52 Weeks of Art: Week 25

Week 25: Needle Felting

Welcome to week 25 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

    So, this week we have needle felting. If you've never heard of needle felting, that's okay. I'll explain what it is. You take some wool, which is super soft (it's like petting the softest floof you've ever pet), and you stab at it a bajillion times with a barbed needle. What you're trying to accomplish is turning the loose, fluffy wool into a solid object. The barbed needle agitates the fibers and helps them to stick together.

     You don't have to create a 3D object by doing this. You can also needle felt some wool onto fabric. You can needle felt onto your clothes or whatever you want, really. I've seen some pretty amazing needle felted pieces of art on Instagram. I even saw some cool stop motion videos. So, needle felting is pretty versatile.

     I've needle felted a time or two over the years. My girls like to do it. The Oldest made Starry Night one time. I was going to take a picture of it... but I'm not sure where it's at right now. Use your imagination. The Little One made herself a pin cushion ring shaped like a narwhal. Do I have a picture of that one? Also no. It's in her room somewhere. I don't even know where the floor is in her room right now. Ugh. Kids, right?

     Rebecca came over and we pulled out my stash of needle felting goods and got to work. If you're thinking this will be a quick project, think again. When I said you have to stab it a bajillion times, I was not joking. Since Rebecca is afraid of 3D artwork, she decided to make an abstract piece on a scrap piece of fabric. I did a 3D needle felted sculpture.

     I tried to do a 3D needle felted sculpture.

     The supplies you need are simple, you need a barbed needle felting needle, some roving wool, and a piece of foam to work on. Getting stabbed with a barbed needle hurts, so having some finger gloves is helpful. I know from personal experience. 

Before I show you what I made, let's take a look at some real needle felting artists. They are truly amazing what they can create with just a loose ball of fluffy wool. Serious.

Click here to see some seriously amazing works of needle felted art.

Found these adorable little guys here.

This is NOT The Oldest's, but it is Starry Night. Found it here.

Needle felted painting found here.

     I don't think that fiber art gets the credit that it deserves. I mean, look at those! They're amazing! People are still stuck in the thought that fiber art isn't really art, it's just a crafty thing to do to pass the time or something. It's not. It's art. We need to start thinking about fiber art differently. 

     If we can call this art...

     Then why can't we call this art?

     If you're putting just as much time, effort, and love into creating your fiber piece, it should be considered fine art, not just a craft. Sorry about the rant. I just get frustrated with people who think fiber art is just a crafty way to pass the time. Something to really care about.

    Alright, now I'm done going on about that. Here's my needle felted sculpture:

Here's where I remembered I need to take pictures of the process.

Here's where I started adding legs.

Here I started adding some details into the wings. I decided I didn't like it and pulled it all out.

Here's Ted. He's a friendly little guy.

Here's Ted from the side. It's not his best side.

Here's a slightly better picture of Ted. Let's just say that Ted isn't the most photogenic of dragons.

          

On to rating needle felting...

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for needle felting, my rating is: 16

Ease of use: 3

 It's not hard to stab something over and over. It is hard to try and shape a shapeless ball of fluff into something, though.

Affordability: 4

     Pretty affordable. You can get an entire kit of everything you need to get started for $20. With that kit you can make several small needle felted sculptures or paintings.

Accessibility: 5

     Needle felting is pretty popular right now. You can get supplies at arts and crafts stores or online.

Fun to Use: 4

    It's fun trying to turn something into something else. Especially when it really doesn't look like it'll turn into anything to start with. Just don't stab yourself. Ouch.

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!

52 Weeks of Art: Week 24

Week 24: Scratchboard

Welcome to week 24 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

     This week's medium was scratchboard. I haven't done anything with scratchboard since high school. My Little One LOVES doing scratchboards... but she just scratches everything off. I think she just enjoys the scratching part. 

     If you don't know what scratchboard is, it's a board that you can get in white, gold, silver, multicolor, whatever, and it's covered in black India ink. You use a scratch tool (or you can use a toothpick, a paperclip, something sharp and pointy) and you scratch off the black - CAREFULLY - to reveal the color underneath. You're really gonna want to do it carefully, otherwise you end up with scratch marks on the color underneath. Not pretty.

     If you don't want to buy scratchboard, but still want to try it, you can very easily make your own. Will it look as nice as a store bought scratchboard? No. Will it still be a fun art project to do? Yes. For this simple DIY version you need some paper - cardstock works best - some crayons, and some black tempera paint.

    Color your paper with whatever colors you want. You can go with just one color or a rainbow of colors. It's your art, who am I to tell you what colors to use? Brush off any extra crayon crumbs. Then paint the black tempera on top. This is the most important part: wait for it to dry! When it's dry you can use any of the previously mentioned tools to scratch off the paint. 

     I think of scratchboard as like reverse pen and ink work. Instead of putting down the ink, you're taking it away. Here's some examples of scratchboard art:

Found this little guy here.

Found this beauty here.

And, here's my finished scratchboard artwork. It was very difficult to take a picture of it because the color underneath is silver - it's like a mirror. I did the best I could.

Silver Tentacles 

Silver Tentacle.

          

On to rating scratchboard...

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for scratchboard, my rating is: 19

Ease of use: 4

 This is a fairly simple medium to use. The only problem with it is the fact that it is so easy to scratch off. It's easy to accidentally scratch something off you didn't want to scratch off.

Affordability: 5

     Each scratchboard costs about a $1.00. I'd say that's pretty affordable.

Accessibility: 5

     You can get scratchboards at an arts and crafts or at any art supply store. Or, again, I'm a huge fan of Amazon.

Fun to Use: 5

    I like this medium. It's just fun to scratch the ink off.

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!

52 Weeks of Art: Week 23

Week 23: Cyanotype

Welcome to week 23 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

     

     This week we did cyanotype. Now, you might be wondering what that is. Cyanotype is a 170 year old photographic printing process that produces a cyan blue print. It was used mainly to reproduce notes and diagrams - aka blueprints. The whole process uses just two chemicals: ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide.

     I don't know about you, but I don't really like the idea of working with chemicals. I don't know anything about chemicals, so not using them sounds good to me. I Googled how to make my own cyanotpye. It sounds easy, but again, I don't like the idea of mixing chemicals I don't know anything about. 

     So, instead of making my own, I bought some special paper that's already been treated with the chemicals. I headed to Amazon - the best place to buy anything - and searched for cyanotype paper. It's also called sun print paper, sun art paper, solar paper, etc. For a relatively low price, you can get several sheets of paper. 

     Alright, so how does this fancy cyanotype paper work? It's simple. Place an object, or anything you want, on top of the paper and place it in the sun for a few minutes. Its really fascinating to see the whole process. The paper starts out as this muted blue color. When it's exposed to the sun it turns almost white, except the parts that were covered. You bring it back inside and rinse it in some water. The water turns the white parts blue and the blue parts white. When it dries the blue gets much darker, darker than it ever started.

     I Googled some cyanotype images. I absolutely love the nature prints - leaves, feathers, shells, etc. However, it's winter here right now. That means no leaves. We had to get creative with what we used. Here's some nature prints using cyanotype.

I found this beauty here.

These amazing pieces were found here.

     And here's the whole process:

This is the paper before being exposed.

This is the paper after just being exposed. This pattern was made using a bubble wand.

This is the paper after being rinsed in water. 

This is the paper after drying - the final product. For this pattern I used my nephew's puzzle pieces.

Here's the finished print using the bubble wand.

On to rating cyanotype...

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for cyanotype, my rating is: 19

Ease of use: 5

 This is probably the easiest medium we have used. It does not get simpler than this.

Affordability: 5

     For about $11 on Amazon I bought this package of  cyanotype paper. It has 40 sheets of paper. That is about $0.27 for each piece of paper. That's it. No other supplies needed!

Accessibility: 4

     I'm not sure about arts and crafts stores carrying this paper, but you can get it at an art supply store. Or from Amazon.

Fun to Use: 5

    This was fun to do. I don't know that I would actually try to make art out of this, but it was fun to just experiment with. I found the whole process to be fascinating. 

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!