From (fiber) painting to sculpture - the magic of Wetfelting

I don’t really remember how I came up with the idea of transforming a flat prefelted surface into a sculpture. It just happened. One day I took a prefelted square laying around and mold it around a pot. By rubbing and stretching I was able to transform it into a 3D vase. Guess you believe me when I say: “ it was magic”! It’s still magic and my favorite felting technique to employ and teach!

Everything started back in 2012 with the vessel you see below.

These vessels are the result of my first experimentation to transform a surface into a sculpture back in 2012.

Unfortunately I haven’t recorded the process how I made these and without a photo it’s probably hard for you to imagine that these vessels started from a flat prefelted surface, right? ( I even hear some of you asking: “what the heck is prefelt” :))

Intuitive molding and shaping

You may wonder why transforming a flat fiber surface instead of using the more common hollow form technique?
Well, it’s more intuitively and if you know my way of being and working, you know I am spontaneous and intuitive, most of the time especially while creating!

Shaping a flat prefelt is similar to working with a flat ceramic surface. However while clay can be shaped immediately, the prefelted fiber layout has to be rubbed and stretched for several hours. For the vases I started around a given shape, then - once the felt was strong enough - I went freestyle.

During the molding, intriguent wrinkles and folds were showing up. These have been very stimulating for the intuitive process. Intuition works best when you have to deal with the unexpected, even things that may bother you in the beginning!

Problem solving makes imagination run wild. And where imagination runs wild, inspiration is just around the corner!

Describing the technique, makes me want to do something similar again! It’ll probably turn out very different now, with 10 year more of experience!

The evolution of my sculptural surface technique

It’s interesting even for me to observe how my sculptural surface felt art evolved over the years. About a year after I made the first vessels, I experimented a similar technique to make funky little critters:

These first ones are still very “brooch” like. In the beginning I struggled making them in a way they stand on their own. Generally I had to fix them to a support such as a cardboard or stick.

The first self-standing critters appeared a year later :

Felted fishes with feet

The first self standing 2d sculptures came up when I worked for an art exposition at the famous Knitting & Stitching Show in London. They where part of an installation with the theme “Little mermaid”.

Another two years later a large variety of critters showed up:

I continue making 2D critter sculptures on a regular rhythm and also started to teach them in face to face classes as well as online.

Quality of felt for best sculptural results

The most important for making 2D felt art like these funky critters is the making of a sculptural felt quality. As usually, this takes time and patience. To obtain a great quality, I use many very thin layers and go very gentle in the beginning. But finally the improvement comes over time! I think the photos shown here are illustrating this!

It’s great fun to write this post! It allows me to observe I have made. As a beginner it’s often hard to accept but nothing can remplace the improvement made over time, when we do something over and over again, with love and passion!

But taking classes allows to get great results faster and avoid some mistakes. If you like to learn or improuve your felting skills - feel welcome to join me for an online class, or - why not dream big - join me in my art studio in Paris for a face to face class. Either for a one to one session through Vawaa or for one the regular workshops.

one to one workshops in Ariane Mariane’s beautiful art studio in the western suburbs of Paris

Upcoming workshop: “From Surface to sculpture”

If you like to start felt making, or want to improve your felting skills (a bit faster than learning everything by your own), join me for an upcoming online workshops. In the course “From Surface to Sculpture” you will learn everything you need to make your very own funky critters - AND- believe me: it’s magic!

See you soon!
Love,

Ariane