rosiepink

Wet Felted Woodlands Projects

- By Annie -

Hello! We hope you are enjoying a New Year of creativity. Me and mum are finding that the year is absolutely flying by, but squeezing in any opportunity for crafty things that we can!

Back in November I showed the finished dry layout stage of one of my wide composition woodland pictures and I finally felted and photographed it so thought I would share it.

Here are some photos of it full length and also some cropped close ups for detail.

I also tried hanging it in the trees in the garden to have a play with photography and the light.
Our fibre friend, Helene, pointed out that it makes a good optical illusion as it blends in with the natural back drop so well. An accidental extra win!

Shortly after completing this one I started gathering materials for my next woodlands picture, which I imagined was going to be a snowy, cold, deep winter picture. I made a couple of batts and chose what I thought was a good winter palette made up from fibres, yarns, other woolly bits, silk and fabric scraps.

It will come as no surprise that shortly after starting the picture the idea changed a lot. I couldn't quite get on with the coldness of the palette and wanted a little more zing, and also when I went walking really the winter woodlands here are still full of quite vibrant greens and no snow, so I injected a bit more colour into it!

I think I have now finished the dry layout stage so will share it soon on the blog, it's been a work in progress on my desk for about 6 weeks now while I spend half hour here and there taking bits off and putting bits on and pushing it and pulling it, but I think it's taken shape finally! Watch this space! :)

Happy New Year!

By Annie:

This year we both made a winter wreath - mum's was done in plenty of time and features adorable needle felted robins perched on a ring made from a wet felted rope wrapped with craft wire.  The addition of the yellow wrapped gift hints at a sweet little story between the birdies!

Mum's robins were inspired by some photos I have taken of the robins in my garden that follow me around while I'm weeding, they love all the snacks that turn up in the freshly exposed soil!

My wreath was a bit more last minute and involved a dash around the garden in the rain on Christmas Eve, followed by an enjoyable half hour of poking and wiring all the bits on to an old base that I made out of ivy and long bendy twigs for a previous wreath.  This wreath has various odds and ends of greenery, berries, moss, lichen, some crab apples and some quince for a splash of colour!

Happy New Year! Wishing you a happy, healthy and creative 2024 :) x

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!

Sketching colourful woodland abstracts using fibres and fabrics

Detail of work in progress

By Annie: 

Here are two more tree-inspired colourful fibre “sketches” in progress - this time wide compositions, side on to the trees. I like to think of this stage as “sketching” as it gives the opportunity to play without pressure, even though sketches often will turn into finished pieces. The subject of trees offers so many possibilities for creative work that I have already swerved on a tangent from my canopies series idea (although I will come back to it and have some ideas!)

The wide compositions are not very practical for working on, photographing, or hanging on the wall but it’s what I wanted to do after a walk recently where the lines, shapes and light and dark of the trunks of the trees in a wood captured my imagination - sometimes they went straight up and down with light in front and behind, and sometimes curved and bent at all angles sometimes right back down to the floor.

I’m in danger of over cooking these sketches as I’ve got so many ingredients spread around me now as I’ve been working on them on and off for a couple of weeks! It’s the “messy middle” of the picture making process, but also the messy middle for my work space.  It reminds me of when you see a painter with paint dripped everywhere across their studio!

At least it’s colourful and fluffy! I would like to start a few more pieces alongside these as I’m thinking about compositions but haven’t got a free flat surface, I need more desks!

I hope to find more time (I always say that) to pursue more of the ideas that keep brewing. Time passes so quickly that I’ve been caught out again by the change in season - I didn’t get to all the spring projects, certainly hardly any of the summer ones but now we are heading into my favourite season in the UK of the autumn (fall) with that refreshing change of air temperature, the nights drawing in, the cosy things creeping in.

I’ve decided these pictures don't have a season attached to them, for now anyway. I’ll just keep enjoying the process of adding and taking away and moving things about until I’m happy and then I’ll felt them!  Here are some detail photos of the work in progress and also a collage of some of the trees I saw on my walk in the woods :)

 

Wet Felted Tree Canopy

Wet Felted Tree Canopy Experimental Piece

Annie

Following on from our last blog post here is the first tree canopy experiment, made from layers of scraps of open weave fabrics, snips of prefelts, nepps, yarns, wool fibres …  it was fun to make, with no pressure for it to become something….just playing, adding layers, seeing what happened! 

I think it turned out pretty well although it’s hard to know when to stop when you’re enjoying the process!  Also I keep thinking “what if I did this…”, “what if I tried that…”

It’s currently set aside to dry then I’ll need to decide whether to leave it as it is or use it for further experimentation - perhaps by cutting it into smaller pieces to try stitching, painting, needling on it….hmmmm……I’ll leave it for a little while then look again with fresh eyes. 

This piece is approx 62cm x 62cm.  It is a bit thicker than I was initially thinking I might make, but I will make a lighter weight version too. I’ve got a list of ideas on the subject, and more brewing, so am itching to do them!  That’s the thing with creative experimentation, the more you do the more ideas you get along the way!  

Here are some photos of stages of the process start to finish and a couple of my inspiration photos too.

Finding Feltmaking Inspiration in the Beautiful Tree Canopies

Annie

While I’ve been out walking recently I’ve spent a lot of time looking up at the beautiful tree canopies, and it has made me want to make some felted pieces on the subject. I’ve made many felt samples over the years and I like to dig through them to pick out ones that might feed into new work. I’ve chosen a few pieces as a starter to use as inspiration to make something new, and printed out a few photos.

The blue felted piece is evocative of the tree canopy as it is very sparse in places, but then has the heavy dark yarns laid into it, which could be branches - it does lend itself well to an abstract tree canopy. Various passages in all the samples could be interesting to explore further.  For me it’s mostly about the colours, shapes, textures and feelings, I’m not worried if the work doesn’t look like the subject, it just has to evoke the idea or memory of it.

The next photo is of a painting I started on a course at West Dean College back in 2018, I must get my sketches out and maybe one day finish that painting!  Meantime it serves as further composition inspiration.

While rummaging about in previous works and samples I felt quite inspired to think that we might start making work to sell again - me & mum used to sell our felted artwork and 3D items in a gallery in Dorset.  In the meantime I have had spent some happy hours cutting up one or two works from recent years and making new compositions from them and re-felting them etc. 

Now all we need to do is finish more, and find some good quality backing boards, mounts and sturdy mailers...  here are two finished pictures sat on top of some white board (not the right size, just for the photo purposes!) ....

......although not sure I want to part with them! 

 

Finally Finished Fabulous Felted Flowers!

Annie

Hooray! I have finally wet felted my latest picture of a vase of flowers.  I should really start naming my pictures again, else they are just “the big flowers one” or “the other big flowers one!” etc.   Hmmmmmmm….

Anyway, for now this one is wet felted and I’m really pleased with how it turned out and has kept it’s bright colours, especially since it was wet for about 5 days while I worked it in short bursts of time.  Not ideal but it was the only way to just get it done at the moment!

I ended up rinsing it in the garden with the hosepipe because my work space isn’t big enough - so needs must!  But it’s all clean and fresh and dry now and ready to hang on the wall.  

Now I need to decide what to work on next…..so many ideas and options!  There has been a lot of colourful flowery inspiration throughout the spring, which is starting to feed new ideas for felt work, although anything can happen once work begins!   Here are some photos I took of some seasonal flowers recently, I love the big showoff showstopper blooms right through to the humble little yellow dandelion!

Wet Felting A Big Colourful Vase of Flowers

Last year I started laying out this big picture of a lively, fun vase of flowers using fibres, fabrics, yarns, prefelts, and all sorts of colourful fibre supplies... but my house moving date was fast approaching so around August I realised I had to pack it away unfinished to focus on packing up crockery and clothes instead!

I am temporarily working in a bedroom at the new house and slowly unpacking my crafting stash as best as I can into a smaller space!  I rediscovered my Work In Progress a few days ago, tightly rolled up in bubble wrap and paper.  This is the stage it was at when I stopped to roll it up to move:

The layout is 70cm x 95cm.  It had mostly survived the move, save for a little bit of movement - and I’ve enjoyed finishing it before I wet felt it. I left it on the table for a couple of days, so I could add, remove and fiddle with bits here and there with fresh eyes.  The next photo shows the view from above the table while I stood on a chair to ponder it after adding lots of bits, hmmm, still more to go at this point!:

Along with it I had packed up all the supplies that I had gathered while making it and they filled ten 35cm x 45cm storage bags!  As always where I was working - the desk, and the floor! -  had been covered in fibres, fabrics, yarns and felty bits so there was a lot of things to stuff into bags! I'm finding all sorts in those bags that I thought I'd lost!

Here is the finished layout:

And some details:

I hadn’t initially planned to make a flowers picture - I had intended to create a fibre version of a mark-making and doodling exercise like you might do with pencils and paints, only with fibres instead.  I had laid out the plain background to work on but once I started putting down yarns, fabrics and fibres I started to think “ooh it’s flowers!”, so went with it :)    That’s part of the fun of creative activity for me, once I start working I never really know where I’ll end up!

So the next job is the wet felting process, and to hope it goes well!  I want to felt it enough so it holds together and everything adheres, but not too much to completely flatten it to a pancake!

Blossom Boppers for Sally Snail

Some trees are already heavy with blossom and flowers but rain and high winds are causing the trees to shed their flowers like falling snow and everything underneath the tree gets adorned.

Sally Snail is quite happy about this as she’s on her way to a party and she was feeling under-dressed until some falling blossom caught on her antennae giving her some very stylish boppers!

This felted picture is approximately 30x30cm (12”x12”).  It is made from wool fibres, pre-felt, wool-yarn and nepps placed on a background of white Merino wool fibres.

Giveaway Winners!

Thank you to everyone for leaving your comments in the giveaway post :)

Congratulations to Lynn Douglas, Shirley Lumley and Meriel – the three winners of the giveaway of our new PDF ‘Creative Feltmaking’.

We hope you have fun with the projects!