How to Felt my way!

How to paint with wool fiber, then felt it and embellish with embroidery thread and beads.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Felt material for backing
• Felting wool
• Felting needle
• Embroidery thread - multiple colors - some beads
• Embroidery needle
• Hot water, soap
• Desire and Creativity

1. 
   Pull little hunks of the Wool Fiber and place on backing.

   Lay your Felt backing on an old pillow or foam - I made a pillow in the illustration so choose your desired dimensions. Using multiple colors of Wool Felt, start pulling fingers of the colors and laying them on the backing in one direction - repeat this about 3 times in different directions. Keep in mind that this is going to be a "Work-of-Art" and be creative when laying down your Fibers. It doesn't have to be really thick with fibers to work. When your doing this keep in mind that you will want to end up with shapes - use your imagination. After you have achieved this take your felting needle and start punching all over the piece to adhere the Wool Fibers to the Felt. You may need to add more Wool in places, but, texture is great for the end effect. Look at the back of your backing and make sure you see the wool showing through - this assures you that you made good contact with the backing. Another tip with the needle - concentrating your needle in one spot makes the fibers more dense.

2. 
   Use your Artistic License!

   The traditional felting method can be used here. What I did was to submerse the piece in hot, very hot soapy water, then, cold. Repeat this till the piece shrinks to your desired size. Then, I patted it dry between towels and started rolling it, scrunching it and even put it in a bag and beat it against a door frame - I have no W&D. Once this process was completed I laid it out on a towel to dry or you may put it in a dryer.

3. 
   You can do it!

   Now, the fun begins! Look at your piece and study it - you should start seeing things that you have created - art talks to you, you know. I used complimentary colors of Embroidery Floss - 1 strand and embellished the things I saw. Think of birds, flowers and use your imagination to embellish. I found at this time that I could even lay down more Fibers and punch them in for added effect. Using a few of your beads will add even more texture to the piece. Finish by backing the piece with a complimentary color for your work or cut it up and make something that presented itself during your creativeness. Good Luck and many Blessings.

Tips & Warnings

• Be open-minded and let your creative juices just flow.
• Don't be afraid to experiment.
• I only use 1 strand of Embroidery Floss.
• Don't stick yourself with your needles, it hurts.

[kellydonovan]

on 10/10/2008 cool way to do it!