Friday, April 6, 2012

Friday Inspiration - Wet Felting

I've been working on wet felting small sheets of roving for a fiber piece I'm making and am seeing a lot of good things ahead!  While the pieces I need are just plain wool, there are endless possibilities for adding threads and other additions.  To give you an idea of what fiber artists are doing with this medium, I found three inspiring pieces.



Scottish artist Pauline Hann creates garments using hand felted fabric.  This jacket is a good example of the great texture and color combinations one can get.  I know I've had less than satisfactory experiences with commercial felt lately, but that aside you have to admit that this felt has so much more character!


If you want to see the possibilities for creative clothing/hats available when you make your own felt, spend awhile looking at the work of Elynn Bernstein.  She has a great way of layering her pieces to create a nice feeling of depth - and a wonderful sense of color.  I've been looking at felt more as a fabric (as opposed to a craft material) and Elynn's work inspires me!



Wendy Freebourne's felted fabric isn't usually transformed into garments, however the texture and movement in her work is wonderful.  I like the way the threads extend off the felt - it feels like the piece's boundaries are extended also.  And again I love her use of color!

Come back on Monday for a tutorial on how to wet felt small pieces - a beginning step towards these inspiring pieces.

Happy Creating!  Deborah 


2 comments:

  1. Hi Deborah
    I'm going to attempt to sew cabbage leaves out of fabric. I was thinking two types of fabric for texture.
    Do you have any hints or have you made these before??
    Many thanks
    Chrissie (New Zealand)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That could look nice! I've never done that - I would think you'd need fabrics that have quite a bit of stiffness along with the texture. How about felt? I've been playing around with putting some texture in felt I'm making from roving with a wet technique. I'll have a tutorial up on Monday. You could also get stiffness in thinner fabrics using fabric stiffner - I've used Aleene's before with good results.

      Delete