FELT ART

I have set a goal for myself, that I am going to try to make one new birch felt scene every week. 

To be honest, it is much harder to get into making these pictures than I thought. I can't figure out why it is becoming a challenge for me. I love making these pictures, but somehow I am not feeling very inspired right now, so that is what may be the problem. I am forcing myself to create and it is not working for me. So, here is my forced creation from this week. 

 

 

Please be honest, can you see a difference in this work, from previous pieces.

 

 I haven't done any " felt art" for a while. I have been so busy at school with other projects, that the thing I most love to do has been left untouched. Now that I think about it... it was a year ago was that I last felted anything.

 I have to say I  had to think for a moment of the steps  involved in felting. Once I started it quickly came back to me.

My subject matter is trees.. I absolutely love birch trees... There are many many varieties of birches, but the birches I wanted to felt today was the the birches I remember from my childhood.

 I grew up in northern Ontario, where I spent many happy hours with my sisters climbing trees, playing in the forest, cross country skiing, picking berries.. Then as a youth I would go into the forest to think in quiet solitude and sometimes pour out my woes and worries to my Maker above. When we moved to Finland, to the land of lakes and trees.. My heart rejoiced.

 I have spend many hours each day walking and hiking in the city where I live. The  patches of forests in our city, just amaze me. Here in Finland you don't have to go far, to be able to enjoy nature at its best.

So... without much further ado. (I just hope that I will do justice to these beautiful trees that have played such an important part of my childhood and youth.)

  

 On this birch scene I didn't realize my supply of green felts was in such dire straights. So, I did not have the colours I wanted for this, but in the end... I rather like this picture.

 

 This is the reason I went back to school to get my " artisan papers". I wanted to learn more felting tricks,and techniques. My hope and dream is to continue making and selling my " felt art" pictures. 

 

 I made this felted picture last summer. I had posted some of my work on facebook, in a group that I belong to. I got so many requests to purchase it that I sold it, and the customer asked for a matching picture to go with it.

 

Here is the matching picture I made for the customer. I really like the way they turned out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture is a birch scene I made in the summer of 2019. I am getting better at getting depth into my pictures.

This piece was made for a customer, they had asked me to make a picture of their island where their summer cottage is. I took some liberties in this picture, I did make some other felted pictures that were more inline to the customer's taste.

 

                                                        

 

 

 

 

 This particular piece I made when we had a one day workshop at a small craft boutique in Petäjävesi. We spent the day learning about what it is like to run a business, and all it entails. It was a wonderful day.  The bonus was that we got to use all kinds of wonderful felt materials to make what ever we wished. 

Of course I had to make one of my birch theme felted pictures. I am usually not a blue fan, and don't use it often. But the blue metalic materials she made available to us was so interesting, that I decided to make a blue forest scene.  I really like this particular piece..                                                          

 

                                                             

 I love doing this type of felting. Yes, the felted slippers and felted pillows were fun to do, and I learned alot of different felting techniques while doing these projects. It's is these below pictures that I love doing, and hope to continue and learn to perfect this form of Art. 

WINTER BERRIES

This picture I created was a celebration of the
colours of winter. Many people think that winter
can be so colourless. To me the colours are so beautiful, the red of the berries, the white birches, the many colours of green on the evergreens. This was the first of my felting projects in my felting class.

WINTER TIME

I love the quietness and beauty of the forests in winter. I will never tire of looking at them. When
I look at this picture, I just want to walk into the picture, and enjoy the stillness and quietness.
This picture was created in November 2019 in my felting course.

FALL IS COMING

TIME TO HARVEST

A COLD WINTERS DAY

SPRING IS COMING

BIRCHES

 T

A WALK IN THE FOREST

SOLITUDE

FALL.. MY FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 















This was my first attempt at this form of felting. I had done felted pictures before, but this one I wanted it to look more like an oil painting or water colour. I feel that I had succeeded in this. The depth turned out well. You find your eye looking into the forest.

I have many more felted pictures that I have made. Here was just a few of them, to wet your whistle.

 

                                                                         FELTED ANIMALS

For some reason I have always loved reindeer. There is, something that draws me to them. Maybe it's the nomadic life they lead, or maybe it's because I am finnish and that they symbolize Finland. The reindeer wander the cold frozen tunturi ( mountain) of Lapland, northern Scandinavia, Russia roaming and searching for food.

The popularity of these animals has grown as people all over the world travel to Lapland to experience  Lapland, where Joulupukki (santa) lives. Tourists experience reindeer sleigh rides, and see them in their natural habitat, see the reindeer herders herding as well as seeing them dressed in their national costumes.

I have lived here in Finland for 6 years now, and to my dismay have not yet had the opportunity to visit Lapland. It is on my to-do list. I look forward to visit Lappi and hike the "tunturi"and hopefully see these beautiful animals. So, for now I will paint them in felt. 

This is my second attempt at felting animals. It is not something that I am very good at yet, but with practice I will get better. 

I first drew the reindeer and then started the " needle felting". This reindeer drawing was copied from a painting I saw a few years ago. I have changed it to suit my personal taste. 

I have completed the picture, but as always, I feel that there is something not right in it. This often happens to me, I make something that I think will work, and then once it is completed, I am not happy with it.

I decided to pull the grey felt out of the picture, and add a neutral sky. I added a black felt skyline which defines the seperation between the sky and earth. I find this much more pleasing to my eye. It is not busy or messy looking.

I feel this picture describes the nomadic wanderings of the reindeer and their herders. Out on the open tundra's wandering in search of food, which is mainly lichens.