Somemore FeltedArt Work

This piece is called "Family Shield" it is "wet" felted, the light and dark felt are the natural wool, the colored parts are wool that I dyed especially for this piece. It took me over a week to work out the thumb nail sketches and then a couple more days to make a drawing that was the actual size of the work. 19" wide X 31" long. The round part in the center represents the "Shield" the other colors that appear to hang down from the shield represent feathers. The fringe at the bottom is wool yarn dyed to match the wool. Once the felting was complete I added the yarn fringe and the embellishments of real feathers, beading and embroidery. I don't mean to turn this into a tutorial but I will give a little info about the wet felting process. Once the wool is dyed and placed on top of the drawing to make sure it is the way you want it, then the drawing is removed (very carefully) and the piece is place on a piece of synthetic fabric (I like to use drapery lining) another piece of the same fabric is placed on top and the whole thing is safety pinned together. I used the bathtub to do large pieces. Then you put some liquid soap on the whole thing, run the water until it is pretty hot, but not to hot to burn you of course. Wool has little fiber barbs and as you wet it they relax and catch on each other. The soap is just to make every thing slick so you can rub your hands over the entire area. The rubbing "squishes" the little barbs together and the heat of the water "sets" them. Of course you understand that this is a very simplified explanation of the process and if you are going to try felting you should get a couple of good books to go by, the reason I say a couple of books is because every felter has a little bite different method. I have felted some pieces with my friend Pam Huskey-Lolly that are 5 feet by 8 feet. So you can make 'em BIG or you can make 'em small. Either way it is a very rewarding craft, and it is also very practical when you make slippers and scarves and mittens. Felt is one of the oldest fabrics in the world. In Biblical times the sheep herders would put pieces of wool in their shoes for warmth and as they walked the wool became felt. Don't you always wonder how things got started? I Do.
This is a felted Book Bag. The pieces of very colorful felt were felted first and then cut out in shapes and applied with embroidery stitches. The embellishments are bead and embroidery using all kinds of fiber and embroidery threads. This book bag is 17"wide X 26"long. I like to put the size because it is really hard to tell how big it is in a picture.