as familiar with textiles, but it may be that they genuinely do not feel that it will benefit from additions, with some of them mentioning the need to avoid overcrowding the composition.

So, what are my textile friends thinking about it? I can always try something and then unstitch it if I see that it is not going anywhere, but time is at a premium right now in my life, and I have so many UFOs in my pile already!

Let me know your thoughts on it, please.

In the meantime, I will take a bit of rest and relax:

There is a brown and orange Guinea pig sleeping snuggled in a soft cup in light blue and other bright colors, inside a cage with black grids and wood shavings on the bottom.
Repeat with our sweet Pumpkin: “Good nap, everyone!”

Kiki

http://www.kikistextileart.com

Instagram: kiki.textile.art

 

Pictures and Plant Pots

Pictures and Plant Pots

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In December I was trying to supply lots of different places with felt things. In truth, I was a bit over-stretched. I decided to focus on making plant holders, with a few tea light holders and a couple of vases.  Oh, and some cards. Here’s an overview of the things I made. 

PLANT POTS AND VASES

First I made four plant pot covers from merino wool and silk pre-felt and incorporating different pieces of vintage lace

Strips of vintage lace laid vertically
Vintage lace flowers
Tatted flowers from a vintage dressing table set
A broad strip of vintage lace with textured flowers
Plant pot covers with different types of recycled vintage lace

Next a couple of vases, also with a pre-felt base

Strip of broad vintage lace
Recycled crochet pansies
The left-hand one works both as a vase and a large tea light holder. For the vase on the right, I attached the pansies to the felt by felting over the strings that joined the flowers. I had to add a couple of stitches to the flowers on either end to secure them as there wasn’t any string to work with

On to some plant pot holders. When cutting the resist out of the vessel, I use the smallest hole I can that will allow me to fit the plant and its pot inside. All of these have a water proof plant pot holder inside, plus the plastic pot with drainage holes that the plants are supplied in. I like to start by looking at a plant and ‘asking’ it what sort of pot cover it might like. 

A festive plant pot holder with green merino and red locks reflecting the leaf colours

A large nuno felted plant pot holder

Layout of the under-side of the vessel
Layout of the top of the vessel
Top view finished pot holder
Side view of finished plant pot holder
Recycled silk from a very sheer silk beach dress I found in a £1 charity shop bargain bin

Nesting bowls inside each other
Nesting bowls separated out

These nesting bowls were made using a carded merino and silk batt and are very lightweight

A display of my work in Creek Creative gallery, Faversham

One of the galleries where my work was part of a month-long Christmas local makers market

PICTURES

Now we’re into the new year and I really have to focus on making some pictures.  I mentioned at the end of my last blog that I’m delighted to have the opportunity to fill the walls of a lovely local Michelin starred pub / restaurant (The Sportsman in Seasalter) with felt pictures for 6 weeks in April / May this year. The ‘fill’ bit is something of a challenge. I tend to make enough work as I go along for my normal sales and exhibitions. Making an extra 35 to 40 wet felted pictures for this exhibition will take a lot of work. I’m finding the prospect of making all those pictures both exciting and rather daunting.

In preparation for the picture making, in November I ordered 2 batches of solid beach handmade frames from my lovely local frame maker: 10 at 63 x 63cm (approximately 25 x 25 inches) and 10 at 35 x 35 cm (approximately 14 x 14 ins). I will have to order more soon but I thought this would give me a good start.  I had some serious studio-tidying to do last week before I set about the pictures… and finally I was ready to start. Where to begin?

First I made a ‘big wave’ picture for one of the larger frames.  I say ‘big wave’ in inverted commas as the waves round where I live are generally very small so we’re not talking surfing potential.  I’m endlessly intrigued by wave and sea patterns and have made this type of picture several times before.  They always end up looking very different.  I’ve taken lots of reference photos such as this one……

Example of a wave reference photo

…..that I use as a starting point.

Here’s the layout using lots of colours of (mostly) merino wool for the water; merino and kid mohair top, silk hankies, mohair and sheep locks and some vintage lace scraps for the wave; and hand-made pre-felt cut into pebble shapes for the beach. These were laid on 4 layers of merino for the base.  I’m not really sure why I did 4 layers – it makes a lovely firm base but it’s a lot harder work to felt than 2 layers and as this is going behind glass, it was a bit over-kill.  I’ll try not to do that again. 

Once it was felted and dry, I used a small metal tool to pick up some sections of wave, to make it more 3D.  Here’s the final picture and the picture sitting on top of its frame, waiting for me to get round to framing it.

Finished picture ‘ blue sea, big wave’
Picture lying on top of its frame

I’ve worked on this for more than 12 hours spread over 4 days, not including making and cutting the pre-felt pebbles, which must have taken another couple of hours, and I’ve still got the framing to do.  I’m very conscious of how many pictures I’ve got to make, so I decided to go smaller and quicker for the next 3.

One of the ways I can speed things up is to use recycled silk fabric to provide the pattern (and texture) for the water and the beach.  As an avid buyer of silk scarves from charity shops, I have 2 huge bins of material to rummage through and upcycle.

Picture two – which I’ll call leopard print – I chose a sheer leopard print scarf for the beach and a small blue striped one for the water.  Because the blue scarf is not very wide, I have to join two pieces of fabric.  To reduce the visibility of the join, I first cut into one of the pieces so that the join would be staggered. You can see it in the layout but hardly at all by the time it’s fully felted.

Joining the silk
picture layout
finished picture
finished picture sitting in its frame
Picture two – leopard print wave

I’m reasonably happy with this, though I think the wave is a bit too solid-looking.

Picture three – ‘dark blue sea’ – I go with a rather lovely dark blue patterned scarf for the water and a pale patterned beige one for the beach. 

layout
finished picture
Picture three – dark blue sea wave

Again, reasonably happy with this.  I like the sea effect and the less solid wave but the blue cobweb felt strip I put in front of the wave to look like the remains of a previous wave is a bit dense and straight.

Picture four – ‘reversible silk’ – I’m rummaging around for a different piece of silk to use for the water. I find one I like but I’m not sure quite how it will felt. It’s also reversible and I’m not sure which side to use.  I decided to make a very small sample to see how it felts and it occurs to me also to see what happens if I cut strips to alternate the two sides of the fabric.

Here’s the sample layout. I’ve run out of merino wool in this pewter colour but fortunately have some Corriedale. I felted it very quickly and forgot to take a picture of the finished sample but it was enough for me to conclude it felted well and it was worth trying the reversed strips thing.

Quick sample layout to test the silk and laying out in strips

The beach fabric is also a little different – with a bigger and higher contrast pattern.

Here’s the layout and near-final picture.  I say near-final as I only finished fulling it yesterday afternoon.  It’s still damp (I think the silk will become a little lighter and shinier when fully dry) and I haven’t yet picked up any of the fibres in the wave.

Reversible silk sea big wave layout
Reversible silk big wave near final picture – not quite dry

This is my favourite actual wave so far – I definitely like the variation in colour and greater impression of transparency.  I’m pleased with the way the cut up silk worked for the water too.  I’m not yet decided about the beach pattern – interesting or too much? 

And finally, a photo of the large and a small picture side-by-side, so you can get some idea of scale

I’m framing the three small ones without glass and the large one with. People react differently to this.  Some like to see (and feel) the texture and not have the reflections you get with glass.  Others worry about dust. A few (me included) worry about moths.  Most of the pictures will be behind glass but a few won’t. I’ll review this as I go along

By the time I write again in March, I should have lots more pictures made.  Wish me luck! I will be making some large ones with sea birds but these take so long, I’ve decided to make some less complex ones first to see how long I’ve got to spend on the most time-consuming ones. I’m having to step-up my levels of planning and organising to try to make sure I have enough work to fill the venue.

Happy new year everyone.  I hope it’s full of joy, peace and creativity.