felt paintings, adding linear embellishment.

I always add stitching to my felts but decided I would like to add some kind of raised linear embellishment to show the lie of the land. I intentionally left some areas of my felt uncluttered so I would be able to add them without making the finished art work too fussy. Th

is is the felt with no stitching. I think you will agree, it looks a little flat. Next I added my usual free machine stitching to add tree branches etc. I took a photograph of the back of the work so you can clearly see the amount of stitching added by machine.

Next came the tricky bit. I knew what I wanted the raised lines to look like but didn't know how to achieve them. I did some experimentation on felt scraps. Here they are in my fabric art journal.

In the end I decided I liked bullion knots and couched yarns. One small problem. I didn't know how to stitch bullion knots. I spent Friday evening practising and finally got the hang of it. I used bullion knots with couched yarn in between them  as well as on their own. Here is the finished piece.

And a close up of some of the hand stitching.

Using Wensleydale locks in felt art

Last time I told you how to prepare raw wool for felt making and demonstrated with some Wensleydale locks. I thought I would show you what I have used them for. If you look in the picture you can see twiddly lines on the ground and curls in the tree foliage at the top of the picture.

That is the Wensleydale locks. They add extra texture and interest and can be used in all sorts of artwork. To see close up photographs of this picture click on the etsy mini which will take you to my shop.