Post by Stargazer on Jul 6, 2018 21:08:05 GMT
15 tips to think about when (needle-)felting
- Decide before you start if you want a wool-painting/piece made with fluffy whisks of wool, and very little to no needle-felting, or a dense and smooth surface that can handle to be touched.
- Have patience, patience and more patience. Listen to music, a podcast or the radio. Watch a movie or talk on the phone - it'll take your mind of the amount of time needed to get it as you want.
- Use the internet and find photos you can use for reference and inspiration. Maybe one photo resembles the sky you want to create. Another might have the shape of mountains, the light setting, the proportions of something, etc that you want/need. Use different pictures and merge them into one in your wool art.
- Reference photos are also a good source to get the lighting, shadows and colors accurate so that the painting makes sense logically. The more you use reference photos, the more you learn to make what you want without them later and have it look great.
- If you know what you'd like to make but find it difficult to recreate your visions it often helps to make a drawing of it first. How you draw is often how it'll look like on your wool-painting/sculpture. Make the needed adjustments on the drawing and you will remember it when you start felting.
- Multiple thin layers are better then few and thick layers. It also helps you blend colors better.
- Use the tip of your needle and direct the wool as you needle felt to define what areas are what.
- If you have the wool for the background come onto the motive in the foreground - decide if you want to keep it like that and blend them, or separate the two surfaces:
1) Lift up the wool where it's not wanted and use a scissor to cut it off a little longer then you want it. When you fasten the wool you do want afterwards with the needle the excess will magically disappear into the wool.
2) If you want to blend - do it properly and poke A LOT until it's densely felted - unless you're all for the soft look. Then you need to blend differently. For needle-felting; the coarser wool you use the easier it is to blend the colors. - When you think you're done needle-felting, continue twice as much - if you'd like a smooth surface. It takes forever, but the results is thereafter.
- When you're stuck or think you're done, take a photo of your piece and flip the photo horizontally in an app/program (Adobe Lightroom have some good and useful basic functions for free). That will help you see any improvements you might want to make. If you have the opportunity try to look at your work in grayscale. It'll help you see were you need more/less contrast. You can also look at your piece in the mirror and study it to find areas you want to improve.
- If you plan on wet-felting your piece later, some recommend you to use the same wool on the majority of your piece. Different types of wool felts differently. It'll minimize the risk of distortion of your details. If you only want to needle-felt this doesn't apply and you can use any type of wool together.
- When felting larger pieces some combine wet-felting and needle-felting by wet-felting the background and needle-felt all the details afterwards.
- In my experience BFL wool needle-felts better then merino wool. It's curlier, blends color better with less needle-felting and is a lot shinier - which in some cases mean prettier.
- There are many base-layers you can use; wet-felted prefelt made by you or store bought in various thicknesses, needle-felted prefelt, clothes, burlap, linen fabrics... anything your needle can go through with ease.
- I find that needle-felted prefelt made with coarse (and washed) wool makes a better and more forgiving base-layer regardless of what wool you use for the top-layer (the actual image). It also helps blending the colors in a better way.
I got more tips and tutorials in an e-book which is currently in the making.
