Watercolor-Felt Tulips 3 In Process

I just returned from the Handweavers Guild of America Conference (Convergence) in Tampa. I really enjoyed myself there, although I did work very hard. I taught a 3 day workshop, a 1 day workshop, and 4 seminars. The big excitement was that my artwork was picked to be on the cover of the Gallery Guide! (The piece is called "Brooklyn, Disparate Parrot" . You can see a better picture of it on my web site www.sparkfiberarts.com, or link from the picture at the bottom of this blog.)
And another one of my pieces was on the inside, as an example of the felting exhibit "The Eye of the Hurricane". I won third price in that exhibit, which was also very exciting. The piece is called "Memories of Summer Calm". In fact, felt did well at Convergence. Two out of the five awards in the fashion show went to felt pieces. (By Sharon Goeres and Anne Flora). Lisa Klakulak won an award in the Eye of the Hurricane Exhibit as well as (I believe) in the Small Expressions exhibit. Sharon also won an award in the Eye of the Hurricane Exhibit. Sorry, I can't remember the other winner in the felt exhibit.

After all of the teaching, I was exhausted when I got back and I've spent the last two days relaxing, unpacking, doing laundry, etc.

I've made progress on the Tulips 3 piece. When I do a Watercolor-Felt:
1. I start with a base of pre-felt that I add impressions of color to. These impressions are based on the drawing or photograph I'm using as inspiration. I look at the image and then use a felting needle to put a blurred, out-of-focus version of the image on the pre-felt base.




















Above: Drawing of Tulips 3


2. I then wet felt this base with the blurred image to make the backing more solid. See the felt at this stage at the right.



3. When the felt is dry, I begin adding more precise shapes to the image. I start with the shapes in the background and work my way forward. See the leaves in the photo below.

Here is a picture of some of the merino top I dyed for the tulip piece. I have been busy framing two other works so that they can go off to Convergence in Tampa. I have been photographing the process I use to mount and frame my watercolor felts so that I can include it in the lecture I'm giving at Convergence on "Watercolor Felt". I had a terrible time today with the sun coming in and out of the clouds as I was trying to photograph on my porch! Usually Oregon has great, evenly lighted, overcast days. But not today!

I hope to get the drawings of the tulip piece scanned in a couple of days. And to photograph the piece as it has progressed so far.
More to come.......