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Playing with Nuno Landscape Design

Playing with Nuno Landscape Design

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I have started working/playing with my green nuno felt landscape. When I last posted about it, I showed you an idea that I got from layering a photo over the landscape in Photoshop. I liked the dreamy look of the landscape. Now how to create it in fabric and stitch?

I had stamped some silk organza with a flower design for another project. Perhaps it would work for the landscape? So I started playing with different fabric choices and placement.

 

I added more fabric and then covered with a pale yellow green nylon organza (you can see it on the right edge) to see if it gave it that “misty” feeling. It was OK but not exactly what I wanted.

I took away the overlay and added some white lace for the floral component. That is starting to look better. I think the background behind the upper flowers either needs a grey or blue overlay of sheer fabric to make it seem farther in the distance. I didn’t really see that until I looked at the photo.

Then I wanted to compare using silk paper (flower on the right) for the flowers instead of lace. I am leaning towards the lace.

That’s as far as I have gotten on the planning process. It involves many trials of putting fabric on and off. Taking photos of each trial. Figuring out how I can integrate the applique into the background. Deciding whether I am going to use machine or hand stitching. The process is definitely a journey!

Slow Stitch Update and a Celebration

Slow Stitch Update and a Celebration

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The last time I showed you my Autumn Nuno slow stitch piece was back in April and it looked like this:

I have been continuing to stitch on this piece for 15-20 minutes per day. I have been concentrating on the bottom left corner and bottom foreground to fill in the vegetation/foliage in those areas.

Here’s a close up of that area which has the first pass of seed stitch and just needs some of the lighter areas filled in a bit more. I also think I need to evaluate the values once I’m happier with the foreground.

And here’s what the full piece currently looks like. You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them. So progress is being made, albeit slowly. I’m still enjoying the daily practice of hand stitching, adds a little zen to my day.

One year ago today, we adopted this little guy from Mission Valley Animal Shelter. His name is Edgar and he was a stray so we don’t know his breed or his age, but he has added so much joy to our lives. I thought you might want to help Edgar celebrate his adoption day and see how he is living his best life.

Slow Stitch Progress – Filling in Negative Space

Slow Stitch Progress – Filling in Negative Space

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Here’s the progress on my slow stitch project. I am still stitching away about 15-30 minutes per day on this piece.

The last time I showed you, it looked like this.

First, I added some more darker values with the deep purple thread in the mid ground area. Then because I thought that I needed a little more contrast in that area, I added some deeper red orange to look like more foliage.

Then on to working on the foreground trees. Here, I was looking at negative spaces and giving some darkness and shadow to delineate the tree trunks. I am continuing to use seed stitch and used a neutralized dark green in between the tree trunks. Since the stitches are so small, this definitely is in the slow stitch category. I am still working on the right hand side. Once that’s finished, I have more tree trunks “to pull out” on the left side.

And here’s how the entire piece looks as of now. I may need to darken up the shadows between the foreground trees and I have to decide what to do on the left hand bottom corner. The foreground trees will get some stitched leaf additions too. Plus the foreground will need work in front of the trees. I am definitely enjoying this project more since I’m not trying to force working on it for longer stretches.

 

 

Autumn Nuno Hand Stitch Update

Autumn Nuno Hand Stitch Update

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The last time I updated you on my autumn nuno landscape it looked like this. I have been slowly continuing to add more color into the middle background area with seed stitch. I added a lot of red orange as well as green and even some dark purple.

Here you can see more of the red orange additions and the purple that I used for a shadow color. I decided to use the dark purple instead of brown or black. Black is definitely too stark and I think the cool color in the middle of the red orange gives it more “pop”.

Here is the area where I added more green. You can see on the left that I haven’t finished filling in the green.

And here is the piece as it is at this point. I still need to add some more shadow shapes in the red orange swath and perhaps a bit more definition of the aspen trunks in the distance. Can you see the area that will become the foreground aspen trees? It is finally looking more landscape to me. So I will keep on with my slow stitching and update you on my progress next month.

Up the North Fork

Up the North Fork

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Here is the fifth in my series of nuno felted landscapes. It is called Up the North Fork after a portion of the Flathead River here in Montana.

Here is the layout and after wet down and felted slightly.

And here it is after felting. You’ll notice that the foreground has wool on top in browns and orange. I decided to remove that because I wanted it to look more like a river and I think the silk does that better than the wool.

I added fabric trees and fused those in place before machine stitching. This is before I decided to remove the foreground wool. The plan was to shave it off. I tried that but finally decided just to pull it off. Then I shaved the edges a bit at the edge of the “river”.

And here is the finished piece after much stitching of trees and a huge variety of green threads changed in and out of the sewing machine. The photo on the left shows the organic edges and the one on the right is cropped as if matted and framed.

I did talk to a framer about these 6 pieces and he thought I should keep the organic edges. His suggestion is to attach each piece to a matching background fabric, stitch the piece in place and then wrap the background fabric around foam core board. Then I could use a simple black frame and the background fabric will look like the matting. And you can still appreciate the organic edges. So I think I will try that and see how I like it. Only one more piece to finish and I’ll start choosing the background fabrics and get the pieces ready for framing.

Nuno Felted Beargrass Landscape

Nuno Felted Beargrass Landscape

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I am working on my third nuno felted landscape piece. This one was made with “Halloween” cloth which is some type of cheese cloth that is black but very loose weave.

Here’s the piece before stitching. I used nepps for the bear grass and then a bit of green for foreground grass and purple for the sky. I left it very loose and full of holes as I was planning on adding a background behind it. I was thinking stormy skies when I was creating it.

I then added green wool thread and couched it down for the stems and leaves. If you don’t know what bear grass is, here’s a photo.

Here’s a little closer view of the stitching. Now I had to decide on the background color. I tried a bunch. Here are a few of my choices.

I tried a bunch of shades of blue. Then I threw in an orange and a magenta to get more contrast. For stormy skies, I think the bottom left one works the best, it’s a dark blue and purple background. But I can find merit in all of the colors. Perhaps I could make a changeable background and you could insert a new background depending on your mood. But that doesn’t sound very practical. Which one do you like?

 

Autumn in the Mountains

Autumn in the Mountains

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I told you last week about our nuno felting party. I made six landscape pieces that I plan on adding either hand or machine stitching.

I don’t think I showed you this one. I used a piece of prefelt, covered it entirely with silk and then added a variety of wool for the mountains and curls for the autumn “bushes” and ground cover. It has a little bit of nuno as surface design so I suppose it counts in the 2nd Quarter Challenge. I had already started a little bit of outline stitch with stem stitch and hand dyed wool thread when I realized I hadn’t taken a photo of the piece before stitching.

The silk sky got a bit hairy so I decided to shave it down. This is the before shaving photo.

And the after shaving photo. It does make a difference in the shininess and colors in the sky.

Here is the finished piece. I used a distorted detached chain stitch in the “bushes” and a straight stitch for the grasses. The next question is how I am going to finish and frame the piece. I do like organic edges but I don’t think it looks as professional when you’re trying to sell a piece. So I cropped the photo on the right as if it was in a matte and frame. What do you think? Leave the organic edges or cover them?

 

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