Felted Stitched Landscapes

In the March/April issue of Cloth Paper Scissors, artist Colleen Ansbaugh shows readers how to create a colorfully embellished felted landscape.

Working on a small scale like this offers opportunity to try new technique without a huge investment in time and materials. Given this was our Recycling issue, Colleen used scraps of fabrics, ribbons, and yarn, along with embroidery threads and beads.

 

Here are a couple of Colleen's tips:

1.) When creating small-scale works, create strong contrast for a visually alluring piece.

2.) If you decide you don't like something in your piece, try adding something on top, rather than trying to remove the offending item. Trying to remove fibers that have already been felted can pull out adjoining areas, something you don't want to happen.

 

 

 

Though Colleen created small pieces, her techniques can be used on a variety of projects. 

Colleen suggests trying sandwiching some fibers between water-soluble fabric, felting the fiber sandwich, and then washing the water-soluble fabric away.

According to Colleen, " The beauty of using this technique is two fold. First, the finished piece can have spaces or holes in it on purpose, (imagining such things as leaves on the trees letting the sun shine through), and second, the felted piece can easily be added to another piece as embellishment or to finish a scene."

Colleen's article is just one of the many inspiring articles in the March/April issue. Be sure to check out the whole issue!

If you've ventured in to felting, do you prefer hand needle felting or machine felting? Leave me a comment.

Categories

Collage, Fabric Art, Mixed-Media Techniques

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