Needle-Felted Seascapes

You can create tiny jewel-like pictures by felting colorful fleece fibers onto a solid wool background. Making seascapes, landscapes, cityscapes and still-life images.

Materials:

ivory wool or wool felt background
various colored wool fleece
brown and green wool roving
felting needle
foam pad
seed and bugle beads
beading needle
threads
mat and/or frame

1. To prepare the background fabric, choose a solid or heathered wool or wool felt. Wash in the washing machine with 1/2 cup of soda using hot water. Dry on high temperature to "felt" the fibers. The fabric will shrink considerably, so start with a larger piece than you plan to use.

2. Stretch background fabric onto an embroidery hoop or pin onto a thick piece of foam (figure A).

3. Create a rough sketch on paper and use an air-soluble marker to mark main areas of color on background fabric.

4. Use a felting needle to pierce surface repeatedly so that fleece fibers become embedded into background fabric (figure B). Begin with larger shapes such as water and clouds; add smaller details such as the sun and the thin sandbar as the seascape begins to take shape (figure C).

5. To make the palm tree, use a length of wool roving for the trunk. Felt in place along edges, carefully maintaining the dimensional quality of the roving (figure D).

6. Create the palm fronds by splitting a piece of green roving at one end, leaving the other end in tact (figure E). Felt in place, joining to trunk, leaving fronds free.

7. Use a longer piece of wool roving to felt a dimensional frame around outer edges of picture (figure F).

8. Embellish sun and sea with miniature seed beads and bugle beads. Add novelty beads at base of palm fronds to simulate coconuts (figure G).

9. Finished pieces can be matted and framed or used as appliqués to embellish a journal cover, pillow, handbag and hat.