Colourful, Experimental Wet Felted Woodlands

By Annie: I've made 3 of these long tree pictures now, the first two were shown in the previous post in their dry layout stage so I wanted to share how they turned out after wet felting, and also share the dry layout of the third one in progress, but haven't got photos of it finished yet. The first two are more blocky and abstract than the third one which I made more detailed.  I'm just trying out various ideas, got lots more to try too!  

So the first one - I liked it but it didn't felt really well as I think I accidentally used superwash fibre for the first layer that maybe got mixed up with my felting fibres. However, since I'm not totally happy with it this gives me an opportunity to play with it and work on it to see what I can do, so it's on the list for experimental needle felting, stitching etc. If anything interesting happens I'll report back!

The second one felted well since I used the right fibres this time, and also used brighter colours rather than just white for the first layers. I really like it but it could perhaps do with something more to add a little detail or something, not really sure yet! I'll let it brew for a little while while I work on other things then reconsider it with fresh eyes.

The third one is probably my favourite so far of the three. It felted well but I haven't got any decent photos of it felted yet, I'll do that for next time!

The funny thing is when I started these I thought I just wanted blocky, very abstract tree trunks, but just kept adding detail on the third one. I'll pin this one on the wall for a while to let ideas percolate over where to go next. I think I will make more in this wide composition, but also I quite like the idea of going tall.

I really enjoy trees as a subject so there will be more on the way....I've been thinking about a winter / seasonal / Christmas twist but I think I'm running out of time for this year!