Studio challenge – Page 2 – Felting and Fiber Studio

4th Quarter Studio Challenge

September 28, 2015 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

It’s a bit early I know, but it was either that or a bit late! All our challenges this year have been on the theme of colour. Ruth’s challenge for the first quarter focused on Colour Theory, and we learnt about the colour wheel, hue, value and intensity.

Ann’s 2nd quarter Challenge was to upload a photo to different Palette generator websites to create a colour scheme to work from.

Marilyn’s 3rd quarter Challenge expanded on this and the challenge was to use dyeing or blending to create the colours the palette generators suggested.

So, what’s my challenge going to be for the 4th quarter? Well, after all the very colourful previous challenges and entries, I thought how about ‘no colour’ i.e. grayscale. Then I remembered Teri had messaged us with a suggestion about a study in shades and tones, and she sent us this link: http://www.mccallsquilting.com/blogs/blog/2015/07/16/that-cat-a-visit-with-pam-lincoln/

So that’s when I thought ‘Monochrome’ would be better than ‘grayscale’, it’s similar, and limiting enough to really be a challenge and get the brain cells working, but also has lots of scope for potential.

It’s upto you how you interpret it, and how far you take it. For example, you could use some of the things we learned in the first quarter and choose a colour of wool to make tints and shades by blending it with various amounts of white and black wool.

Or you could use photo editing software to colourise a photo:

Then upload it to a palette generator site:

And use the palette to create a monochrome piece of felt or fibre artwork, or maybe even have a go at blending or dyeing the shades from the palette too. Those are just a few ideas, but simply the challenge for this quarter is ‘Monochrome’. Have fun!

First Quarter Challenge

March 28, 2015 zedster66 Comments 16 comments

I thought I would try blending some tints and shades for the First Quarter Colour Challenge. And yes, I did have to look back to Ruth’s post, I wanted to say ‘lights and shades’ 🙂 I chose pink Merino because I have an abundance of it and didn’t really care if I messed it up and got something awful! I used ‘Hot Pink’:

I kept it simple, I blended 3 parts pink with 1 parts white, 2 each of pink and white, and 1 part pink with 3 parts white. The original is on the left:

I did the same thing with adding black:

I did start blending with my hand carders, but did a lot of it by hand. This is all the shades together:

Then I blended them all together on the drum carder with some black and white Viscose tops, white Bamboo tops and black Nylon tops to make a batt:

I might blend some of the pinks I have with some other colours to make them a bit more useable 🙂

Monet Challenge

July 31, 2014 zedster66 Comments 25 comments

I didn’t get a chance to do any felting for a while until this week because we had a ridiculous heatwave here. I did manage to make a few batts for the Monet challenge though. After choosing some of my favourite paintings, or ones which I thought I might be able to use as inspiration, I made a simple montage:

I then messed about with it in Photoshop:

Using this for inspiration I made a couple of green batts; a purpley one; a purple and yellow blended one which looks kind of mustardy/mossy, and a mixed blue one. Looking at Monet’s style he mostly had a straight/dashy style, but some paintings or certain areas of paintings had a softer swirly style. For the first piece I made using the batts I laid out areas of different colours then added softer wispier swirls of wool and fibres:

I made this piece using the batts too. Neither of these first pieces copy Monet, they are just inspired by the colours.

I wasn’t very confident I could do an actual ‘copy’ of a Monet painting, but I thought I’d have a go of at least doing an impression of a Monet piece 🙂 I chose Morning On The Seine In The Rain.

I was actually quite surprised when this started to dry and it actually looked like something! I don’t know if it’s because I’ve stared at the original so much that I can see the similarity and that it’s meant to be it, but I’m pleased with how it turned out.

When I was fluffing up the fibres for the swirly piece, I thought I might have a go at needlefelting a piece too. Since I had all the colours out, and had really started to like it, I thought I’d do another based on Morning On The Seine In The Rain. I used a piece of thick commercial Merino prefelt as a base, and blended some texturey wools like Icelandic, carded lambswool and Devon longwool with Merino to get the colours and texture I wanted. I like the way this turned out too 🙂

If you want to join in the challenge, you can comment on any of our Challenge posts and link to your piece or post it on the forum in the thread we have there: http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/thread/1587/third-quarter-challenge

First Quarter Challenge 2014 – Lyn’s Entry

February 10, 2014 zedster66 Comments 24 comments

Our Guest Post today for the First Quarter Studio Challenge, is from Lyn.

***

I’ve enjoyed this challenge and I’ve learnt a little about one of America’s most influential artists. Some of Jackson Pollock’s art is interesting, yet some pieces remind me of kitchen counter tops – for example, ‘Lavender Mist’:

I wanted to find a Jackson painting to inspire me so I hit ‘Google images’ and quickly found one I liked.
It was headed ‘Abstract art by Jackson Pollock, oil painting on canvas’.
Enthusiastically I chose my colour palette:

At this point, I would like to have shown you the painting that was my inspiration, but (blushing ever so slightly) I can’t.
I have since discovered that it’s really a ‘Pollock-style’ painting that’s mass produced in Asia.

So, moving swiftly on, here is my Pollock-style felt picture – finished size is 18″ x 15″.

I made a base of two layers of white merino topped with one layer of rusty-red. I started the fourth layer by making a border all around with the same red, then working inwards with ever decreasing ovals, I put down dusty orange, gold, yellow then white in the middle. The fifth layer was a repeat of the fourth. On top I placed strips of blue, rusty-red and slate in a representation of broad brush strokes then drizzled some strands of silk tops along some of them. Finally, I dotted on wool nepps to represent drips of paint.

After ten minutes of agitating the wool fibres, I folded the edges under because I wanted the finished piece to have quite straight edges, as a painting on a canvas would. They were looking good and straight during the felting but they warped during the fulling because of the uneven layers.

Happy though I was with finished piece, I decided to cut it up with a rotary cutter and re-arrange the slices. I stuck the slices to a board, took a photo, then added a border to make it look like a painting.

Now, where did I put the phone number for the Tate Modern……

Fourth Quarter Studio Challenge

November 17, 2013 zedster66 Comments 12 comments

For once, I didn’t leave it until the last minute to start on my piece for the Studio Challenge! I was hoping to take photos of the whole process of making the batt for the top layer, but I’ve moved all my stuff downstairs and it’s really dark so the photos didn’t turn out. For anyone who’s forgotten, this quarter’s challenge is ‘Autumn’. The oranges, rusts, yellows and reds associated with autumn are one of my favourite colour themes, so I have a nice collection of embellishments in these colours. I made a piece large enough to make a book cover out of and have plenty of felt spare to make closure flaps and straps:

I don’t usually add wisps over my surface embellishments, but I wanted a look of them being more ‘submerged’ and part of the surface than on it. Some yellow cotton gauze:

A red and yellow piece of silk:

And a dyed lock of Bluefaced Leicester:

I also nuno felted my new fabrics this week. I only managed to get a clear photo of this one so far, it’s very dark again today. This is a nice patterned grey/blue and pink georgette fabric.

It didn’t attach very well in some places, it’s a bit ‘slick’, but where it did attach, it rippled nicely:

Have you made anything for the Studio Challenge? Lyn has http://rosiepink.typepad.co.uk/rosiepink/2013/10/autumn-felt.html and so has Teri Berry http://teriberrycreations.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/fourth-quarter-challenge.html

3rd Quarter Challenge Finished Pieces

September 28, 2013 zedster66 Comments 13 comments

I worked on my mixed media pieces for Karen’s 3rd Quarter Challenge this week. The first piece I worked on was the smaller board with lots of folded and creased scrim on. I started by painting the background with some blue shades of acrylic paint.

Then I layered lots of shades of blue and white, then finished with some details of black, white, yellow and red. This is the piece just after I finished, while it was still wet.

And this is it when it is dried. You can’t really see the texture in the photo, but I’ve uploaded it to flickr, so you can see the texture of the scrim and the detail better.

Here’s a supermacro of a small part which does show some of the texture.

Often when I work with acrylics, I need to wipe off excess paint, so I keep a spare painting board nearby to wipe the paint on there. It makes a great base for another painting. This isn’t really part of the challenge, but I painted it just after the blue piece. It’s mostly the same colours, but in different amounts.

And a supermacro:

The second piece I worked on was the larger board with 2 layers of scrim. It did turn out the way I’d planned, but didn’t look as good as I’d imagined. I painted a light grey in the centre and dark greys around the edges. Then I covered some laser prints of artwork in Golden gel medium and stuck them face down on the surface. When they were dried the next morning, I wet them and carefully rubbed off the backing paper to reveal the prints. I covered in gel medium then painted reds, oranges, yellows and whites around the edges. I don’t think I got enough paper off the bottom print. I might carry on working on this, I think it needs something else.

Sorry, Kaz, I couldn’t think of a way to add metal, there’s a little bit of silver acrylic paint on the blue one, though 🙂 Has anyone else made anything for the challenge?

3rd Quarter Challenge and a Notebook

September 18, 2013 zedster66 Comments 13 comments

I’ve finally made a start on a couple of pieces for Karen’s 3rd Quarter Mixed Media Challenge. I chose two different types of background, the first one is a 7 x 5 inch art board, I think it is meant for watercolour paints. These are boards with a textured paper surface.

I covered this with Weldbond glue then added some cotton scrim, I added some Golden gel medium and added some more scrim, making creases, gathers and folds. Then I covered it in Gesso.

The next background is hardboard, the same kind of thing pegboard for workshops is made out of. I got some 8 x 6 inch pieces cut years ago for making polymer clay mosaics.

I covered this in Weldbond glue, added a layer of scrim, then glued another layer of scrim on top. I covered this in Gesso too. They are both almost dry, waiting for me to forget to finish them 😉

I finished another fabric collage notebook cover last week. This is a small A6 one. This is the front:

And this is the back:

I used some flowery fabric to line the inside, and used the sewing machine to attach the flaps, then hand-stitched blanket stitch around all the edges.

It’s probably not quite as effective as zig-zagging with the machine, but it’s helps stop the fabric fraying.

Third Quarter Challenge :)

July 2, 2013 Comments 16 comments

New Quarter Challenge

How times fly’s 🙂

I was unsure what to do with this next quarter challenge and as most of everyone here are felters or fibre artists I was having a lot of trouble coming up with a challenge that would be fun

So sorry but naturally I choose mixed media and I’m really hoping that you will give this a go

I’ll kick it off with my latest project and we’ll go from there

This was made on a canvas that I wanted to look like an old bit of wood, so I first gesso’d, then used modelling paste and heated it up, (heaps of fun) followed by a couple of light washes of burnt umber paint, highlighted with a greeny blue paint to represent mould and white gesso, I attached some old rusty wire then cut out some fabric for flowers and leaves. I then made some felt stems which I paverpoled to stiffen, painted the flowers and leaves after I laid them all out on the canvas, added some silk spiderwebs and secured them with a spray adhesive and couple of metal spiders that I gesso’d black, can you find them lol being black their very hard to see but trust me, their there lol

Im really happy with the way this turned out and I was thinking that this quarter it could be a mixed media piece using a combination of things and making it 3D, if everyone is up for it 🙂

So the challenge is to create something on a background using at least one element from the 3 different catagories. It has to be on a background or canvas or anything else you can come up with and include

1 – Felt, Fibre, Fabric, Yarn , threads ect,

2 – Metal, wire, mesh, rusty bits ect

3 – Paints, gesso, modelling paste, paverpol, or wood glue ect

I hope you’ll find this a fun challenge and be happy to play along xo

Nuno Felt Experiments for the Studio Challenge

June 18, 2013 Shepherdessann Comments 10 comments

Every quarter on the forum we do a challenge. http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/thread/622/second-quarter-challenge I thought I better get on with it myself before the challenge runs out. I challenged people to try nuno felting or to try it on something they hadn’t before. I decided to try some fabrics that I wasn’t sure would work, to see what would happen. There are lots of pictures. I did shrink them so I hope they don’t overwhelm anyone’s computer connection.

For all the pieces I used merino wool in a contrasting colour so I could see how the wool migrated better.

The first is a polyester knit that is like t-shirt material. It feels a lot like cotton.

this is what it finished like. It worked really well. I think because it is a soft knit the fabric fibers could easily move out of the way letting the wool through.

This one is from a poly knit dress more like the polyester we used to wear in the 70’s.

It worked fairly well but it is heavier material and the wool didn’t come through as much.

These next two are different sides of the same silk fabric cut from a woven silk jacket. it was a pretty little jacket but small and out of date. The texture of the fabric is great, quite 3 dimensional. This is the right side.

I think it worked really well.

This is the wrong side.

It didn’t felt as well, I do not know why the fiber would not travel through fabric as well in this direction but as you can see not nearly as much wool migrated to the top.

Lastly is a mystery fabric. it is cut from a blouse. Both sewn into the seam together. one said 100% silk and the other said 100% polyester.

It did work very well but you can’t see its shine much at all. You do see it more in person.

There is still time to join in the challenge. Try something new or show us something old you tried that worked or didn’t. I think the failures or things that went sideways are sometimes the most interesting.

Second Quarter Challenge: Nuno Felt

April 1, 2013 Shepherdessann Comments 14 comments

This quarters challenge is about nuno felt. If you have never tried it, try it. Pick an open weave fine fabric and have ago. If you have tried it before put it on something you have never put it on before. If you make nuno scarves all the time try putting some fabric on a hat or pot or bag.

If that’s old hat they try some different fabrics, silk, cotton, linen, hemp, or synthetic.

If that’s not enough of a challenge try some fabrics you don’t think will work. Maybe thicker silk or cotton, maybe some lace or a woven plastic.

If you need some inspiration you can download Zed great book called: BEYOND NUNO: A Guide to Using Fabrics in Wet Felting. http://feltbyzed.blogspot.co.uk/p/e-books.html

Be creative and take Nuno where you have never taken it before. Don’t forget to tell us about what you’ve tried and how it turned out.

Felting and Fiber Studio

An International Collective of Felt and Fiber Artists

Browsed by
Tag: Studio challenge

4th Quarter Studio Challenge

September 28, 2015 zedster66 Comments 19 comments

Like this:

First Quarter Challenge

March 28, 2015 zedster66 Comments 16 comments

Like this:

Monet Challenge

July 31, 2014 zedster66 Comments 25 comments

Like this:

First Quarter Challenge 2014 – Lyn’s Entry

February 10, 2014 zedster66 Comments 24 comments

Like this:

Fourth Quarter Studio Challenge

November 17, 2013 zedster66 Comments 12 comments

Like this:

3rd Quarter Challenge Finished Pieces

September 28, 2013 zedster66 Comments 13 comments

Like this:

3rd Quarter Challenge and a Notebook

September 18, 2013 zedster66 Comments 13 comments

Like this:

Third Quarter Challenge :)

July 2, 2013 Comments 16 comments

Like this:

Nuno Felt Experiments for the Studio Challenge

June 18, 2013 Shepherdessann Comments 10 comments

Like this:

Second Quarter Challenge: Nuno Felt

April 1, 2013 Shepherdessann Comments 14 comments

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: