osage hand dyed fibers – Felting and Fiber Studio

Pandagirl’s 2017 3rd Quarter Challenge Part 2

September 9, 2017 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 16 comments

This challenge became more of a challenge than I expected. If you missed part 1, you can see it here: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2017/09/01/pandagirls-2017-3rd-quarter-challenge-part-1/

I had intended to use a combination of free motion and hand embroidery to add details to finish it. However, when I tried to use the sewing machine the felt was too thick and the stitches were just buried and I couldn’t control the machine. So, after an hour or more ripping out teeny stitches, I started the hand embroidery.

Embroidery is not my strong suit. My goal was to give an impression of ruffled petals and a hint of stamens. After looking at pictures of Sakura, I decided to keep it simple.

I made stars in the center of flowers with a knot in the middle on some. I didn’t want them to all look alike. Here I was getting started.

At first I tried using the stem stitch for the flower petal, but that proved to be hard to do in the felt and it really didn’t give it a ruffled look. so, I settled on a satin stitch. I varied the tightness depending on how close or far away it was. Then added some stem and back stitches to show differences.

Here are some closeups.

Another goal was to keep it subtle as if it was a 17th century scroll or painting that had faded over time. I originally had wanted to give it a scroll texture, but I had purposely didn’t felt it hard and it was thick so that wasn’t going to work. Best laid plans, right?

I also varied the color of the floss sometimes using white, pink or a strand of each to vary the depth. I also didn’t want all the flowers to look the same. I loved the dimension, colors and texture of the merino/silk scraps I used for the branches.

After I finished and wove in the threads, I steamed it to try to get the lumps out. I tried.

I know everyone had a an idea of how to position it. I liked Leonor’s idea to change it up occasionally so the same pictures looks different. Thanks Leonor!

Have you finished your challenge piece yet?

Pandagirl’s 2017 3rd Quarter Challenge Part 1

September 1, 2017 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 25 comments

It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do for the challenge of the Edo period in Japan. I was drawn to the simple scrolls with flowers and branches.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2017/07/07/3rd-quarter-challenge-2017/

I scoured the museum sites and Pinterest. I’ve been to Japan during Sakura (Cherry Blossom) season and particularly love the trees and flowers so it wasn’t too hard to narrow it down.

Since the scrolls seemed to be pale yellow, I made a batt backing then made another light batt using the Osage hand dyed merino and corriedale as a background. I added some darker fibers randomly to give the effect of lines in a scroll.

I had some left over merino/silk scraps from a scarf I had made for my son years ago. They were supposed to be tassels, but I didn’t like them and cut them off and saved them. But they make perfect tree branches. Here is my first layout.

But something was off. It didn’t feel right to me. So, I rearranged the branches.

Next was to make white prefelt for the flowers (commercial wasn’t white enough) and cutting out the shapes in several sizes. This was not an easy process. Here it is a wet look. The neat thing about the layout is that the branch can be down or up.