This was the companion felt picture I designed at the same time as Abstract Blue - both cards were for my mother and her sister (they were 65 and 70 respectively on consecutive days, and my aunt's 70th birthday was celebrated in style in a stately home hired for the week near St Andrews, Fife).
For this card, I used white merino wool as a background, and then used hand-dyed Wensleydale wool fibres (wonderfully curly wool!) to create separate strands. I needle-felted these strands to the backing, with a smoke-like effect. This time I remembered to let the felt dry fully before attaching it to a card blank with aperture (unlike the Abstract Blue, which I had to keep weighed down under a heavy book for 24 hours to straighten up the wrinkles caused by dampness).
After designing this card, I wondered about using a combination of dry and wet felting to achieve interesting effects. I tried a sample piece where I split some brown wool and dry felted each strand to a backing, creating a rather convincing tree trunk. This is a technique I will explore further.
This was one of my first real attempts at making a felt picture. I love the organic nature of the shapes which were creating very simply using soap, hot water and a bit of rubbing!