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1st Quarter Challenge – Part Two

1st Quarter Challenge – Part Two

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When I posted last time, I showed you the felted portion of my 1st Quarter Challenge piece. The next step was to start free motion machine stitching to add more detail.

First to find some thread that would work with the colors of the felt. I used all of these except for one of the reds.

I started with dark green thread and worked on the stems, leaves and bud. I kept the inspiration photo by my sewing machine so it was easier to see where I needed to add stitching.

Next was the light green thread. I just used it for  a few highlights on the stems, bud and top of the big leaf.

Now on to the poppies. I used a light pink for highlights. Somehow, I always forget how much the machine stitching compacts the felt. It makes the unstitched portions feel very puffy.

Then I add some yellow for the centers of the poppies.

Next is the medium value red. You can’t see it very well because it is the same value as the main poppy color. But perhaps it gives a bit more definition of the edges.

Then on to adding a little more dark value where it was needed. Afterwards, I put it up on the design board and stepped back a little. Looking for anything that didn’t look right or drew the eye too much in one place. The areas that bothered me were the top poppy there seemed to be a straight pink line coming down to the bottom of the flower. And the bottom poppy, I thought the pink at the bottom center was a bit too much.

So I added a bit more burgundy in those two areas to tone down the pink just a little. So it’s complete. You can click on the photo to see it up close. Thanks for the challenge, Lyn and Annie!

 

Cuffs and Stuff

Cuffs and Stuff

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A couple of years ago a friend alerted me to the wonderful Australian magazine simply called “Felt”. It’s only published twice a year but I look forward to it eagerly as it’s always crammed with interesting photographs and articles including artist profiles and project tutorials.

One of the artists featured in the latest edition is the Canadian born feltmaker Christianna Ferguson. Christianna’s work is very colourful and textural and, as well as teaching and exhibiting, she also creates what she calls “more functional art: scarves, purses, cuffs, tea-cosies and wearables.”

Examples of the colourful and textural work of Christianna Ferguson

So, having read about her work, when I turned the page and saw the tutorial for making her fabulous little Nuno felted and hand embroidered cuffs I had to have a go!

The fasteners are particularly cute and make an interesting feature but I struggled to get them as firm as I would have liked. For an added twist I’ve included some hand stitching and a bead to my fasteners. I added some hand embroidery to my green cuff but wasn’t happy with it…..looking back at Christianna’s examples I can see that my stitching wasn’t subtle enough! I much prefer the grey one which I left plain.

The good thing to come out of this exercise, having made two in this style, is that I’ve been reminded how much fun cuffs are to make. I designed several Nuno felted & free motion stitched cuffs for my sales tables last year and this has encouraged me to get on and make more.

Some of my earlier cuffs – can’t help but think of bacon rashers when I look at this photo!
Nuno felted and free motion stitched cuffs

I also got thinking about other possibilities and how much more sculptural I could make my cuffs. The next set are based on the design of one of my bangles, using a felt ball as the fastener and keeping the little beaded element.

The bangle that inspired the cuffs
The slits have been filled with half balls and metal buttons

They were all fun to make but I’ve come to the conclusion that I prefer the irregular shaped, Nuno style with the stitched edging (from last year) so I’ve come full circle! These are two I started this morning…..

Pre-felts laid out and wetted prior to felting
Using differential shrinkage creates an undulating surface

And this is them finished. Christianna said that when she makes hers “each cuff feels like a little piece of abstract art” and I couldn’t agree more. Although I love creating larger pieces of work there is something very satisfying about making these little cuffs and ending up with a totally unique, wearable item.

Summer Sunrise – Nuno Felt Landscape

Summer Sunrise – Nuno Felt Landscape

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I have been working on a set of nuno felted and stitched landscapes and I have finished another one. This one I am currently calling Summer Sunrise unless I come up with a better name.

Here’s how the piece looked after nuno felting. It reminded me of flowers so I thought I would go in that direction with the landscape. I googled Montana wildflowers at sunrise and found several photos to use as guidance and inspiration.

I started by free motion machine stitching a line of mountains and some tall, skinny pine trees.

I added a few lines of grasses so the trees didn’t feel like they were floating.

Then to add a few mid-ground lupines. I just kept moving down the piece as I created these from background to foreground.

Then the lupines needed a little greenery and leaves. Now on to the main attraction, the foreground flowers.

I created the foreground flowers and leaves with hand dyed silk organza. I fused them together and then fused them to the surface of the nuno felt. Here’s where I forgot to take many photos. I get involved in the process and forget all about taking any photos.

Here’s a midway photo. I used free motion machine stitching to add the details and lines. I kept layering and stitching the flowers and leaves.

After I got the two large leaves applied at the very bottom, I felt that they were too bright green and really drew your eye right to the bottom of the picture. So I decided to darken them up more. I added darker thread but ultimately, they were still too bright. So I used oil pastels to tone down the bright green.  I also used oil pastels in the mountains just to give a little bit more definition of the mountains in the distance. So this one is complete and I’m still working on the slow stitch one. I will have an update on that one next week.

Update on Nuno Felted Landscapes

Update on Nuno Felted Landscapes

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I started working on some nuno felted landscapes in April. It has been stop and start on getting them completed. But I thought I would give you an update on the results so far.

I showed you Flathead Lake at the end of April. I got a few comments on perhaps adding more stitching to the trees. It took a bit of contemplation about whether I should add more stitching. The main reasons I decided to go ahead and add some stitching is to bring the trees more into the foreground and to hide some of the horizontal stitching that I did on the lake area.

I used a #12 variegated cotton thread and free motion stitched the branches. I do like the highlights that it added and it definitely helped cover the horizontal lines of “lake stitching”. Now I need to find a “matte” fabric and get it ready for framing.

 

This is another background. I decided to hand stitch this one. I’m not sure why since it is the biggest one. It should take me quite a while especially since I have become disenchanted with it. I was working on it steadily but that has gone by the wayside.

Here it is after stitching the distant pine trees.

Then I stitched more foliage and aspen trees. I am using seed stitch and using a variety of colors. I was thinking it was similar to impressionist paintings with little dots of color. I think painting is significantly faster than stitching. So this is definitely a slow stitch piece.

Here’s a closer look at the stitches. I think I got discouraged because I still had so much to fill. I will be adding some different stitches into the foreground but I have to get the further distances completed before I can start on the foreground. What do you do when you get discouraged in the middle of a project? I have been working on other stuff, so it isn’t that I am not doing anything. But this one is not very appealing right now. Any suggestions?

Fabric Collage Landscape Part 4

Fabric Collage Landscape Part 4

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This is the last in the series of posts about the fabric collage landscape that I have been creating. If you have missed the prior posts, just click on the links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. I began working on the foreground by fusing the green fabric to the foreground and creating some rocks.

I used a dark purple fabric for the shadowed parts of the rocks. Then I created some paper patterns for the sunlit areas. I wanted to try and get the perspective and shape of the rocks correct before I cut any fabric. I only had a small amount of the light purple fabric and didn’t want to run out because of poor cutting choices. So I kept refining the paper pieces as I went along.

Once I had the rocks started, I began stitching the trees along the near shore line. I used cut up bits of dark green fabric and then stitched over them. As I said in previous posts, the fabric shifts around and so I wasn’t able to be precious about placement of the fabric. I think this is why it looks more natural because I didn’t have a lot of control over where everything ended up. You can see in the photos above the progression from left to right of the trees and then added a few more moving into the foreground. I actually probably should have done the ground cover first but I didn’t think of it.

So then I added in the ground cover. The part that is further away used a duller color and I used a piece of cheesecloth that had also been rusted. So that gave the rusty color which I think really adds to a more natural look. I kept testing the rocks as I went to see how everything was coming together. I also added a brighter green ground cover in the center foreground where the rocks are sitting. Again, it was a combination of chopped up fabric, thread and yarn.

Next was to create the rocks with fabric. The center photo shows how I added a sheer layer of painted nylon organza to achieve shadows on the rocks. The right photo shows all the rocks completed and fused down. Now on to add stitching details to the rocks.

I started with a dark grey thread in the shadowed areas of the rocks. All of the stitching is done with free motion machine stitching. Then I added black thread as the rocks definitely needed more darkness. The last thread I used was a light purple thread for highlights. I did go back in in several areas and add more grey to get the effect I wanted.

The last step was to add greenery to the rocks on the left. I used chopped up fabric again and carefully stitched it down. This was a bit tedious as the pieces of fabric were jumping around all over the place but I managed to get them all stitched down.

So finally, I have a finished fabric collage landscape. It was a lot of effort and took a long time but I am pleased with the results. I am still contemplating what to call this one. I am planning on framing it with a matte board and black frame. Thanks Antje for giving me the “push” to create this piece. I had a great time working out how to do it and I think I will be doing more of these in the future.

Fabric Collage Landscape Part 2

Fabric Collage Landscape Part 2

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Continuing on with the saga of the fabric collage landscape, I am steadily working my way down the piece.

I added texture to the mountains including threads, yarns and bits of cheesecloth.

I then stitched the bits down with free motion machine stitching. The trickiest part here is keeping everything in place but I just didn’t worry if things shifted. I kept going and moved things back as needed and just got it all stitched down.

I decided the grey cheesecloth was a bit much on the central mountain and added more brown cheesecloth on top. Then I stitched that in place.

Then I discovered that I didn’t like how the orange cloud and the distant mountain were so much alike. I tried stitching some darker thread on the mountain first and that helped.

But I thought it still needed a bit more attention in this area, so I added more blue stitching into the sky. I didn’t want to eliminate the orange, I just wanted more distinction between the sky and the mountain.

Next up, the central mountain needed a bit more detail. So I stitched some vertical dark lines in place. The trick is to add enough detail to get the impression you want but not to over do the distant mountains. The detail needs to be less here than in the foreground of the picture. (I just noticed that I must have stitched this part before I stitched the sky but you get the idea, I hope.)

 

Next up, I put the green mid ground in place and worked on the water. The sunset reflection had felt a little dark so I place a piece of light blue fabric in that portion instead of the blue green going all the way across. I then added a blue purple sheer fabric covered with a red sheer fabric. I messed around with the edges to make them look more natural. You can see here on the left if you look closely that there is a straight line going down the right side of the sunset reflection, that is where the blue green fabric butts up against the light blue fabric. I cut that edge in V’s so that wouldn’t catch my eye so much. I also played around with foreground fabric to see how it would eventually look with more green added at the bottom of the picture.

I then stitched the water into place. I wanted the water to have minimal stitching and texture so it would appear flat against the rest of the textured landscape.

Then I added the green mid ground pieces and fused them down with the iron.  You will notice that there is some white in one of the green mid ground pieces. The original photo that I was inspired by had snow in the mountains. In the end, I decided not to have snow in my picture so that will be covered up soon.

Next time I will show you texturing the green mid ground and some changes I ended up making to the water. Luckily, this is a forgiving process so mistakes can be covered up pretty easily.

Third Quarter Challenge – Part 3

Third Quarter Challenge – Part 3

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I have showed you two segments of the process of creating my “cityscape” for the third quarter challenge and had gotten to the point of adding needle felted windows and doors to my buildings. Now on to the free motion machine stitching.

I started with the doors and I did a few many times overlapping. This wasn’t a good start but instead of tearing it out, I decided to push forward and see if I could fix it as I went.

I finished stitching around all the windows and doors. I was still unhappy with the perspective and the doors on the left hand building were standing out too much.

So I added a slightly darker thread and stitched the slats across the buildings and then covered up a bit of the lighter threads where they seemed too prominent. As I said last week, it would have worked better if I had done the diagonal lines across the buildings before I added the windows and doors. The perspective would have ended up better. Perhaps I will remember that the next time I do something with buildings and perspective required.

Next up, I needed to put a bunch of stars in the night sky. I had some Bonash Bonding Powder already. It is a powdered form of fusible which melts when ironed. I borrowed some silver foil from my friend Paula. It’s like this stuff. I tried a sample on some nuno felt on the right. You have to put the shiny side up and then cover it with parchment paper and then iron for 5-10 seconds. Let it cool down, peel the foil paper off and magically you have stars!

On the left, you can see the powder sprinkled on to the nuno felt. Then the foil paper is put on top and ironed down. Let it cool and when you peel it off, your shapes will appear in silver foil. You can use any kind of fusible and even cut out shapes if you like. I used the powder so it would look like the milky way/starry sky.

And here’s the result. I think I might have gone a bit crazy with the stars but it does resemble the inspiration photo. Hopefully, everyone will be looking at the shiny, night sky and not notice how the perspective is off in the buildings. So I hope you enjoyed the saga of the “cityscape” challenge. I think I will put this one on a black background and call it “Garnet Night Sky”, after the ghost town it was based on.

 

From Tiny Acorns

From Tiny Acorns

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I completed the second nuno landscape that I was working on. I showed you the first one here.

Here is the piece of silk that I used. I can’t even remember how this was created but it looks kind of like deconstructed screen printing, perhaps. But it looked like a tree trunk to me, as usual everything looks like a tree to me.

Once it was felted, I used the silk screen shown to print some leaves at the top of the trunk. I combined silk screen medium and acrylic paint to print directly on to the nuno felt.

Here’s the piece after I printed the leaves. I added a few light ones on the ground as well by just using a small portion of the screen at a time.

The edges of the silk were loose and I decided that I would go ahead and clean them up a little before I started any machine stitching. So I pulled the edges of the silk around to the back and hand stitched them down. The photo on the right shows what it looked like from the front after stitching the silk to the back.

Then I started machine stitching some of the leaves. I used several browns, several reds, orange and yellow thread. I didn’t stitch all the leaves because I wanted some of the leaves to look like they were more in the background. So they have less detail and less bright color to allow them to “fade back” and give more depth.

I then added dark olive and light olive green to give a little definition to the trunk and create a few roots.

And here’s the final piece entitled “From Tiny Acorns’. You click on the photo to enlarge it. I am happy with the result and I had better get started on finishing and framing some of these pieces so I don’t have to do that at the last moment. I am planning on these pieces being in an exhibition in August.

 

1st Quarter Challenge – Nuno Felted and Machine Stitched Landscape

1st Quarter Challenge – Nuno Felted and Machine Stitched Landscape

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I decided for the 1st Quarter Challenge that I wanted to do another nuno felted landscape. I still have a bunch of hand dyed silk that works great for these. In the spirit of using stuff up, I used a couple of silk pieces over white pre felt to create the backgrounds. I have only finished one of the landscapes but you will see both in the first few photos.

The top left photo shows the silk before felting. I didn’t really have a preconceived notion of what the landscape would be when I started. I thought I would figure it out as it went along. I laid out both pieces of silk over the white pre felt and then wet down and felted them by mainly rubbing. I did a little bit of fulling but left them fairly soft. While I was working, I saw distant mountains and evergreen trees in the pink/orange piece. The bottom right shows that piece after felting. I did decide to pull the edges of the silk around to the back and hand stitch them down to give a cleaner edge.

Next, I decided I wanted to give the feeling of more depth so I decided to add some sheer fabric into the mountain area. I used Bo Nash 007 Fusing Agent. It is powdered fusible. You sprinkle it on and then put whatever you are fusing on top and then iron it. The picture on the left is trying out different layers of sheer fabric and the one on the right is after fusing. Click on the photos to see more detail.

Then I began machine stitching. I didn’t want to put too much detail in the distance so it was pretty simple stitching. The middle photo shows the first thread I used in the middle distance and I thought it was too dark. It’s hard to tell the difference but I picked out the darker thread and took it down a shade or two on the right. It definitely made a difference to me but it’s hard to tell in the photos.

Next up was the trees. I followed where the blue dye was in the fabric and created the further set of trees with a dark blue green thread. It is much bluer thread than the foreground trees. Then I add in the foreground trees with a couple of different shades of green thread. They have a bit more detail than the further distance trees. Hopefully, that gives a sense of depth in the landscape.

I haven’t decided on a title for this piece. Any suggestions? Have you tried creating a landscape for our 1st Quarter Challenge? If so, you can share with us over on the forum here. 

Aspen Collage

Aspen Collage

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I showed you this idea for a fabric/felt collage with my last post. I decided to change out the background fabric as it was too close in color and value to the piece of silk that I was planning on stitching an aspen branch.

I free motion machine stitched on the silk to create the look of my sketch of the aspen leaves. I backed the silk with a piece of commercial felt and cut it so it couldn’t be seen but still gives stiffness to the silk. I don’t mark the design when I stitch, just do it by eye. Once it was completed, I felt like the branch was too dark in comparison to the leaves and I liked the look of the dark leaves in my sketch.

So I colored in the leaves with a permanent marker in dark brown. That definitely was an improvement and gave quite a contrast with the lighter silk. The silk was dyed with natural dyes and was a failed attempt with eco printing. I am trying to use up all those scraps and class samples with these collages.

I chose one of my recently snow dyed cotton fabric pieces and hand stitched the printed aspen leaf on to the snow dyed background. Before I did that, I did outline the leaf with FME (free motion machine embroidery). I wanted to have some of the brown from the silk in other areas of the design.

The last detail was to outline some of the snow dyed “leaves” in the background. I didn’t really choose this piece of fabric because it had leaves but once I had attached everything, I noticed that the leaves were there, looking like aspen leaves. I just outlined them in a “sketchy” manner with a green fine tipped marker. I could have hand stitched them but I didn’t want them to be too prominent. You can’t see them from a distance but they do show up when you view the piece at a closer distance.

I haven’t decided how to display or frame this yet. I am going to make a few and then see if they work together somehow or if they are a series that will be treated similarly.

 

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