BLOG 211

 

I can’t really get in my workshop at the moment as I am in the middle of the continuing the ‘sort out, clear out and chuck out’ session. It is very untidy but ultimately it will be cathartic.

                                 Workroom clutter

So I am justified in continuing with my felting journey and here we go again! I am trying to ‘paint’ with the fibres and the next couple of samples illustrate that. Here I was attempting to emulate a panel from blogger: ‘Renatos-veltinis’ (Renata-felt).

                 Background fibres

Rather than constructing the flowers straight onto the background, I decided to try and work the poppies independently on foam, by hand with a felting needle, before dropping them in situ. This way I thought I could ‘work’ a better and more accurate flower.

                                Start of poppy

                            Poppy complete

                   Poppy panel unfelted

                     Poppy panel felted

Another poppy panel was influenced by artist Sheila Gill. Paintings that you really like are a good source of inspiration because their creators have already made decisions about what colour looks better where, and they have also created light and shadow to create form. My drawing skills are adequate and they will come in to play at a later date when I have explored the felting techniques and decided what suits me best.

                                   Background

                           Poppy on netting

 

                             Reverse of netting

                                      Poppy in situ

                                     Unfelted panel

                  Felting with netting

And what did I learn?

Felting the flowers gently on netting worked well. They can be made in advance and peeled off easily. I can imagine myself making flowers ‘on my lap’ in front of the TV.

I like the look of the felting best at the fluffy fibre stage but that is just me and it’s not a viable option.

For the first time, I used netting over the fibres to soap them with my hands. I had avoided this advice on some websites as I thought the fibres would be disturbed; they weren’t. I shall definitely use this stage in future.
Some balls of wool that I used for stems didn’t felt well; mohair seemed to perform the best.

 Chenilling

And by way of a diversion, I started to draw patterns from a metal floor in my sketch book. This led to me asking myself how I could interpret it in patchwork. Chenilling came to mind and I thought I would give it a try as a great way of using up fabrics.

                                        Patterns

                                             Layers

                           Divisions of pattern

                                   Sewn channels

                                     First cuts

                                   Washed layers

And what did I learn?

It was very painful to cut all these small channels with small scissors! Even if I had the right tool, which I searched for at the FEC without success, I doubt I would like to continue this exercise.

I found that the top fabric always retains its character but will be a hint of what it was.

The colours of the layers are important. The second layer emphasises the cut and outlines the colours underneath which tend to emerge from the cut.

Machine washing was a bit drastic; there were too many threads to cut away afterwards!