Technique to flip a felt-design.

Here's the second technique that Hilde Blank is sharing with us.

HOW TO FLIP A FELT-DESIGN

I do not like to do pictures on felt upside down! But some techniques ask for that, there is no way around. Or is there?

Decorations with sharp edges could be done with prefelts. Another possibility is the ‘wet- wool’-technique (Sarah L. Ricketts: “Turkish Delight” Nuno at the Beechworth Convergence or Tuula workshop – Creative Fibre, Dec. 2007), which would be done upside-down. (You wet sliver pieces in soap sludge and ‘paint’ your design on a piece of plastic or another temporary background like a piece of towel or similar fabric where the wet wool sticks to).

I have tried out the following and it worked:

Lay out your design on your temporary background (I use a piece of towel fabric) with wet, soapy wool. Start with the background layer, then build up your picture – what you will see, you will get! Wet the design slightly down, cover it with a sturdy, see-through plastic (thicker than a vegetable bag, about 50 ų). Smooth that down so it will stick.

(The advantage of plastic as temporary background: you can place a paper with your design underneath. The disadvantage: you have to be very careful with the amount of water you use, so that your design is not swimming away).

Lay out the background you are going to use for your design, pat it down, but do not wet it. Now turn your sandwiched design, wet it slightly on the back - if you have used fabric - and peel the temporary background slowly off. That works surprisingly well. You are left with your upside down design on a piece of plastic.

Now you are ready to stick the design on the prepared background where ever you want to place it. Smooth it down with the plastic in place, wet out the remainder of the felt in the usual way and start rolling / felting.

 - It is easier to place a few smaller plastic pieces with designs on, than one big one with several designs!

- It helps to use a pencil or small stick to ‘roll’ the plastic with the design onto the background.

Happy felting!
Hilde Blank 02/2008
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