FELTING INSPIRATION

So excited to have been invited by the Scottish Felting School to teach there in August.  My Butterfly wrap was selected for my two days teaching at the school.  I see lots of silk chiffon dyeing in my future - lots of blues and violets!

KLIMT VEST

The week after the Felting School, I will be teaching what I love doing best.  Creating felt, cutting up, then stitching creatively stitching together again.  As always, inspiration comes from a variety of sources, I just have to begin working and then the magic begins.  I had a piece of clothing from a thrift shop (yes, as a 'textile saver') I'm always scouring for interesting pieces of silk or blank linens to dye.   

My inspiration for this vest came from one of Klimt's most favored paintings, 'The Woman in Gold.'  As I studied it, I became very excited about the background; the detail is amazing and provides so many opportunities for inspiration.  I decided to do swirls, 'eyes' and doodads of all sorts and it was such an enjoyable experience.  If it was going in any way to represent Klimt piece in any way, it needed some gold, so out came my trusty old friend - Pfaff 1475 CD (creative designer).  This machine came out before the popular embroidery machines and can perform all sorts of fun functions from inputting your own text, to stitching out fancy delightful stitches, either stand-alone or in a string.  Gold metallic stitches were added for strategic touches and for the finishing touches, a piece of leather that had been dyed with flowers and it was just the perfect color with a silk covered wool ball button.

The most difficult part was the swirls, created from a rolad of silk and wool, gently rolled to the pre-felt stage before being cut.  That wasn't easy as I learned that the roll was way too thick to cut and made it really difficult to slice thinly enough - everything imaginable was tried from heavy duty rotary cutter to shaving with electric hair razor but by that time my fingers were yelling at me!  However, I didn't panic but waited until the vest was finished before using my sharp little applique scissors to shave off the tops and that worked!