Saturday, January 19, 2008

First Adventure with Needle Felting!

I have had the supplies for needle felting for months! I bought a wonderful collection of hand dyed fleece at a Fiber Festival, I bought a tool and needles at Hancock Fabrics when several stores closed in the area. For some reason I was hesitant to get into it. Maybe I thought that it had to be more difficult than it sounded, despite what my dear friend Patti B. had told me. Perhaps I thought that I would get too inovlved in "painting with wool" and turn away from all of my other projects. i'm not sure what was holding me back. Well, today there was a Demo/class given by Donna at The Fredericksburg Mixed Media Art Group meeting. I packed up my supplies and drove on down. I collected a few extra things with me because although I had not been playing with the fibers and tools, I had been thinking about the whole process and wondering what all I could combine into the needle felting process. I took some of my painted paper towels and some of my dyed cheesecloth. Well, after watching Donna's demo and learning how to stab the needles through the fibers ( incredibly difficult technique actually, NOT!!!),I started layering my various media and stabbed away! I am hooked!!
I layered a piece of synthetic white felt on top of a thin layer of quilt batting, then painted paper towel, then cheesecloth and then colored roving. I made these two pieces at the meeting and then made the third once I returned home.
I am not sure what they will become. At first I was thinking that they would hang together as a wall hanging, then I thought they would be neat individually on the cover of small journals. Any ideas???? They are each approximately 3x3.
Oh and I know that although I love this process and had a blast painting with the wool, I won't give up my other art passions! I stopped at my favorite Bead store on the way home!!! One can't ever live withut beads!!! I am sure that several will wander on over to embellish these pieces before the weekend is done!!

9 comments:

Vicki W said...

These are very cool! They would be great Valentine's postcards but you probably have a much more creative idea than that.

Doreen G said...

Well done Elizabeth--the colours are wonderful---I would just hang them up and look at them for a while -the decision of what to make with them will appear after a while.

Digitalgran said...

I love them and I think Vicky is right. They would make perfect Valentine cards, but my DiL collects all sorts of filled hearts and hangs them on the doorknobs.

Unknown said...

THese are beautiful. I too use hand needle felting - have not been taken with all the fuss about the embellishing machines - working by hand is so much more satisfying. And your pieces are really delightful. Well done

Bel said...

Hi I am new to reading your blog and wanted to comment these gorgeous little felt pieces, they look great I have never tried felting and now I want to try. I hear you about the beads, I too can not get enough of them lol. Belinda

artisbliss said...

I'm glad to have found your blog. I'm an artist blogger too, and I am into fibers and jewelry mostly. I love your needle felted hearts! I have thought about doing needle felting and actually have different silks and wool to get started on. Maybe you've inspired me to take the plunge.

artisbliss said...

Thanks for posting on my blog. You are doing things I want to do, too. Maybe we can encourage each other.

I have a suggestion for the felted hearts. How about mounting each of them on cradled artist boards about 6" square and painted black? Or red? (The boards, not the hearts!) dickblick.com has the artist boards at a decent price.

Jo Wholohan said...

Wow!!! this looks ssooo interesting!!! well done :))

girlgonethreadwild said...

These make my heart melt! ~Monica

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