Above is my sixteenth Weekly Mixed Media piece this year, and below is the back side.
Spring is s-l-o-w-l-y arriving to eastern Massachusetts, and we're starting to see flowering bulbs. It's nice to finally see color. I wanted to create a felted piece about the flowers poking through the dirt, but was very concerned it was going to look too crafty. I decided to try it anyway, and I think it turned out just fine due to the fact that the petals shifted and the flowers are far from perfect.
To create this piece, start with 2 pieces of brown pre-felted wool fleece, one on top of the other. On top of the brown fleece, randomly plac some cut light brown, and light green, pieces of barely spun wool yarn. Needle punch the yarn in to the brown fleece from the top down, and flip it over and needle punch it again from the bottom up.
This is how it looks after going the first step.
Cut 6 small flower petals each in purple, orange and pink pre-felted wool fleece, and another 6 small flower petals in the same (or similar) colors in wool felt fabric. This picture shows the layout of one purple flower before it is needle punched from the top down.
Working with one "flower" at a time, assemble the rest of the five flowers, and needle punch them in place, from the top down. When you have done that, flip the whole thing over, and needle punch lightly from the bottom up, to help keep them in place.
It's hard to see, but the next step is to cut some small pieces of barely spun black wool, and needle punch them from the top down, and flip it over to punch it from the other side.
Crop and cut to 6" square, and stitch the stamens on your sewing machine, using a yellow/green thread and a small stitch. Start in the center of the flower, sew out up to 1/2 an inch, and holding your reverse button, backup over your stitching with two passes. Pivot back at the center and repeat many times to complete a full radius.
You can see my 2008 weekly mixed media work (so far) on my website, and read about my process/progress here on my blog.
