Sunday, December 26, 2010

A Felted Photograph


Prepare to be inspired! Here's the Christmas present one of my customers created for her parents this year. She put her felting talents to work and made two incredible felted photographs. The one I have pictured here is her mom. I think she did an amazing job capturing her likeness.

It started a few weeks before Christmas when Angela contacted me in search of natural, black and gray roving. I was delighted when she came back to share her finished art. If you're wondering how she was able to reproduce the pictures in such detail, I'll let Angela explain:

"...I altered photos of my parents using a graphics program to give them a "mosaic look" (3 colors only). I then drew a grid on the printed pictures and copied that grid (with the mosaic shapes) onto a piece of flat felt. I then needle felted using the 3 colors you sent me. As a final step, I added tiny details (like the white around Mom's eyes) and those details are what really brought out the likeness. I then cut the image away from the felt (but, of course, left the felt on the back of the fiber) because there were still pen marks on the felt from my grid pattern. I then felted the mosaics onto a clean felt background, cut around the edges, and framed in shadow boxes."

I think framing the finished felted photos in shadow boxes was a nice touch. What an amazing gift and what a sensational idea! A big thanks to Angela for generously detailing her project and allowing me to share it with you!

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