Another type of landscape

After learning that my friend Joei was able to felt through several layers of silk for her quilt I started playing with doing some nuno and collage type of landscapes. Our guild had a felt postcard exchange and I really enjoyed doing some small pieces using the silk I dyed. The first one was one of my typical landscapes using colored wool to create the image. Except that I laid it out thinner and felted it to a piece of silk that I had dyed blue and green.

Here is the front. I really liked the texture that felting onto the silk gave to the piece.

Here is the silk side.

Next, I tried one using just pieces of silk to create the image.

I liked this one better before most of the yellow dye washed out when I was felting the piece.

By now I was really into the postcard size, so I did a rose, using a drawing I made as a pattern.

Then I did two more small size landscapes. For these I just free snipped pieces of silk. Kind of like confetti. I really like the effect of the black wool coming through the silk. I copied this use of black wool from fellow guild member Jean Gauger  http://www.sugarplumoriginals.biz/ who makes such beautiful wraps with butterfly imagery.

Here is Fall...

and here is Winter.

For the winter scene I used white wool at the bottom, gray in the middle, and black in the sky.

I also did a spring, but the yellows washed out so much I won't show it. Maybe someday I will do the other two seasons.

 Linda Van Alstyne http://fiberartsmixedmedia.ning.com/profile/lindavanalstyne got my card in the swap and asked me if I could do a landscape like that first on but with a bit more detail. I was not sure how that would work since I usually add the detail with the felting needle. I thought that the needling would rip the silk too much. I was able to do it without ruining the silk but it was not particularly pleasant poking the needle through it. I didn't add much detail because what Linda really about my post card was the watercolor look of the piece. Here is what I came up with. 

This piece is bigger than the post cards, about 9x13.

Just for the heck of it here is a photo of how this piece looked when the fibers were laid out, just before I wet it down.

And here is what it looked like after the wet felting but before I did any needle felting on it.

I did do a bit more fiddling with this one since the photos were taken and I am very happy with it.