Wet Felt and Embellisher/Needle Felt

Earlier, I showed you this piece of felt made by wet-felting. It is a work in progress ...


















I gathered materials for needle felting














I added pieces of hand dyed silk, silk tops, yarns and glitzy metallic threads and heavily needle felted it with my embellisher


















I wasn't all together happy with it so I cut it up!




































The silver snowflakes were on some organza ribbon that I embellished into the felt


















I placed the bits on a piece of felt made from natural coloured merino fleece with natural coloured silk tops (yummy shiny sheen). I am happier with this composition now, so the next stage will be to wet-felt it some more














It is an ongoing work in progress still. Once felted, I will add machine embroidery, hand stitching and beads. I am having a short break from blogging very soon, so I shall get this finished and show you how it ends up ...

PS. These are my "scraps" which I shall save for adding to more wet-felting or needle felting later

Distressed Planet

Distressed sheer fabrics to represent a distressed planet!














































More samples - playing with layering fabrics, heat distressed chiffons, sheers and metallics stitched down with machine stitching. On top - a little hand stitching and a few beads

Global Warming - Knitted Textile Art

This is a really long piece of knitting using many different textured yarns






















































Continuing with my theme of red to represent the heat of global warming, white for melting polar ice caps and blue for the oceans and rising sea levels

Detail showing the textured yarns

















Detail showing the textured yarns

















Detail showing the textured yarns

















Using different plys of yarns produces a lacy effect

Weaving

Weaving is not my strongest point but I had a go!

I made a small makeshift "loom" on cardboard and used many different textured yarns. Continuing with my theme of red to represent the heat of global warming, white for melting polar ice caps and blue for the oceans and rising sea levels - just trying it out in different media

Colours of Global Warming

RED = Heat/increasing temperatures
WHITE = Ice/melting
BLUE = Ocean/rising sea levels

I produced quite a lot of samples in the colours I consider represent global warming. My project began to focus on increasing temperatures, melting of the polar ice caps and resulting rising sea levels

Drawn threadwork
















This is lightweight scrim, a type of thin gauzy fabric a bit like muslin. When machine stitched without a backing fabric the stitches draw the threads. I stitched a grid pattern, painted the squares with acrylic paints in shades of red, white and blue and added a little embellishment here and there ... bits of fabrics, threads, beads, buttons, etc.

This is a close-up of some of the squares















When I was researching this project and gathering images for my design boards I came across the work of Sandra Meech, who is an absolutely amazing contemporary quilt artist and one of my favourite artists who continues to inspire me. Later, at College, I studied her work in great detail dedicating a whole sketchbook to her work and experimenting with samples, etc. I thought I would show here a piece she produced on a global warming theme which matched with my own work and fits in nicely here with the grids etc.















My thoughts turned to recycling and I produced this fun collage with recycled elements, images of recycled objects, tin foil, wire, plastic, paper, fabric and stitch

Mosaic Monday - Global Warming

A mosaic of my textiles with lots of texture for Mosaic Monday - combining several of my pieces for "Global Warming"


















1. Knitting 2. Distresssed chiffon layered collage 3. Felt with silk tops 4. Machine stitched drawn threadwork on scrim 5. Knitting 6. Distressed plastic 7. Knitting 8. Painted paper 9. Knitting 10. Felt with silk tops 11. Distressed scrim 12. Weaving 13. Distressed chiffon layered collage 14. Drawn threadwork on scrim 15. Collage with paper, plastic, tin foil, text and stitch 16. Knitting

Global Warming and Rising Sea LevelsFelted Textiles

I made this felt using the wet felting method, with silk tops added for texture and movement, on the topical theme of global warming. The layers represent heat, ice and water and the very real possibility that global warming will have a knock on effect on our oceans with inevitable social and ecological effects














The hot pink represents heat from global warming
The white represents the melting glacier ice caps
The blue represents the ocean and rising sea levels


















It is a work in progress and ready for stitching on and I will show the finished piece a little later

Textured painting of sea water














Detail

Melting Ice

This felted piece represents the very possible long-term effect of global warming. As ice caps melt there is a resulting rise in sea levels


















I made the felt using the wet felting method. I added silk tops for texture and movement




































More painted papers. I painted these with acrylic paints on brown paper, which is a really good malleable surface for creating texture with paint, with the intention of cutting them up and using them in the sample below















I used a calico base layered with scrim, heat distressed chiffons, felt tops and the paper painted with acrylics. On top of that I added plastic and distressed mulberry bark, stitched through it with silver metallic thread and added a few beads here and there














The piece as a whole represents melting ice. The plastic reflects the light and represents ice cold water

Inspired by Peter Doig - Snow and Ice

My inspiration for this project also came from a second painting by Peter Doig. This one is called "Blotter". It is a painting that the artist painted from a childhood photograph and his memories of his brother standing on melting ice. Again, I chose this because of the subject of snow and ice and also I love the colours and lines in the painting

















Looking at the colours and lines of the patterns on the ice I experimented with acrylics painted on brown paper. My experiments were to use the process colours. All these colours, shades and tones were created from just process cyan and process magenta mixed with white













I was really pleased with the mix of colours, textures and brush strokes

Inspired by Peter Doig - Snow and Ice

This project was inspired, initially, by a couple of paintings by Peter Doig. The first one is called "Snowballed Boy" and I chose this because "weather" features a lot in Peter Doig's work and I love snow. I was also interested in the way the artist captured the motion of snowballs being thrown and the lines of the well trodden snow, the fencing and the tree branching. My samples attempt to capture some of this motion

"Snowballed Boy"

















I used acrylic paints to paint on cling film, ironed more cling film on top. The two layers fused together. Then I machine stitched some lines with white and silver thread to represent the messy trodden in snow

















I painted some Tyvek with acrylic paints. I cut it up into pieces and used it in this next sample














I stitched this on a calico base with a layer of scrim. I layered the pieces of Tyvek with some heat distressed chiffons and machine stitched in silver thread. This all all represents the snow background, the messiness and slushiness of used snow














I added some snowballs on top. They are wooden beads which I painted white then wrapped threads round them. The threads were left to hang loose to make it look like the snowballs are in the air, having just been thrown














More snowballs in motion - this is lentils trapped under pink tissue paper and pva glue. I rubbed white paint on top to enhance the textured element of the snowballs




























Abstract textured painting

Snow, birds and tree branches

A mosaic combining my love of snow, birds and tree branches


















Created with fd's Flickr Toys for Mosaic Monday

1. Winter wonderland bauble 2. 06 3. 06 4. Blackbird and white snow 5. Blackbird in the snow 6. Black and white snowy things 7. Mute 8. Bleak winter weather 9. Brittle and twist out 10. October 11. Canopy 12. Bird silhouettes 2 13. 2 blackbirds snow 14. Yesterday's gone but the past lives on 15. Wintertime 16. Try to sing your own song

Thank you to all artists/photographers who gave permission for me to use their beautiful pictures in this mosaic - please click on the links to go to the original photos

Love Stitching Red

Postcards made with a flurry of love ...

I used my pink squares to make some postcards. I mounted them on some of my own hand painted paper and added text