EMBELLISHING & BEADING : some hard lessons...

Those of you who know me well know I'm an extremely un-fussy individual. Felt making appeals : you layout wonderful fibres, you felt and you've finished! Anything extra, any embellishing, sewing or beading is an unnecessary step too far in my opinion...

If you have been following my last post you will know I've been working on a felt panel for the Brading project. I'd hoped to have completed it long ago BUT in my haste to finish I made a terrible mistake. Rather than thread a needle I (super) glued all the little beads & bits in place thinking it would be a quick fix! FIX certainly - quick NO! As soon as I flexed the felt backing all those little beads popped off, leaving behind some very hard lumps of glue that would not budge. DISASTER! Very many days later I've ended up re-felting and needle felting patches over areas to cover up the mess. 

It's been a very hard time-consuming lesson, but an important one! I'm always the optimist!

Coming out the other side I thought I'd exorcise those beady demons and work on some beading samples. Never throwing any felt away I found some bag handle cut-outs which made perfect shapes for experimenting, plus a stash of wooden beads and lots of wonderful threads...  

I've had some FUN! 

And discovered that actually there is a place for embellishment...

My first love has always been knitting - I can chart my life in knitting patterns - I've knitted, worn and worn out so many Patricia Roberts & Kaffe Fassett jumpers. Felting became a natural progression. Sewing never figured much in my life apart from stitching up and attaching buttons and it's only in recent times that I've owned my own sewing machine. Last year I bought a second-hand Embellisher, which until last weekend I'd only switched on to check it still worked. Sad, I know! Working around patchworkers & quilters has influenced me - but only slightly...  

Again I exorcised a few more demons when I took advantage of a one-day Embellishing Workshop held by Su Douglas at Oliven. I started tentatively, was shown how to change needles and remove fluff, but in  a couple of hours I was flying... Lots of experimenting with fibres & fabrics resulted in some rather mashed up samples, but no broken needles! Again it was FUN! It has certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities of incorporating embellishing with the wet felting.  Another revelation and I shall no doubt be experimenting and posting up some results very soon...

By the way here is the revised felt fish panel...

Spot the difference! NB. the tidy sewing and neat beading... 

I shall be very glad to see the back of it / deliver it to Brading on Sunday. We have a 'Bowls & Bags' workshop scheduled, but as the Island is knee-deep in snow I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a thaw...

"UNDERWATER MOSAIC" Part 2...

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!

These precious few days between Christmas and New Year give everyone an opportunity to relax and take stock, count blessings and look forward to what the New Year promises! It gave me a chance to catch up on a particular project I'd begun several weeks ago (see Part 1)...

  

"Underwater Mosaic" the Brading community project set a challenge for each participant to take a section of Pat Clarke's fantasy picture and reproduce it in any craft or medium. The finished panels will be reassembled into three completed pictures which will be on permanent display at the Brading Roman Villa.

I'd been given a lovely central panel with some great colour & detail and set out by making an enlarged B&W pattern to work from, bearing in mind that the felt will shrink and the finished felted piece had to be stretched around a wooden base.

  

I made a series of coloured pre-felts, using paper templates to cut out the main shapes and felted these onto a black felt backing. 

It was important to keep all the main shapes and colours as close to the original picture as possible as they would need to match up with the surrounding panels when placed back together.

The "Underwater Mosaic" is perfect for this project - but there's a lot going on!  The painting is linked with coloured swirls which overlap and weave under and over, so there is an order in placing the layers. I made paper templates for the swirls and cut these shapes from commercial felt. 

Before attaching them I needle felted the details on the fish and couldn't resist playing around with some decoration. I was so pleased to find the perfect fish button eye! 

Then I had fun machine stitching all the swirling layers in place and used more stitching to enhance the movement and texture…

Finally, adding the beads and textures! Not being much of a hand-sewer or beader I must admit to gluing most of this decoration in place...

But it's not all secure as the felt panel now needs to be attached to its base. I'm going to wait to see how it fits together with the other panels before completely finishing it, especially around the edges where the joins need to match, and I may add some hand stitching too...

  

When we all meet up in a few weeks time there will be a total of 27 panels. No one knows what the other finished panels look like yet and it’s going to be really interesting to see how the new "mosaic" all fits back together again!

It's all very exciting...