rosiepink

Happy Spring Flowers! Handmade felt and paper and stitch...

Little felty springy flowers!

Annie

I love making handmade felt pictures, sometimes leaving them just as they are, made purely from wool fibres, and sometimes giving the felt some extra texture or colour by sewing into it or adding applique or paint.  And quite often I like chopping it up!

I've recently been combining handmade felt with different backgrounds (calico, canvas, paper) to give it a different dimension, and a firmer body for mounting or hanging, or just sending as a greeting card.

Here's some little pictures I made this week:

I bought a packet of small sheets (A6) rag paper at the Knitting and Stitching show last year to have a play with, that have been sat in a pile of "stuff" ever since.  I've been wanting to get my watercolours out again (not that I was ever any good, or even painted much, but when I did do it I really enjoyed it!).  So anyway I saw them sat there the other day and instead of getting the watercolours out I started randomly tearing holes in them to make apertures for felt.  It didn't quite turn out how I envisaged in my minds eye but it got me thinking.  

 

Then I shoved some of my handmade felt balls in the holes and added stems with a marker pen.  I really liked how they "popped" from the paper.

Then I couldn't resist and turned to my default method of covering things with machine stitching!

And all flowers again.  They spring easily from my imagination, no research required :)  Does that make me lazy?!

I also had a quick go at stitching some flowers in black thread to which I added a piece of yellow handmade felt.  Then it looked top heavy so I added in some colours with acrylic paints. The detail was too small to add more felt with the machine cos it would have been too perforated after two goes over. 

I liked the acrylic paint on the rag paper combined with the stitching - I think the machine stitching almost makes it look like a pen and ink drawing.

It's a shame the colour of the felt doesn't really go with the paint colours at all!  I was just playing, and one thing about the paper is that it's hard to unpick without destroying it!  No where near as forgiving as fabric.

It was a fun bit of playtime and I reckon there are lots more possibilities for this cotton rag paper.  It comes in lots of sizes, am thinking maybe a big piece would make an interesting project.  Or when it all goes wrong a big piece cut into lots of tiny pieces! :-)

 

 

Inspiration

Lyn

My husband and I (sound just like the Queen don't I?) took our grand-daughter on holiday to Penzance in Cornwall last week where she saw a real Pasty Pirate.  The felt version is on the door of my craft room...

She didn't believe me when I explained that seagulls really do swoop down and steal food from your hand.  But when we were walking along Penzance High Street, we saw a seagull fly away with a man's pasty.  He shouted at the bird and gave chase.  The pasty must have been too hot for his beak because the bird dropped it!

We had a lovely time and I took lots of pictures to remember the holiday and to inspire me when making things back at home.  I always like to bring back more than photos of wonderful views...

...and a new friend having fun.

But also lots of photos to stash away in my inspiration box!

Textural inspiration can be found anywhere.

top left: the wooden support for a church porch - the church sits on a beach and the wood is beautifully weathered.

top right: pampas grass - the pruned grass resembles wood shavings.

bottom left: the bark of a tree - I was so fascinated by the trunk that I didn't notice what kind of tree it was!

bottom right: part of an old stone wall around a derelict tin mine.

This photo is of a part of a picture I made back in 2009 from a similar photo of an old tin mine - the texture was created by machine stitching the felt:

Tree bark, tree stumps and tree climbers - all great texture!

I spotted a long bank of grass that seemed to be lit by the sun - unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me (that's a lesson learned then!) so I used my phone camera but it didn't capture the full beauty of the light or the ethereal green that I saw.

Get up close to any plant to appreciate its beauty and complexity.

Parts of buildings can be very inspiring.  The two photos above were taken in the castle at the top of St Michael's Mount in Cornwall.  I wandered out onto the 'gallery' of the turret and was horrified by the drop below!  I am in awe of the builders who created this castle all those years ago.

What is it about lighthouses and derelict buildings that is so fascinating?  

 

 

Tulip Bowl - daft journey from sketch to completion

Lyn

I love colour, but when I sketched out an idea for a tulip bowl, I thought it would look rather good in black and white.

So I made a large piece of plain white felt with merino wool, then threaded up the sewing machine with black thread.

I spent an entire day sewing then unpicking, re-sewing then unpicking again ... and when the daylight faded so did my enthusiasm for the project.  

After a few days of ignoring my sewing table, I fortified myself with a mug of tea and biscuits then I picked up the white felt again and threaded the sewing machine with brightly coloured thread.  I spent several hours sewing then unpicking, re-sewing then unpicking again ... it's a good thing that handmade felt is forgiving if you unpick stitches from it carefully.

When you've invested a lot of time in something it's hard to give up - the sensible side of your brain is telling you to stop wasting your time but the optimistic/creative/daft side urges you on. 

So I went back to plan A and stitched some tulips and leaves in black thread on the white felt. It was very late in the evening when I'd finished.  I put it on the sewing table, stood back, tilted my head from side to side to look at it properly and ... I didn't like it.  At that point I should have gone to bed.  But the daft side of my brain wouldn't let me.  Dye the felt it suggested.  What now?  Yes, now.

I found some empty jam-jars, some half-used packets of 'Dylon' powder dye and I covered the kitchen counters in newspaper.  I tied my pinny on and mentally rolled up my sleeves.

I only had dark purple, bright pink, deep gold and turquoise dyes, but after a few false starts I managed to mix a green I liked by combining the right amounts of gold and turquoise.  I raided my husband's art cupboard to borrow some paint brushes (sorry about the permanent colour change to the bristles darlin') and dobbed/dripped the dye into the white felt.  

At half past midnight I could see that I'd made a right mess of it.  I picked it up and carried it over to the pedal bin.  I put my foot on the pedal and heard the familiar clang as the lid of the bin hit the radiator behind it.  The sharp noise in the quiet of the night brought the daft side of my brain back to attention.  I couldn't stop now could I?

I dropped the felt into the kitchen sink and managed to remove a lot of the dye with warm soapy water until it became a very pale version of its former self.  I rinsed it then rolled out as much water as I could.  I applied the dyes again. I didn't have anything to lose and I was tired so I was quite 'free' with the application of the colours.

When I'd finished I felt a wave of surprise, delight and relief artistic pleasure with the result. 

The felt was quite wet and I was concerned that the dye might 'migrate' further and turn some areas 'muddy', so to dry it quickly, I put it in a warm fan oven (with the door left open) for half an hour while I cleared the mess away.  I kept checking it every 5 minutes because I didn't want it to turn golden brown!

The tulip bowl stands 7cm tall and is 24cm at its widest (2.75" x 9.5") and I'm glad that I didn't give up on it.  

How long do you keep going on a project when it seems to be falling apart?