I’ve made the entire artwork by hand with wool fiber. Some people refer to the process as “painting with wool”. I start by making my own base, or “canvas” by arranging wool fibers in even, alternating, layers. I use special needles with tiny angled nicks, called felting needles, to tack all of the layers together into the size and shape background that I require for the artwork. When this canvas is completed I can begin to work on the art using dyed wool and sometimes alpaca or mohair fiber. I use the same barbed needles to lightly tack my design to the canvas in preparation for the wet felting process. I thoroughly wet the entire design with warm soapy water and rub and roll to lock all the fibers together into a solid felted unit. There is a lot of rinsing to get rid of the soap, followed by pressing and drying.

To prep the artwork for framing, I hand stitch a sheet of carpet fabric to cover the back of the work. This enables me to mount the artwork in the shadow-box style frame without affecting the felt. The wood frame is 1 ⅜” deep, without glass, and is wired and ready to hang. Because the work is recessed, it is protected from dust by the frame.