Monday 5 November 2018

Felting and framing...

Well, firstly I am so delighted to have sold 'Golden Blooms' after posting it on Facebook!  Every sale I make gives me such a warm glow I can't tell you...



At that stage it wasn't framed, and framing is sooo important.  There are so many decisions to be made -

* what size frame?
* what type and colour frame?
* with a mount or 'floated' to show the natural edges of the felt?

The way a piece of textile art is framed can make or break it, and whilst it would be wonderful to have work professionally framed I have always done it myself to keep costs down, so there's more pressure to get it right!

This particular piece is larger than usual, and I decided on a large box frame, which I painted white, and float mounted the piece of felt on foamboard.  I like to see the natural edges of the piece, and this way of framing gives it a nice surrounding space.  I reckon I made the right decisions in this case, and thankfully the customer agreed and bought it.  I didn't take a photo of it without the glass, so excuse the reflections, but it gives you an idea of how it was presented.



The thing to bear in mind is that, whilst I framed it myself, it took time...one of the downsides of framing something with fibres is that every time you think you've got it right, cleaned the glass and sealed the back, you flip it over and a little bit of fluff has magically (and naughtily) appeared on the inside of the glass!! Aaargh!  

Anyway, I got there in the end, and it has gone off to its new home.

You can see beside it there is another picture - remember the little collage I shared in my last blog post?  Well this was the felted picture that evolved from that and I really like how it turned out.

My 'idea' collage


My collage inspired piece 'Autumn Berries'

It's difficult to capture in a photo, but there's a lot of surface texture going on here created using scrim, chiffon, silk hankies, wool nepps and coarse British breed wool fibres in the wet felting process.  All the little berries were needle felted on and hand stitch was added to give definition.

This one will also be for sale, so do get in touch if you are interested.

Following the sale of 'Golden Blooms' I have had a request to do a similar piece so I have made a start on that - I don't want to make it exactly the same so I'm changing the shape of the vase and the arrangement.  The colours need to stay similar, although I had to dye some more silk for the flowers and the onion skin pot produced a much deeper, orangey gold which is rather yummy - maybe it was a stronger concentration of onion skins to water?

The photos below show some of the process so far...it's yet to be finished so I'll hopefully share that on the next blog.



Starting with some icelandic white wool roving to lay out as a base


The fibres carefully laid out 
Cotton scrim, fibres, organza and silk hankies added to give texture

Close up of some of the added elements




Adding soft grey wool fibres to the bottom half

wetted down and ready for a lengthy, slow felting sessions adding warm soapy water and gentle elbow grease!

Adding different elements along the way


Results from the onion skin dye pot for the flowers and stitch


Felted and ready for embellishment

So I'm going to crack on with this piece, although I'm jotting down lots of new ideas all the time in my sketchbook for more pictures.  I'm wanting to keep to that limited colour palette and more contemporary feel - I'm liking that at the moment!  Perhaps I might use some of the November colours I've been capturing whilst out and about...



Until next time, thanks for reading, and don't forget you can leave a comment below, say 'hello' or let me know what you're being inspired by at the moment - I like a little chat!

Best wishes

Tanya xx

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