My “Felt Smack Down” Entry…

Well, here's my entry for the "Felt Smack Down" contest! I really enjoyed making this. I have loved working with felt now for quite a while and have been inspired by Salley Mavor for years.

It was a learning experience for me as well as a fun project to make. I tried some techniques on this piece that I haven't employed before as described below. My piece is a wall hanging that is 8" x 9", mounted to foam core board and finished along the edges with ribbon and pearl headed pins.

My “Little” (doll), as I call them, measures 1 3/4", including the little tip on her cap. I painted her face (no easy feat being as she is so small!) and embroidered her tunic and skirt. Her hair is made from yarn.
The pot of hydrangeas measures just over 3/4" and is sculpted and then painted using watercolors for extra dimension. Each flower was made individually with a single strand of embroidery floss worked in colonial knots, gathered and then sewn in place.

The apple tree measures 3" and is sculpted and painted using watercolors as well for extra dimension.

I needle felted the clouds then stitched them down to the sky.
The wisteria vine is actually a couple of different colors of floss that I dipped in a 50-50 mixture of white glue and water, then wrapped around a paintbrush to dry before stitching in place with some silk fleurette's. The clouds ended up being my least favorite part of the project. I need to experiment more and come up with something more satisfactory and realistic.

Overall, I am pleased with my end result. There were times that I was feeling dissatisfied with it, but as I added more detail, the picture started to match what I had in my head. I can see making more along these lines in the future.