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

Dying silk and wool fibres

Hello. I've resurfaced after a multitude of commissions and popped in to say hello. After working frantically for a few weeks I realised that my stock of hand dyed silks and wool neps were becoming very low and those I did have left were so muddled I couldn't find what I wanted.

This was my pathetic selection.

I decided something had to be done because I use these fibres a lot in my felts. Silks make great additions to dramatic skies as well as providing highlights to plants and landscapes. Wool neps and Wensleydale locks are fantastic to represent flowers and foliage on a small scale.

I sorted out my undyed fibres, my dyes and some plastic containers. The best dyes to use for these fibres are acid dyes. My favourite acid dyes are Omega. They come in crystal form in little pots and you don't have to add any other ingrediants.Because I only dye small amounts at a time I use plastic containers such as old ice cream tubs and dye in the microwave. Not the same one that I cook in though. I sorted out a little of each fibe and put them in different coloured dyes. Different fibres absorb dyes to different degrees so even though I put several different types of silk in the same pot as wool neps and Wensleydale locks  they all come out in slightly different shades/

Omega acid dyes seem expensive but a little goes a long way. For each of these tubs I uses less than a quarter of a teaspoon of dye granules.

Each tub went in to the microwave for 4 minutes and hey presto my fibres are cooked!

Here they all are drying.

Now I have this job done I can create some more lovely felt pictures with lots of texture.

Felt art for Christmas gifts.

I just wanted to show you these matted felts which I have started making. They are ideal as Christmas gifts especially for any one who has to put gifts in the post. They are easy to wrap and light so do not cost too much to send. They fit in an 8 x 8 inch frame which is 20 x 20 cm. Some of them would also make ideal nursery decor.

To find more  please visit my shop here  https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SueForeyfibreart?ref=hdr_shop_menu

House portrait in felt!

This is a new experience for me. I have made lots of commissioned pieces but recently was asked if I would make a felt picture of someone's house. I agreed and the lady sent me photos to work from. It took a while to work out the best view point to work from but I decided that it would be nice to view the house from her woodland and she agreed so here is the finished piece.

If anyone else wants a special picture of their own house you know where to find me!

Poppy pictures!

I've had a rush on poppy pictures this week. I just thought I'd show you the two which have new homes to go to.

The first one was a custom order for a lady in S. Wales and the second one was sold to an art trail visitor. I'm sure they will both be well looked after.

One more week to go of the Ceredigion Art Trail where you can visit artists in their studios, look at their work and find out more about the processes used in their creations.

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.