Hope House - Acting Locally

I have just finished this 4 inch by 4 inch felted and beaded ornament for a Red Artists Tree that will be a part of our local Festival of the Tree's this year. We have a wonderful organization in Fredericksburg called Hope House. Hope House offers shelter, hope and support for women and children who are suffering with domestic violence. Each year, an Auction is held during a gala event and all of the proceeds from the various donated tree's help to support the work of Hope House.
A call for artists was put out this year by local Artist Susan Ishi. Susan was asking artists to create 4x4 pieces of art around the theme of RED! I jumped at the opportunity and decided to work with fiber. Other artists are creating mini paintings ,earrings and collage. my piece may be the only fiber piece but this is one of the reasons that I chose fiber as my medium. Fiber art is ART and needs to gain more respect amoung the art community- so exposure to more fiber art is only a good thing!!

These pictures are not the best, I do apologize!!All of the needle felting was done using my Embellisher needle felting machine. I used curly red hand dyed wool, red silk fabics of various textures and some wonderful red silk velvet that had green thread in it. I worked on soluble fabric as my base so I was able to keep the felted piece very light weight and delicate. The edge is ruffled with the silk fabric that ruches up when the wool fibers are felted . As the wool shrinks it carries the silk fabric along with it resulting in that lovely texture. I stitched clear red seed beads all around the edge after the piece was dry. The silk velvet also crumples when the wool shrinks and you can achive a totally different textural effect when you use the velvet. After the felting was all complete I went to town with the beads!! (No surprise there!).

To finish the piece, I stitched on a backing piece of synthetic red felt and added a red wire hanger. I trailed the wire along the top back edge as I did not want the piece to sag in between the points where the wire attatched.

I hope that the Patrons of the Festival of the Tree's will be pleased with the Red Artists' Tree. I know that I can't wait to see it , all set up. There will be some very well know artist's work on this tree and then this little offering by little ol me. Hopefully the tree will bring lots of bids , as the Goal after all , is to support the wonderful work of Hope House!! I am very grateful that Susan Ishi was inspired to put out the call for artists work, for this wonderful project!!!