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Friday 23 January 2015

Felt art paintings - How to finish and display.

Hello there,
 today I thought I would try to help with a dilema some felt makers have. You have made a beautiful felt painting but how do you diplay it to it's best advantage?
There are several options.
1) Handmade felt has irregular, organic edges which some people like to display. It is possible to add a sleeve to the back of the felt and put in a rod for hanging. I think this workswith boho/hippie style decor but not in the average house.Here is one of my felts with the edges on view,
I am happy with the actual image but think the presentation (or lack of it) looks messy.
I usually stretch my felts  on to an artists canvas or matt them ready to be framed. If you do want the edges on show you can mount the felt on to a plain piece of felt or other fabric and then put it on canvas or frame it.
Here is the same felt painting but this time it has been mounted.
Don't you think that looks better?
If you want to do this it takes a bit of practise getting the felt to the correct size. You must add some for the usual shrinkage and then add some to go around the sides of the canvas and then some to allow it to be fixed at the back. Don't put any major elements of your design near the edge as you may find them dissapearing round the side when it comes to mounting. The fabric of the felt musn't be too bulky either or the corners will be messy. I usually start with a needle punch prefelt and then add  3 - 4 layers of fibre. Each layer should be thin enough to read through. The easiest method for fixing is with a staple gun.
If your felt is smaller you can make it have more impact and seem more 'impotant' by matting and framing. Here is a photo of one which has been matted in preperation to be framed.
The aperture is only 6 x 6 inches but the matt is 2 inches around the edges so will fit in a frame of  8 x 8 inches. To get you felt to fit the desired size is a bit easier with this method. just allow for shrinkage plus a bit more then trim the edges to fit. I usually attatch the felt to the backing board with double sided tape and the front matt to the backing board with more double sided tape.
I hope this has given you food for thought and will help to make the most of all your hard work. To see more of my work visit my etsy shop here
 https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SueForeyfibreart?ref=hdr_shop_menu
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