When mixed media improuves felt art
Why does felt needs mixed media?
I love felting. The possibility of transforming loosen wol fibers into a textile is just amazing and so much fun to do! I’m fascinated by this process for over 15 years!
But as much as I love felting and also adore the beautiful properties of felt, I have a huge problem with the final material itself, in particularly with it’s dull and hairy surface.
f you are a passionate felter I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings by admitting this - it’s not easy for me either because as I said before - I LOVE felting!
If I may do a comparison: felt for me is like the perfect but unattractive lover. The act is awesome and makes me feel good but once I open my eyes I just don’t feel attracted to what I see!
The same way one may want to transform the” ugly” but perfect lover into a more attractive man, I’m aiming for years to transform the felted surface into something more appealing to me.
As many feltmakers I first thought nunofelting would resolve my problem.
I love the beautiful texture of nunofelt and the shine the silk adds to felt. In the case of nunofelting it’s not the finished material that causes me problems but there is something in the process that bothers me: I often feel frustrated when a beautiful silk - especially the beautiful printed or handpainted one - disappears and gets sucked in by the wool fibers.
In general (and I think a lot of you do agree) the silk don’t come out prettier of this union! Every time when I use a silk I love for nunofelt making, I’m sad to see how the beauty of silk dimunate during the felting.
In order to improve the felted surface - to add depth, shine and a more artistic touch - I started to experiment with dying, painting, transfer and stitching techniques. Nowadays I very often prefer to apply a beautiful silk print with embroidery instead of nunofelting it.
Through experimenting with all kind of techniques I found little by little my own recognizable style.
My artistic “style” or “handwriting“ is very much connected to this research of transforming the felted surface into something more appealing to me. I really enjoy trying out divers techniques and have noticed, that my imagination and creativity gets stimulated with new crafts and art forms. Enlarging my skills and diversifying the “tools” I use, clearly helps me to lift my creativity up.
Through my mixed media textile art class I want to share my way in felt with you. I wish to enable you to enjoy the same pleasure of dipping deep into your creativity.
My mixed media textile art online class
The idea of the mixed media workshop is to embrace a multitude of techniques allowing to embellish textiles in general and felt in particular. The techniques taught are those I use in my own textile & felt art work. We’ll aply them to brooches, cowls and tableaux.
Felt making not included
Please be aware that felting techniques are not really part of this class. We will foremost all, work with felt left overs or pieces you want to pimp-up or recycle. If you know how to felt you are invited to create white or light colored “felt canvas” on which we can explore divers techniques. If you are not a felter or don’t feel strong enough to make your own felt you can work with prefelt or industrial felt!
I’m providing rich information and technical know-how in a multitude of techniques. I’m not pretending I invented any of them. However I’ve made them mine in years of practice. In this class I share with you my experiences allowing you to advance faster and more effective in the research of the perfect felted surface appearance.
I also share playful methods which help me to keep the creative flow going and that allowed me to help to hundreds of students to connect with their inner artist.
Please be warned - what you learn in this workshop is addictive ! You may spent even more hours in your studio after this class than you already have before!!!
Creativity for a more balanced life
The mixed media class is the class I enjoy teaching most because it’s the one that stimulates your creativity the most effetely! In my own life I experiment that creativity is a wonderful medium to become a positiver and happier person. Creativity is healing. It allows to live a balanced life.
I hope the creative journey you book with this workshop will increase your well-being, make you dance and laugh! We will add depth, texture and colors not only to the felted surface but also to our lives!
Ready for a great experience? These are the next schedules:
Just a last word about the workshop setup
This six session online workshop is a live event of 2 hours weekly. Each week we’ll meet in my virtual classroom on zoom. You should be able to allow you 3 to 5 hours weekly to make the prposped excercises.
In between the lessons a private Facebook group will allow us to keep connected and share ideas, ask questions, show work in progress and get inputs from each other.
A small class size of maxi 8 students allows to follow each student individually!