Thursday, January 29, 2009

Wet-felted "Water Lilies"

I've been indulging my passion for felting lately, and recently had a landscape challenge to create for a local group. Why not try wet-felting a landscape? I thought, and so I started browsing for inspiration. I had been fortunate enough to see the extraordinary Monet exhibit at the NC Museum of Art a few years ago, and one of my favorite pieces there was his "Water Lilies" painting; unless you've seen it, you don't realize this piece is close to 6' x 5' in size, it's huge! The richness of the colors and brushstrokes used to create the water and water lilies is just spectacular...hmmm, I thought, that purple is almost the same shade as my Wilton icing gel wool fibers I dyed! And so I decided to re-create this work of art; of course, mine is less than a foot tall, and doesn't hold a candle to Monet's, but it was still fun to do! I used my Wilton purple fibers, some hand-dyed buttercream fibers for the sun glinting in the corner, and silk strands and strips for the plants with fibers to hold them down. I wet-felted the whole thing, and it didn't turn out too bad; I'm thinking to put it on the back of my denim jacket and maybe add some silk ribbon or felted sprites or something for the border. I'm adding a photo so you can see, enjoy!

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