Wet Felt Art With Wool+paper+metal

Every artist has a different approach and since my art is 3D and all different sizes, its taken multiple attempts to get setting up for an art fair down to a science. My ideal setup needed to address 3 main things: professional and sturdy display, setup and teardown in as few trips to the vehicle as possible, and everything (booth + art) needed to fit in our 5x8 ft trailer. Professional and Sturdy Display The first year I did shows, I used an EZMax Pop Up Tent. It worked great but there were a couple of shows that experienced heavy storms and I did not like the way the water pooled on the roof. So, I upgraded this year to a ShowOff domed canopy tent. First show of the year, a storm came through and I saw several tents collapse from the weight of the rain. My tent was perfect!! For the earlier shows, I did a combination of Propanels and mesh walls. The mesh walls did not work for me. Too much wind came through and was lifting my pieces up. For my next show, I am going all Propanels.

Art booth setup for first 2 shows of the season Since I combine wood and felt and some of my pieces can get quite large and heavy, I never hang my art from the panels directly. Instead, I purchased stainless steel wire rope and adjustable hooks from Amazon and large S hooks that fit onto the tent pipes. Where necessary, I add tapestry hooks into the panels for additional stability. Minimal Trips for Setup and Teardown I purchased two large, gently used, 72x21in bakery racks. I use one for my art work and the other for all of the booth setup equipment. With that in mind, I removed 2 of the shelves from the booth setup rack and added it to the art rack. This week, my husband built a custom base for the booth rack with beefed up wheels and added space to hang my Propanels on the sides.

Custom extension for panels

Fits 4 panels on each side

Rack all loaded up with tent, panels and pedestals This setup gets everything I need for my tent on one rack. What is especially nice with this plan is I can do setup and teardown by myself relatively easily but when I have a helper - I can breakdown in under an hour. This is fantastic! I keep most of my art on one rack. There are a few pieces that are standalone sculptures that have their own totes. The art rack fits perfectly behind the backwall of my booth so I can grab additional inventory or can easily find the wrapper for a piece that has sold.

Art wrapped up and stacked for easy transport and loading Compact Fit The 2 bakers racks fit nicely side by side in the trailer with just enough room for a semi-small and somewhat agile person to squeeze through if necessary. This leaves room for a large rolling bin that I use to haul an assortment of taller items like a wire bin for my watercolors, plastic wrap, my drill, shopping bags, any project materials I want to bring along to work on in the booth...

Since downsizing and moving to the cabin full time in the fall, I have fantasized about a new art studio "she shed". It was finally delivered last night and I have been busy prepping it all day. For this blog, I am sharing a few pictures of the new space and some of the cool pieces I found to go into it.

Art Studio Being Placed in Final Position I picked up a few pieces over the spring while waiting for the studio to be delivered. The first, and the coolest, is an antique mail sorter from a post office in a local small town. It makes a great statement piece for all of my wool. I found other mail sorters on pinterest but never storing wool, hopefully I start a trend!

Antique Mail Sorter Storing Wool in Art Studio The next piece is an old blueprint cabinet. I store all of my felt sheets, matboards, packing materials, and wood slabs in this cabinet.

Blueprint cabinet The final piece was created from a combination of the top of a monster oak desk that I did a paint pour on and an Ikea gate leg table as the base. Here is a link to the youtube video I used to learn how to do the paint pour if you are interested in doing your own. I also have a small desk in the corner that I can use for making website updates and taking the occasional Webex meeting.

Resin Pour On Old Oak Desk Top So, I have to suffer all day with a view of the lake while I felt. And the view from within the studio is pretty darn good too! Nala and Pumba agree as well :) This is probably the cleanest it will ever be!! Would love to see other's creative spaces!

View from my table

Much of my creative energy goes into building pieces for other people, but incorporating felting into my home as we settle into the cabin has been really fun. Before I found felting, I made lamps. I have included a few pictures below.

Tripod Lamp

Copper Bowl on a Pedestal - aka the Crazy Lamp Kitchen Sconces For the cabin, I combined the two passions in my kitchen and screen porch. In the kitchen I created felt sconce vessels with a branch and curly copper wire on top of each. I wanted them to be organic and differ slightly from each other. Each is heavily stiffened to hold its shape. I love the reflection off the window they give at night. It looks like the moon.

Wet felted vessel kitchen sconce

Second kitchen sconce

Wet felted vessel kitchen sconce lit up Screen Porch Chandelier My screen porch lamp was several years in the making. I found this antique dairy receptacle at a barn sale a few years ago and knew it would make a really cool lamp but wasn't sure where it could go. This is a big boy! So definitely needed to be a statement piece.

Antique dairy globe receptacle I cut cream felt into long strips and then I bought a long strand of rope covered electrical wire . The rope was fished through two of the holes in the globe and I wove the felt along the outside of the globe. Then I got stuck for about a year trying to figure out how to hang this thing so I stuck it in a box and didn't think about it for awhile. As we were completing our screen porch, I knew I finally had the perfect space for a statement. So I pulled the box out of storage and got back to solving the hanging problem. I ultimately incorporated more rope and created a basket for the globe. The rope was left long so I could adjust height on the fly and intended to trim it once the final height was determined but I like the rustic look so I think I will keep it!

Boho globe rope and felt chandelier lit up

We have been doing a lot of home remodeling so sorry it's been a while between posts - I wanted to take you through some of the steps of making my first buffalo. There was a leftover slice of walnut from another piece that had a circle on it. I thought it looked like an eye so decided to make a buffalo. To start, I blended wool to match the walnut and built out the nose.

Building out the buffalo head Eyes are a bit of an obsession of mine. Here is a picture of one complete and one just in the wool marble stage. You can see how much adding white for reflection and black lining around the lid makes them look realistic.

Adding eye details makes all the difference Once I placed the eyes, I started to add more browns and grays to the fur to blend with the wood color and created wet felted spikes along the top. The spikes are lightly wired to help them hold their shape.

Adding eyes, spikes and color blending At this point, I added ears and horns, did a bit more color blending, and tried to decide if he was done. I snapped a pic and sent it to my mother. We both agreed something more was necessary.

Trying to decide if the buffalo is done I tried beefing up his chin hair first. Then I added strips along the side.

Almost there The volume of him was better but something was still missing. I added in some dreadlocks. This added some depth and tied in the spikes across the top. We had a winner!

Adding dreadlocks is the ticket! The finished piece went up on Etsy last week and is getting some attention. My Mom and I decided to name him Anton. Somehow, this guy has my Dad's eyes. Dad did grow up in Buffalo City so maybe it was destiny. Anton is my first buffalo but I doubt he will be my last!

I decided to create a felt barn owl out of the scrap piece that I had from my lion. It was already cut in the shape that I needed, so the first step was staining it with a golden oak stain and adding poly to bring out the coppery undertones of the wood. I always finish the wood before I start felting so that I can color match my wool.

Stained and polyurethaned slab ready to go Next comes building up the head and body with core wool and a bit of wire armature. This takes a while. You need to felt it pretty solid and dry fit it into the wood as you go. I tend to sculpt with the core wool as I go, adding and dry fitting. In this case, my core wool was gray. This was only because I have a crap ton of it and not for an artistic reason!

Head and Body Build out From there, I build out feathers that match the wood. I included a picture of all of the different colors that go into a single feather. This is my favorite part of any wood and wool project. It may be why I am drawn to creating owls too. This is the second felt barn owl I have created. They are masters at camouflage! 

6 different wool color variations in a single feather

felting feathers that match the wood The final steps are layout and gluing (where felt meets wood) and then spot checking for additional ways to highlight the spalting in the wood.

Barn Owl getting finished Once I hung this sweet girl on the wall, I realized that her mate was nearby. These two remind me so much of my parents, who embody their personalized mugs (Grumpy and Happy), that I think I will name them Grandpa and Grandma. Hopefully we can convince someone to buy them together - their namesake just celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary so lots of good luck will come with them!

Today I am going to walk you through creating a wood and felt lion head. I have posted on creating lions before but this is by far the most on the ball I have been with taking pictures throughout the process. It seems that highland cows and lions are my best sellers. People seem to gravitate to pieces with lots of hair! I had a beautiful piece of figured hard maple that I planned to use for the lion's head. The bottom will end up making a great owl!

To start off, I blended the wool to match the wood tone and built up the cheeks and nose. Then, I added in eyes and started to add in some fine lines to match the the lines of wood.

When it came time to create the mane, my first plan was to create one from different shades of brown alpaca and mohair. This was the dry fit. I thought it was too busy.

Once I decided to go a different way, I needed to do some different tests. I wanted to go more natural lion mane color this time so laid out three options. I decided a mix of the top and left was the winner.

I did like the bark lining from the wood peaking out as the edge of the mane so I kept a dark brown undercoat in the mane. Horse hair whiskers finished off the look. This is the completed wood and felt lion.

I recently completed the final bag from the felted bags workshop that I took online with Terry Berry. This workshop was comprised of 3 different wet felted bags: a glasses case, a purse and a backpack. I opted for an animal theme for all three bags. To respect the workshop, I will not post any in progress pictures - if you would like to learn how to create the bags, you should take the workshop. Terry makes it very easy to follow along. Glasses Case The first bag that I created was a glasses case. I chose to create a flat faced cat. As is my typical process, I lightly needle felted some details (like the eyes) ahead of wet felting and then needle felted in additional details once the wet felting was done but before I had completely fulled the bag.

A small carabiner was added to the ear so he could be added to another purse or backpack. I also added a small sparkly bow as the button closure. Purse The second bag that I created was a purse. For this one, I created an owl inside of a tree. The purse straps are branches and the owl is inside a cutaway edge. My daughter claimed this one the second I sent her a photo so it did not make it into my Etsy store :) It hadn't even started drying yet!

The purse uses a long wood button as the closure which doubles as the beak. Backpack The final project in the felted bag workshop was a backpack. I wanted an animal with a strong brow for the snap closure and a long face that ran the length of the bag, so I made a dragon. This one is reinforced with black cotton muslin fabric and has felted straps. Because it is a backpack, I reinforced many of the felted items with embroidery for strength. I bet this would make a great gift for the DnD players out there. It is the perfect size for a laptop.

Exactly one day after getting back from vacation, I received a request for a wool watercolor pug commission. My workshop was not unpacked and I thought I was out of felt for my watercolor backgrounds so I set expectations for a longer than normal timeline for finishing. Well, I set them appropriately for everybody but me! Immediately, I went up and dug around and found one last piece of felt so I could get started. I start all of my watercolors by outlining my design first. In this case, I used the cream color of the pug and also started lightly filling in. This way, I can make sure that my eyes and ears line up and are similarly sized. I also have a small build up of nose on here. It is difficult to see but it is the start of a three dimensional nose.

Outline From there, I built up the eyes, ears, nose and cheeks. I always print out a photo of the commission subject and compare as I go to make sure that I get all of the nuances. Sorry that I do not have more in process shots but I went into frenzy mode and completed this quickly.

Comparison photo to painting Normally, I don't do much to the felt background but the buyer requested a Starry Night influenced background in this case. I also needed to decide on the matboard color. The buyer requested a neutral and I wanted to pull from a color in the painting. The options were subtly different between cream or tan.

We are now officially moved to our lake home in Chetek and I have yet to unpack my workshop so I am going to feature a cow and a goat that I made a few weeks back. Cow The highland cow started as a happy accident. My friend Sarah at Black Sheep Fiber Goods had a Mediterranean blue art yarn that I fell in love with. She accidentally shipped me more yardage than I had ordered so I decided to make a statement with it. I sold my last highland cow and always like to keep one in inventory so my first blue cow came to be. Here is an in progress photo. This is prior to any trimming and before mounting. I promise there is a cow under there! The horns are made from sari silk waste that also had flecks of blue in it. It ties the blue hair in nicely.

Marlais was trimmed for glimpses of his face underneath and mounted to some black barn board. The name Marlais means blue in Welsh. I know he is a Scottish cow with a Welsh name but figured it was all on the same island so close enough!

Marlais Goat While at my last show, I kept getting requests for goats. My daughter stumbled on this picture and it became my inspiration.

I just received some long alpaca fibers that I thought were perfect. Seems odd to make a goat with alpaca but it worked! Here is one in progress shot as I worked through building up the head.

The final product has detailing in the face, ears (that I realized I forgot after I thought I was done), and all of the wool around the neck and shoulders. It wasn't until the very end when I was creating the listing that I researched and figured out he was actually not a goat but an Old Norwegian Sheep ram. Oops. His name is Ares regardless.

Valais sheep are some of most adorable animals on the planet so I decided to create a small valais lamb head portrait. I did not take any shots of the work in progress so this is going to be a short blog post.

I had a wet felted background that I had never used so I started with that and then needle felted the head structure so there was some dimension. I then added both white and black teeswater locks and mounted the head inside a 5x7in black frame.

A very cute little guy! However, I couldn't get over those little black knees so I decided to create the corresponding lamb butt. I again used the same background material and a 5x7 black frame. This time the frame was mounted vertically.

The combined result makes me smile. For those local to the Milwaukee area, you can see this little valais lamb in person next week (Aug 12-13) at the Morning Glory Art Show in the Deer District.

I have a show coming up in Wausau in September and thought that a pheasant would be a good addition to my collection for that show. Found this great pitted piece of wood that I I had my husband cut into the shape of a pheasant body.

Sorry I didn't create a lot of in process shots. I was in the zone and this project came together quickly. The tail feathers and bottom feathers were wet felted and wired and the head was needle felted. Upon first assembly, I realized that the body needed to be filled in more.

I blended wool to match the wood coloring and found small beads that mimicked the pits in the wood.

Sat with this guy for a couple of days and decided that the neck needed more texture to look more like a pheasant's feathers. I decided to build the neck up a bit and like the result much better.

Close up of the neck - I think I will name him Dimples

Lion

Once I finished the pheasant, I had a cutoff piece that looked like a lion's paw print. I felted in the missing parts to complete the print.

The paw print inspired me to make a second lion. My first lion (blog here) was sold at the Barrington art fair earlier this year. I have a couple of shots of the head in process that I can share.

This time I decided to create a mane with long locks.

And Flowers, Oh My

I also completed a branch weaving that I really love. Again, no in process shots - sorry. This one started with a metal heart that I used upside down as a flower bud. I then wet felted 2 additional flowers that had similar coloring. The weaving is inside a branch that is long and skinny so I wove it as a bouquet.

I found this walnut slab and thought the little ring on the top was cool. Wasn't sure what it was when I bought it but I thought it looked a little like the eye of a peacock feather.

When I started to look for inspiration around peacock feather eyes, I found this beautiful Indian blue peacock mount from Creel and Gow. I realized that the lines were similar to my slab. This became the inspiration for my piece.

First, I started with the creation of the eyes. I needle felted multiple layers and then hand embroidered a feather-like texture over the top with a combination of blue, dark teal and light teal. To finish the top of the feathers, I used brown silk yarn slightly stiffened and tied to a cotton wrapped wire.

Then I started working on the head. Lots of blending between teal and blue. The most time consuming part was the creation of the plumes - little wool tufts on silver wires.

I struggled for quite a while trying to decide how to handle the middle section. Trying hand dyed doilies and lace, as well as, a simple macrame pattern as options but not liking either. It just took away from the walnut. In the end I created small felted feathers in a U anchored with an additional eye.

The final design of the full peacock also incorporated blue glass pins (some with bead caps) that anchor the feathers for a little sparkle. I am very pleased with how striking this piece is and how a piece of walnut could transform into a full peacock!.

Everyone knows that art is subjective so it goes without saying that there will be times that you submit pieces for a show and are not selected. I decided to create a weaving that symbolizes my handling of rejection. Nobody likes to get the email that says, "Not selected" or "Unfortunately", over the past couple of months it seemed like I was getting ALOT of those emails. I received some acceptances too but it's so much easier to wallow in rejection than in validation, isn't it? I decided to process the rejections into a new piece and started a branch weaving. The weaving is in blacks and blues and greys and starts with a gaping hole in the middle.

Big gaping hole Once the yarn weaving was complete, I printed out all of the rejection emails onto mulberry silk paper and made paper ribbons. I then wove those ribbons throughout the weaving. The word "Unfortunately" dangles from the top of the hole.

Close up of rejection letters woven in I did not capture any images of it but I thought it was poetic that most of the ink ran together during my first attempt at creating the ribbons. It became a giant murky blob of rejection that all ran together. The second attempt I fused a linen paper that was more ink fast with the silk paper. I also created 2 little negativity spirals in the corners.

Negativity Spiral of Text The final piece includes ragged weaving ends exposed. I also took a razor to the soft blue yarn to make it messy and raw. My weaving was cathartic and hopefully sums up how others and not just I handle rejection.

My punk rock pony came about as a revamp of an existing piece. Those of you that follow my work may recognize Bisou the draft horse. This piece received many likes and was favorited quite often but I felt like it could be something more.

First, I lengthened the bridge of her nose, darkened her muzzle and increased the size of her eyes. Then I decided that I didn't like her as taxidermy hanging against the wall. I pulled her off the plaque and lengthened the neck so she could be a sculpture. Sorry - I forgot to take pictures in process! Around the time that I converted her to a sculpture, I read an article by Daniel Swanick that highlighted the work of Jeffro Uitto. Jeffro creates amazing sculptures from driftwood.

His horse busts inspired me to kick Bisou's look up a few notches and go punk rock. I created a series of wool ropes that I felted aggressively so they would hold their shape when they dried. Using a Joomchi process similar to felting, I also created paper rods. I flipped Bisou's mane all to one side and then attached the rods and ropes. As a final step, I also added some light, random swirls on the nose and cheek. It gives a marbled effect and makes it look like my girl has tattoos to go with the righteous haircut. Here are some photos of the final product.

There has been a lovely piece of locust sitting in my shop staring at me for awhile now and it finally revealed itself as a lion head just before the holidays.

Live edge locust slab First, had my hubby stretch his bandsaw skills to give me the foundation.

Slab cut out for head Then I started on building the face and deciding how to tie it into the wood.

Lion face in felt Next came multiple batches of dreads and dry fitting. I think I created 4 batches in the end, thinking each time that I would most certainly have enough and being wrong.

Dreads on drying rack

Dry fitting Once I had enough dreads and was happy with placement, I started gluing and felting them in place. I then hung it for the first time and decided it was too heavy on the bottom left. Also realized I forgot ears!

Lion head first hanging I moved some of the longer dreads up to thin that section out and added in the ears and this is the final product. He has a lion king kind of vibe to him that I really dig!

Final felt and wood lion head Never one to waste wood, I took the bark cut off from the original locust slab and created a cute little owl with him. I call him Night Terror. Sorry I don't have any in progress shots of this one.