Needle Felting Art
Needle Felting Art: 12 mixed-media woodland projects to paint and sew
Jo Lochhead
Search Press
A sense of a place. Lochhead has been a resident of the Scottish land, having a love of nature. This book in its entirety will showcase that, yet the visual projects themselves are universal and thematically timeless - bluebell woods, pine forests and the creatures of kind which reside within our natural world. All brought into existence with applied needle felting techniques.
Why this book sits with an edge in a saturated woollen world
Honestly, I have read many a felt related title, all with their own strong points. However unless it forms your entire art practice, it is a blank space of too much too much. That’s where this book has an edge. Note the evidence in the title. We are here not reading only a felt book, it is about the mixing of media and the application of paint. All tools we can personalise and adapt. That makes it have much more appeal to experienced felt makers, those who wish to extend and refresh their outcomes. The other angle is for the new to felt individual - the projects are fun and challenging yet approachable.
The projects
So, projects really play with the countryside. I loved the hedgehog on page 70. We are looking at depictions visually of creatures and natural content, which we will recongnise, yet they often have a cute twist, even facially like this little hedgehog, who is said to be staring at the nighttime view.
The pine forest in the pages around the 30’s shows how paint can be applied along with needle felting. That makes for more of a painted look, using watercolour like substances to provide the lush colours of the forest.
The projects are often canvas based, which makes for wall mounted works - so they become textural paintings as it were.
Advice
We are given advice on the materials and tools required, this mostly will make sense without looking at it - it’s intuitive to those of us with some experience. But for those with less confidence, paint type direction and all the other needed parts will be really helpful.
The project templates are all given at the back, ready to create the right size.
Conclusion
All you need is a love of nature and a desire to outlay your style in stitch, paint and of course, wool.
As I mentioned earlier, what I really liked about this book is its mixed media edge and the fact it contains work outcomes which look off the edge of real life - I see children book illustration vibes - do we need an excuse to get lost in our own nature world? This can be yours.
