Karen Kamenetzky Fiber Art

While waiting for my newest piece, Worlds Apart, to be photographed so I can share it, I’m launching into my next piece. I have this crazy idea to felt individual “cells” that will have openings created by felting around a resist. If you’re into felting you know there are endless 3D objects that can be made using this technique-vessels, bowls, slippers or fantastical creatures like those made by Andrea Graham (whose work I love)!

I’m already incorporating different ways to create more raised, bas relief texture, like here:

felting texture

-so I figure, “why not take it a step further?”

I first cut non-adhesive “foam shelf-liner” (I love hardware stores) into the cellular shapes adding about 30% for shrinkage. These will be the resists to create an inside space within each “cell”.

cutting out the resist shapes

Dyed wool batting was applied on both sides of each resist with extra around the sides to fold over and seal the edges. I’m a beginner at this resist business so this step was not smooth…

laying out the wool on the resist

But I finally figured out a way to get the pesky fibers to obey me.

wool laid on both sides of resist

Then came the usual felting routine-netting, hot soapy water, lots of massaging. I then rolled the three cells I made in a towel bundle, velcro strapped it and tumbled in a cool dryer. I really dislike all the rolling involved in felting and so have been overjoyed to find the dryer method! So after four rebundlings and retumblings, felting had been achieved and I could cut the cell opening and pull out the resist.

resist out and cut

Woo hoo it worked! And I (surprisingly) put the purple wool in the correct place so it would be the color of the inside! Here are the three after much fulling and shaping-still wet:

finished wet cells

I’m very happy with the results and my mind is abuzz with ideas to incorporate lots of these babies in to a piece of art! What will I do with those lovely openings?! Stay tuned.

Tags: cellular, felting

This entry was posted on December 8, 2013 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Artists, Artwork, felting, Process. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.