This is a wall hanging that I started just after Christmas after thinking about a taking a trip to the Grand Canyon, the trip never materialised but the images from my research stayed with me. The different coloured rock strata are just plain beautiful.
This was my interpretation of it, it’s no where close to matching the scale of the Grand canyon, but its a reasonable sized piece of felt at approx 2 ft x 2 ft.
My first issue was the edges, they look very untidy in their native state, with various layers poking out from under the red “earth”. So I tried cutting them back to reveal all of the layers and straighten them up a little. This is the first edge cut:
I like the wiggly lines of the different layers in the cut edge but I’m still not happy with it as a wall hanging. I wonder if it is the white? Is the contrast too severe? What would you do with it?
I’ve also been trying to use some of the screen printed prefelt that is starting to pile up around me, I decided to use these two pieces to make journal covers:
But was a little disappointed that both images faded / disappeared during the fulling 🙁
I expect they can both be rescued, the geckos with some embroidery and / or needle felting, the pink one with some more printing with a darker colour. It’s just a bit frustrating to see you beautiful print disappear before your eyes…
I like the wall hanging and think the white gives strong definition. I wonder what it might look like if you backed in blue felt to mimic the sky.
Thank you Kathleen, that is an interesting idea, I had discounted the idea of using stretcher bars to mount it because it is so thick but if I stitched it to some backing felt that could act as a surround and a support to attach it to a frame…
Oh such a pity that the geckos faded! They were beautiful. Are you able to print on smooth, fulled felt so that you could have defined geckos for a journal cover?
Yes, I think that is the answer Lyn, printing on prefelt does not seem to work too well but printing on the finished felt should be fine.
I think your Grand Canyon is really interesting. I’m sure you’ll find a way to fix it so you’re happy. I do like the wavy edges. I agree with Lyn, it’s too bad the geckos disappeared a long with the pattern on the red one. I look forward to seeing your fixes. 🙂
Thank you for the encouragement Marilyn, you always learn more when things don’t quite go to plan! 🙂