Picture pucker

[penguin]

Dec 7, 2016 20:42:59 GMT elizabeth said:

OK. I like the gull. That's much better than my imagination drew!!

Lol! Glad you like it, and Ruth and Lyn too. Now to see if I can actually felt it, as that one is just paper.

[tracey]

Super picture Anne. It feels and looks atmospheric to me, colour blending is great. The gull works definitely for me.

[penguin]

Turns out I'm no needle felter! I've done a test gull on an old sample and it's too fuzzy! Can I make a less fuzzy one somehow or is this just the way needle felt is, in which case I'll appliqué one instead. Advice greatly appreciated! Thanks.   (It's in the bottom left corner - not the fuzzy black bits at the top which were first and second attempt, pulled out!) Felting needle in there for scale! Fuzziness wouldn't matter if it were a big picture, but the gull is only I suppose 1.5 inches wing-tip to wing-tip so fuzziness does matter.Gull test by Anne Hickley, on Flickr

[lyn]

Is the fuzz just bits of fibre poking up? If so, you can bury them into the gull by using your felting needle almost sideways - pick up the fuzz then gently poke it into the gull.

Another way is to 'mess up' some black fibres between your fingers so that the fibres aren't parallel, then pull/twist them out into a fine 'string'. Needle felt the outline of the gull with it, then fill it in.

[MTRuth]

I personally would applique the gull on, then you wouldn't have to worry about fuzziness. But I don't like to needle felt either.

[penguin]

Thanks Lyn and Ruth!

Dec 18, 2016 16:25:03 GMT lyn said:

Is the fuzz just bits of fibre poking up? If so, you can bury them into the gull by using your felting needle almost sideways - pick up the fuzz then gently poke it in.

I tried this Lyn, but I think it's partly felted in so wasn't working. I will try the twisted string idea though, thank you ... And I'll do a test appliqué one too and see what turns out better.

[koffipot]

It's such a good shape and will really bring the seascape to life. I hope you manage to get how you want it to be.

[blythwhimsies]

I really love your seascape - so atmospheric and full of movement. I like putting gulls in my sea scapes too but I mostly put them in with machine embroidery.

[elizabeth]

Penguin, I actually like the fuzziness of your practice piece. It gives it an 'atmospheric' feeling.

[Shepherdess]

could you cut a gull out of some black felt and then needle it down?

[Pandagirl]

You could also needle felt some of the background color over the fuzziness. For many projects I've used precut prefelt for specific shapes, needle felt it down, but then I wet felt it all.

[penguin]

Thanks for the suggestions ladies. Ann, I did try using a prefelt but maybe it was a bit too 'pre'. It fell apart when I needled it! Needling a more solid piece might work. I think it would have been good to needle it first and then wet felt, Marylin, but too late now. The piece is well felted and fulled. I think if I tried needling coloured felt around the fuzzy black, I'd just get fuzz going the other way! At the mo I'm inclined toward appliqué but if that doesn't work it's great to have more options to try! Thank you.

[penguin]

I could machine embroider too. I missed Blythwhimsies suggestion before, but I'm a little nervous of the unpicking if I get it badly wrong! 😀

[Shepherdess]

Fabric paint?

[penguin]

Hmm. It would need some serious thickening but might be worth experimenting with. Thanks Ann!