Cracked Earth Felt

This month at TAAMMI Bev showed us how to make cracked earth felt using masking tape resists. Of course I couldn't stick to earth colours!

100 Days Project - 60/100

I've added lots of hand stitch to my felted and printed fabric piece. It's now been made into a sketchbook cover. Have a look at this post for a tutorial on how to sew your fabric into a cover or come along to Contemporary Quilt Group in July where I will be demonstrating in person.

100 Days Project - 56/100

I've been machine stitching into this felt, printed, piece using more variegated, rayon threads. It's almost ready to be made into a book cover; perhaps some hand stitching first?

100 Days Project - 54/100

Today I have started sewing onto these block prints which are on a felted background. The felt is multicoloured so I've gone with a brightly coloured variegated thread.

100 Days Project - 49/100

Today I continued to experiment with printing on felt. These prints were made on the Gelli® plate.

My favourite print of the day was actually a clean up paper (below).

For the sketch I drew a few bowls on a shelf. It's surprising how much more difficult it is to draw standing and holding the sketchbook rather than having it on a flat, stable surface.

100 Days Project - 48/100

Today I used one of my previous sketches and made it into this mono-print on fabric. I used cotton for this one but I was keen to see how mono-prints would come out on felt. Usually I use a very smooth fabric to get a crisp print but I love the rich colours of felt. Here are some experiments.

The sketch today was of my car.

A Little Bit of Felting

I've been teaching my daughter and her friends how to wet felt. Above is my felt and below is my daughters piece.

Retreat - Felt, Silk Paper and Stitch

Whilst on retreat I spent some time experimenting with wool and silk fibres. This piece above was wet felted using a resist under the blue circles. The wool fibres in the piece below were combined with textile medium to make a soft paper.

I used the textile medium again to make these pieces with silk fibres. I've stitched free motion over some of them using a water soluble stabiliser. I may stitch a bit more before washing it out.

I used my felting machine and acrylic felt to get a similar effect. As you can see I have quite a bit more stitching to do.

Mixed Media Cairn

I have finally finished this mixed media piece and learnt loads in the process. The piece features collage with paint, print, stitched acrylic pour, felt, organza, and sewn and burnt book pages. It's all mounted on an MDF panel about 30cm by 60cm. I hope to use some of my other abstract designs to make more in the series.

The Lonely Cairn

This piece is now finished and ready for display. The background is needle felted sari silks, felt and free motion stitch. The cairn was made using a rubbing with Shiva sticks onto some hand dyed cotton. The cairn was applied with free motion stitch. The whole thing is mounted on a ready-made canvas.

Experiments With Nuno felt

This month at Contemporary Quilters we had a mini workshop from Martein van Zuilen. We had a go at making nuno felt which is made with wool fibres felted together with a sheer fabric, silk in this case. This piece has a black silk base with colourful wool fibres, red pre-felt squares and stripy silk fabric felted into it. I also stitched in some wool yarn part way through the process which has felted into the rest of the fabric.

This piece was made with wool fibres felted onto both sides of a piece of cotton cheesecloth.

Breaking the Rules in Art

Artists have been breaking the rules for years. In fact I’d go so far as to say that breaking the rules is essential to becoming a successful artist. Many of the most famous artists broke the rules and were often considered shocking, inappropriate or just way too weird at the time! Many times their works were not considered good art until years later. These days we are more used to artists breaking the rules but still we can be shocked. Recently a Banksy painting spontaneously shredded itself immediately after being sold at auction. One look at the auctioneers face and you can plainly see first shock and then disapproval written all over it. However shortly afterwards the art critics were saying that the painting was probably now worth even more than before, I’m sure the shocked auction house would love to get their hands back on it again!

Painters and sculptors have been breaking the rules for years, however textiles artists are still playing catch up. This is in part due to certain very traditional textile organisations who, even in the very the recent past, found even things such as embroidery done by machine instead of by hand a mortal sin. Some people are still shocked and outraged at the use of glue and fabric in the same piece! Those working in textiles have a constant battle to get textiles recognised as art and not just a craft. This inability to break the rules perpetuated by textile organisations themselves has hindered the way forward. Thankfully most organisations are seeing the need for change, for attracting less traditional members and moving forwards whilst still keeping traditional skills alive.

Textile skills such as stitching, knitting and dressmaking are often handed down through the generations in a way that doesn’t happen with say painting, sculpture or photography. Textile skills, right up until recently, were essential for everyday living. Perhaps this is another reason why textiles are still widely regarded as a craft not an art form?

Many textile artists are now moving forwards and breaking the rules in new ways to discover fresh, exciting art pieces. However I think we have many years to go until textiles has the respect and value that other arts forms such as painting and sculpture currently enjoy.

Of course textiles can also be unforgiving and some rules really shouldn’t be broken – sewing through wet glue anyone, how about dyeing fabric without putting in your fixative? Perhaps you’ve tried to needle felt through metal (OK I haven’t actually done that but I’ve thought about it!). I think I find it easier to break the rules in textiles because, never having any formal training in textiles, I don’t actually know what the rules are. Often it’s only after something has gone disastrously wrong that I actually look up how you’re supposed to do it!

Today I’m breaking a quilting rule. Wadding is supposed to go in the middle of your quilt sandwich to give it that nice, soft, puffy effect, it’s not supposed to be seen on the outside. Well not anymore! Lately I’ve been using these lovely hand dyed pre-felts from The Thread Studio with my needle felting machine. They are fabulous colours but they are very expensive. It occurred to me that cotton wadding has a very similar texture to pre-felt and can also be hand dyed. I had a piece of screen printed wadding lying about the place so I decided to experiment and see if it would work with the needle felt machine. It certainly does! I’ve managed to felt wool and silk fibres, yarns, organza, acrylic felt, sari silk and wool felt into it. I have lots of spare dye left over from my last printing session so now I know the wadding is suitable for needle felting I plan to dye more and use it in my art work. What will the quilters think? Maybe the traditionalists will disapprove but I reckon my Contemporary Quilt Group will love it!

Needle Felted Tulips Part 2

With the sewing machine back I've managed to finish my needle felted tulips with machine stitching. Click here for part 1. I've used some thick threads and metallics in the bobbin working from the back. I attached a wire stem to the free standing tulip with my new cording foot. Everything was then hand sewn to a canvas ready to hang.

More Needle Felted Bottles

Today I've continued experimenting with my needle-felting machine which now only has 3 of its 5 needles intact. I took the bottle motif from my last session and felted it to a background of acrylic and wool felt and organza. I added some more organza within the bottle shape for a highlight.

The piece below was felted with a hand-dyed wool prefelt onto an acrylic felt background. I used some yarn for the black outline and wool and silk fibres to ad some more colour.

I used cut pieces of an old scarf for the checker-board pattern. It looked a bit too bright so some wool fibres over the top calmed it down a bit. I used some sheer fabric from another old scarf for the texture at the bottom. Again some organza was added for the highlight.

I'll be adding stitch to these when my machine gets back from its service.