Cutting and layering
The felted piece I’ve been experimenting with will be sitting on a layered base fabric made from black weed suppressant and pieces of my dyed silks. The initial sample I’ve made is an odd shape so I can see how it will hang at the bottom of the work and how organic and uneven I can make the sides.
A piece of weed suppressant was cut roughly to shape and pieces of fabric randomly placed on the surface. Fine brown netting was placed over this and then everything was free machined in place.
Back of work.
The weed suppressant was then partially removed using a heat gun. The purpose here is to create more translucent areas where the light can shine through, to take away the black ‘shadowing’ created by the weed suppressant behind some of the lighter weight silks and to create a slightly bubbled texture on the front.
It was at this stage I realised that the back of the piece is far more interesting than the front. However, the tonal variance between the black areas and the background layering is too severe and I decided to use more of the brown netting over the surface, to knock it back a bit and unite the colour scheme.
Here is a close-up of the piece with one layer of netting over the entire surface but adding further layers in some places and applying the heat gun to the netting here and there will also add some interest and create more depth to the colour scheme.
Not at all the result I was looking for. Not at all what was planned. What an incredible turnaround. Synthesis is definitely developing in its own way. Time to make the actual piece now.
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