Yet more cards

I wanted to make some more cards, and try out a new method! 

These were made after a trip to the beautiful White Peak area of Derbyshire, and are slightly inspired by the distinctive stone walls there. 

I made the felt, which is very fine and delicate in a new (to me) way, suggested in Sheila Smith's book "Embellish, Stitch, Felt"  I laid out a piece of water soluble fabric, and then built up overlapping but very fine layers of merino wool, bits of organza, dyed scrim, sari silk, coloured silk. I then put another piece of water soluble fabric on top to make a sandwich, and pinned it all together to hold it. I then used the embellisher machine to needle felt it all over. 

I then washed away the fabric, lightly squeezing the felt to wet- felt it just a little. 

After drying, I pinned another layer of w-s fabric on top, on which I drew out the design I wanted to free motion machine stitch - wall shapes, clouds, grasses. After completing that, I disolved the w-s fabric away again, and, once dry,  was left with this:

I then cut sections off, on an irregular manner, and teased out the edges a bit with a needle to soften the cut edge. Then I added a few french knots and stuck them onto blank cards. 

The felt is very fine - transparent in places. Here's a closeup:

Update a week later...

After making two cards with this piece, I decided not to cut off more strips for cards, but to mount the rest onto a small canvas. 

I painted the top and bottom of the canvas with acrylic paint mixed with pva glue, and pushed some muslin into the paint mixture to add some texture. The felt was wrapped round the canvas and glued. 

Poinsettia Christmas Wreath

I wanted to make a large Christmas wreath for our front door. I had a twisted twig circle which I have used as a base in previous years to wire fresh holly to, lacerating my fingers in the process. I gave it a spray of sparkly varnish. 

I found a great and easy tutorial from Ruth at Permutations in Fiber . Using green and red merino, and some wisps of silk, that worked very well. I used metallic red thread on the red petals (bracts?).   I had no yellow beads, so I needle felted a splodge of yellow in the centres, and added silver beads which gives it a zing. 

I glue-gunned them onto the twig base, and then gave the flowers a spray with waterproofing protector, as they will be outside. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

A few more quick cards....

 I used the embellisher machine to make some colourful, rather moody backgrounds, using mainly merino wool, with some silk and a little sparkly fibre.

Using black thread, I machine sketched some seed heads, without trying to be too exact.

I added a few small beads as stars, for just a touch more textural interest.
Then I used the glue gun to stick them on to the cards. 

Couple of cushions

 My husband wanted a cushion for a new leather and tweed armchair. I didn't want it to be too feminine, so I chose a large plaid design, to echo the plaid tweed  on the back of the chair. I simply but some pale grey and green shading on the surface of the cream wool, and them lay on some strands of mohair wool to create the lines, before wet felting.

I had made a piece if experimental felt, using circular resists with holes in the middle, between the brown layers  of wool and the top pale yellow shade. Snipping around the outer line of the circles created fluted raised flower like shapes, revealing the brown layer underneath. I needle felted some circles of dark reddish wool into the centres to create the look. 

The piece wasn't really big enough for a cushion, so I stitched it onto some dark red faux suede fabric. 

A new toy...

I cannot resist gadgets. I have treated myself to an embellisher machine. (It's the Janome 725.) For those who haven't a clue what this is, it is a machine which looks a bit like a sewing machine, but uses no thread. It punches the fabrics that you put under it with barbed needles, and meshes the fibres together. You can use felt, and lots of other fabrics and threads.
Now I have to learn how to use it!

First I played around needling some coloured wool onto a white prefelt background. Also bits of silk, and organza, and scrim. 

Some interesting effects, but it is hard to control exactly where the fabric you are adding goes, as the machine tends to pull it in tight as you needle it. I need to practice. 

Then I had a go using shapes cut from leftover scraps of felt I had made. 

This was easier, as the felt pieces already have an integrity and can hold their own under the needles. 

It does give a slightly different effect to wet felting, and you can build a design up bit by bit, layer by layer. 

The gadget queen is happy! 

A few felted cards

I like sending hand made cards to friends when I can. It seems more personal, and is almost like sending a mini present. Here are a few quick ones I made recently. 

I little bit of burlap tucked between the sky and the green foreground adds texture and interest. A wisp or two of silk highlights the sky, and I finished with a few french knots. 

The sky is laid horizontally, and the grasses roughly vertically. Merino and a little silk for accents. 

In each case I laid the wool onto a large Clover needle felting mat, and needle felted sufficiently to hold it together, before gently wet felting. I find if I cover the mat, after shrinkage this makes a reasonable size and proportion for an A6 blank card. 

A vase of flowers

I came across this painting by the French artist Odilon Redon (1840-1916) and something about it made me wonder how it might transfer into felt. 

So I lay out a background in blended colours and lightly needlefelted it to hold together. I cut out the vase from a piece of black prefelt and needled that in place. I then "painted" in the flowers and leaves by needling in wisps of coloured wool. I had to blend together colours to get them right. Then I covered the whole thing in gauze and gently wetfelted it between sheets of bubble wrap. 

Now it needs some stitching highlights. 

Et voila!

Cherry blossom

I made this a while ago - my first attempt at a wall hanging. I lightly wet felted the background, then needle felted on the black Japanese-style tree silhouette. The cherry blossom flowers were cut out from a separate piece of wet felt - darker pink on the back side. I attached them with a cluster of seed pearls at the centres.

I am not really happy with the streaky background.