Bed hangings - to keep out the cold!

I was recently asked to make some felt bed hangings for a little girls bed which was in a drafty room. The customer had previously commissioned a picture for the side of the bed and now wanted one for the head end and one for the feet end. Each one had to be 102cm x 68cm .

We had a lot of fun designing them together and these are the results.

Felts of this size require an awful lot of rubbing and rolling and certainly gave my arms a workout! I'm sending them off tomorrow and hope she loves them.

New size in affordable mini felts available

I recently came across some canvases in a really cute 6 x 6 inch size and couldn't resist them. I am now busy making small felt paintings to fit them. They are all original and made with the same care as my larger pieces but the small size makes them more affordable. They cost less than a dinner out but will last a lot longer and have zero calories!
Here are the first two but I am in the process of making more.

faces in felt

Recently I have done a couple of felts featuring faces. One was of foxes faces and the other my first attempt at a human. Both were quite complex to do because in order to achieve depth and detail I had to  add very fine layers to create shading. I had a lot of fun with the girls hair though.

The foxes have sold already but the 'girl with the wind in her hair' is still available.

Because I like a challenge I am now attempting a womans face in embroidery done by hand. That is purely a challenge for myself and I do not expect it to be for sale. When it is eventually finished I will show you but it will take some time.

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

to follow me on Face book go here     https://www.facebook.com/SueForey?ref=hl

Unexpected inspiration.

Inspiration for art can come from many places but my latest felt came from a few splodges! Many of you will know that I enjoy playing with art journals. I usually decorate the blank pages in some way before journalling. This often simply involves splodging paint on a page and letting it do what it wants. Last week I looked at a page which had been given this treatment and 'saw' a landscape. I drew over the important lines and placed a house in the middle and liked what I saw.

It's strange how our brains work isn't it?

Anyway I decided to see how it would translate in to felt and ended up with this.

Can you see the resemblance?

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.

felt painting minis

I thought I would let you know that I have just finished a series of mini felts at very affordable prices. They are made in the same way as my large felts and are sent stretched on to canvas's 5 x 8 inches / 13 x 18 cm. Here is my most recent

If you would like to take a look at the other mini felts go to the mini felt section in my shop  here https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SueForeyfibreart?section_id=11274296

I hope to make some more soon but am working on something a little larger at the moment.