What inspired you to write your book?
It all began as an idea in a Blog post that gradually turned into a fully, illustrated guide to the wonderful art of felt-making. I wanted a platform to shares my ideas to help people who want to make things, do something new and inject more creativity into their lives. If just one person will feel my book is going to make a difference to them, then that’s all the inspiration I need!
About your Book:
It doesn’t matter if you’ve never made felt before. Anyone can make felt, from the smallest child to an adult. All you need is a desire to play with colour, lots of imagination and a love of hand-crafted things. The book begins with the basic process of wet felt-making, in which raw wool is layered and then fulled to connect the fibres to form a closed fabric. Once you have mastered wet felting, the aim of the book is then to bring out your creative side to enable you to design patterns on felt, create texture, produce lattice effects, design various structures and felt three-dimensional objects. You will also learn how to blend different colours of fibres using carders and you can find step-by-step instructions of how to model felt into simple items. And hopefully, after reading Feeling Felty you will go on to create lots of beautiful things in felt, have fun and inject more creativity into your life.
Craft or Tutorial Genre
Felt-Making: Textile Craft
Sample From Book
Introduction
Post Title: Feeling Felty
‘Spent a lovely weekend making felt vessels. It’s such a great, hands-on process that takes you to new creative possibilities. Made felt while eating lemon drizzle cake – can recommend.’
artandlovely.blogspot.co.uk
The above is an exert from my Blog. It describes a day when I got a feeling to pull out wool fibres from the cupboard and massage them with soapy water to make a felt vessel. If you visit artandlovely, you will see posts for lots of other times when I was feeling felty. I find working with wool such a wonderful experience, and one from which I am constantly learning. And one of my aims in life is to share my ideas and techniques to help other people get that felty feeling, too!
It doesn’t matter if you’ve never made felt before. Anyone can make felt, from the smallest child to an adult. All you need is a desire to play with colour, lots of imagination and a love of hand-crafted things. Feeling Felty begins with the basic process of wet felt-making, in which raw wool is layered and then fulled to connect the fibres to form a closed fabric. Once you have mastered wet felting, the aim of the book is then to bring out your creative side to enable you to design patterns on felt, create texture, produce lattice effects, design various structures and felt three-dimensional objects. You will also learn how to blend different colours of fibres using carders and you can find step-by-step instructions of how to model felt into simple items such as beads, balls, ropes, tapers and spikes.
Hopefully, after you have worked your way through Feeling Felty you will have gained in confidence to:
Make Your Own Designs – choose your favourite colour of fibres and create your own items. They will be unique to you and nobody else…simply special.
Make Gifts – you can make felt things to hang in the window, decorate a tree, wear as jewellery or a bag to hold bits and pieces. Gift them to those people in your life who mean so much.
Make a Difference – others can benefit from your skills. Why not make lots of felt products to sell at a charity event and raise money for those in need.
Make a New Life – if you’ve got the felt bug it may well change your life. Perhaps you feel inspired to take up a course to take your skills to a more advanced level. You may even want to join the International Felt-Makers Association or possibly start selling your designs to the public.
Whatever your reasons for reading this book I hope it will help you to create beautiful things, have fun and inject more creativity into your life.
With lots of felty feelings,
Anne
Contents
Introduction
Getting Started
Permissions
How Old is Felt-Making?
Felt as an Art Form
A Few Fibre Facts
How Do Wool Fibres Felt?
How To Make a Piece of Flat Felt by Hand
Surface Journeys
Shapes and Patterns Using Pre-Felt
Yarns
Non-Woollen Fibres
Fabrics
Nuno Felting
Lattice
Cobweb
Colour Inspirations
Commercially Dyed Fibre
Dye Your Own Fibres
Blending Colours
Colour Schemes/Palettes
Sources of Colour Inspiration
Fun Things To Make in Felt
How To Make Felt Beads & Balls
How To Make felt Cords, Tapers & Spikes
How To Make a Slit(s) in Felt
How To Make Balls & Other Shapes Using a Polystyrene Form
How To Felt Hollow Forms
The Principle of Felting in Three-Dimensions
How To Felt a Hollow Form
To Lay Out Fibres Around a Template
Shaping a Hollow Form
Key Words You Need To Know
Want To Know More?
Where To Buy Felt-Making Supplies
What formats are your books in: eBook, Print
How do you see writing a a craft book or tutorial as different from writing other genres of books?
I think any publication for craft has to be primarily visual. It is important to have writing that accompanies any photographs and illustrations – be it technical instruction, historical information or author comment.
So having writing that it totally in-tune with images makes the art/craft genre different from other genres.
Advice to someone that is thinking about or currently working on a craft book or tutorial
Get on and write your book or tutorial – don’t put it off! The hardest part is starting, but once you’ve got those first few pages under your belt, the rest will follow. Try to write in short bursts…and remember the secret of good writing is the editing. So put your finished manuscript on one side, come back to it a few days or weeks later and your mistakes will show up more clearly.
Also, I like to write with visuals on my screen at the same time.
Try to think of who you’re writing for (do some market research). I aimed ‘Feeling Felty’ at beginner crafters, but not only those looking to gain technical skills, but in addition, anyone wanting to get more creative – so my book is about having ‘an experience’ as well as technique.
How did you decide how to publish your book and where is it published through:
I decided to go down the self-publishing route. I felt I would have more control over content and layout this way.
‘Feeling Felty’ is available through the Blurb Bookstore. I liked the fact that people could purchase it in a range of different formats: Hardcover/Softcover/e-Book for i-Pad.
One thing to bear in mind is that I had to be the writer/proofreader/desk-top publisher/photographer/indexer for this project. So self-publishing is very hands-on. However, I learned a great deal and I certainly think those skills will stand me in good stead for the future.
Anne Glynis Davies Bio:
Anne is a freelance artist, author and teacher based in Cheshire, United Kingdom. She works in textiles and mixed media. Felt-making, dyeing and stitching are the big cornerstones in her work.
Anne is also a member of the International Feltmakers’ Association and has written for publications worldwide including ‘Flair’, a magazine for machine embroidery enthusiasts and ‘Craft It Now!’, a multi-craft book by F & W Media Inc.
Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link to Book for sale via other sites
Your Social Media Links
http://www.twitter.com/AnneArty
http://www.pinterest.com/u2cancraft/
