Needle felting

I've been wanting to have a try at needle felting for some time now but rushed out and bought the needles when I saw this video clip by Rice. She makes it look so easy and it is. After contacting her I got some tips on how to shrink my jumper and it worked, usually I spend hours plunging woollens into boiling water then into freezing cold water and all I get is shriveled hands. 

It didn't take long to produce the piece in the image, I'm going to add beads and stitching to it.

I thought I would scan it into my computer rather than take a photo and the image above is the result, it looks like it has a filter applied to it. This gave me the idea to try some photoshop filters on it and the ones below are the result.

This has the posterize filter applied.

This is the watercolour filter

This is the fresco filter

I might have to print these out and use them in my journals.

To finish off here's a couple more shots in my studio.

This is one of the shelf units that houses some of my paints.

The fabrics in this photo are from very old Japanese work garments, there are about thirty square pieces, some already patched and stitched from all of their years of wear. I bought them in Japan around fifteen years ago. The lady in the shop asked what I was going to do with them and I said I would probably turn them into a quilt. She picked up a pile and stroked them gently, she said we just look at them. And guess what after all these years I just look at them too. I want to use them in something special but until I can create quilts like Jude I'll just look at them.