Adding Texture

 

Lets face it – felt on it’s own is pretty boring stuff. Even if it is a lovely colour it is flat and lifeless until you add some texture. And that folks is where the fun begins!

You can add texture by putting stuff on top of your felt, underneath your felt, or in your felt.

My favourite on top methods are silk throwsters waste, silk hankies or other material laid on the surface.

This is a pretty ugly sample but it shows that common household string, tshirt material and an old op-shot shirt can all be used to provide texture.

I find Op shops are a great source of cheap texture material. Old clothes and scarves in silk or rayon work best but it can be surprising what will adhere to the wool with a bit of elbow grease. If in doubt, make a sample first.

All sorts of ribbon, braid, string, woollen and synthetic yarn can be used to create interesting texture.

This is a close up of some silk I spun on my hand spindle and then laid on top of black prefelt. The silk stayed on top of the wool and didn’t sink in  - which is a risk sometimes with material laid on top.

This pretty piece is a close up of a French scarf using throwsters waste and silk hankies.

Throwsters waste is ravelled silk threads leftover from the silk making process. It comes in wonderful jewel-like colours and can be stretched across the surface of your wet felt. It will sit on the surface and provide both colour and texture.

Silk hankies come in a thick pile and each hanky needs to be gently eased from the pile. They are cobweb thin and can be stretched over the wet felt surface. As well as adding colour they add subtle texture. As the wool shrinks the silk threads move together giving an orange peel appearance to the felt.

Pre-felts are another method for adding texture on top of felt. But be warned sometimes the pre-felt can behave in surprising ways and either sink into the base wool or not stick at all.

This is a prefelt that was laid on top of the base wool. Instead of staying on top as a raised circle it sank into the base and turned into a blurry blob – not what I expected or wanted. As I said pre-felts can sometimes develop a life of their own and are worth exploring further. In my next blog I’ll talk about prefelts.

Finally, texture can be added when the felt is dry. Stitching either with machine or by hand, beading and needle felting can all be used to add additional features.

   In this wall art I have used a combination to achieve the texture I wanted; stitching and beading, throwsters waste, silk hankies as well as using pre-felts attached by needle felting.