Fabulous Felt Flowers
Wendy Bailye is a full time, Brisbane based, contemporary felt artisan, tutor and writer. She loves the experimental and playful properties of felt and it’s wide ranging practical and aesthetic applications.
by Mindy Cook
She explains, “Felt continues to inspire me with its duality, both its simplicity and its complexity. Felting is full of surprises. It is this amazing alchemical process and is also this beautiful simple combining of material. Felting can take a little effort or a lot of effort. It expresses so much by itself – just by being felt.”
Wendy describes how she gains inspiration. “I gain inspiration first and foremost from deep within myself and from all of my experiences in life. There’s inspiration from the beautiful rural setting I live in and the natural world that surrounds me. I love shape and form and texture.”
She has kindly provided this DVD tutorial for our Into Craft community on how to create a felt flower. We hope you enjoy making yours and displaying it in your home, using it as an accessory or gifting it for a friend.
FELT FACTS: |
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1. | Felt is created from wool fibres with the aid of moisture, friction and heat. |
2. | Boiled wool refers to fabric which has then undergone the felting process. |
3. | Nuno is a felted fabric made by felting wool fibre with sheer fabric such as silk gauze, the result usually being more lightweight than traditional felt. |
4. | Needle-felting makes felt from wool fibres by using a barbed needle to interlock the wool fibres instead of rubbing them together. No water is used and it is possible to sculpt three dimensional shapes. |
Wendy’s work shows what is possible with felt and you can see more of this by visiting her website.