My upcycling journey, so far
I have been needle felting 3D characters for a while; below are a few examples of my work.
Since then, my values have shifted into supporting sustainable and eco-friendly fibres, textiles and fashion. My aims, now, are to upcycle and re-purpose existing clothes and materials. This latest project utilises a tweed jacket that I purchased from an opportunity (thrift or charity) shop. Instead of buying wool roving, I also purchased discarded wool yarn and made my own wool batts. I also discovered that I could make a pseudo chain-stitch embroidery effect by needle felting the wool yarn by itself.
My Process
As the basis of my project was a tweed jacket, I decided on an English woodland theme and started my first wool painting using the resources from Needle Felting: Paint Portraits with Wool, A course by Dani Ives. I also bought a copy of her book, Painting with Wool. I highly recommend all her resources to make a start on wool painting and 2D needle felting.
I produced all my images on a separate piece of white felt, rather than felting them directly to the jacket. I will probably continue to do this, while my main medium is wool, as I can put it through a variety of processes and continually ‘paint’ layers, while not doing any harm to the jacket or needing to remove any artwork that I am not satisfied with. If I go on to needle felt onto a cotton or linen item of clothing, then I may need to felt directly onto the fabric to avoid an embossing effect; I will keep you posted. As I complete a major part of my ‘painting’ or a detailed section, I then put it through my felting machine, to make sure it is really felted down. I may, also, pass my steam iron over it for a wet felting effect; which I always do when I am finished.
The next part of my process is placement. Once I have the elements completed, I then pin them to the jacket and ask for feedback from whomever is available; usually my Husband. Once their final destination has been determined, I then attach them using my felting machine. If you don’t have one, then multi-barbed felting needles will work just as well.
Any good design process includes an evaluation and redesign as part of the cycle. Once I was finished apply the key elements, I decided that it looked too much like a patched denim jacket and not the ‘painted’ jacket that I had intended.
The solution was to apply some oak leaves, so I spent the next two days creating a variety of felted oak leaves, pinning them in place and re-arranging them until I and my Husband were satisfied. I later added a few more as well as some acorns.
This is available in our shop.