Tea, Felt and Froth-The Process

This long, cold winter I found myself once again drawn to felting and drinking many cups of tea.   Aha, what about doing something interesting with these "two of my favorite things?"  I had a good amount of off white roving (wool) and decided to dip my hands in warm water and soap and fashion pieces of felt.

wool locks,  ivory wool, plus a bag of silk fibers

I do believe that artists are scientists and I love to "experiment" with different elements.  I love chai tea lattes, the froth and creamy, smooth color.  Ahhh!  So, why not see how loose tea when captured in wool would look and smell.  Time to get out the tools.

I did a bit of brewing  and used the tea instead of warm water.  I also decided to just throw loose tea onto the second to the last layer of wool (roving).  I then added a thin layer of roving over it to catch the tea.  Agitating it with my  hands, adding soap, beating it up - oh the smell was wonderful - I created my own froth.  

I made many pieces of all different sizes - just letting the wool make its own shape.  The photo below shows where I created a pocket and felted in a whole tea bag.  I also added white wool locks.  At times I added strings from the bags and the tags plus small fabric doilies.  Notice the curly wool locks below.

doilies.

Here are the pieces placed but not felted.  It took several times to make the final arrangement.  Notice the little pocket in the middle - I decided not to include it in this piece.

all together now

So now what to do with it.  I was off to the craft store to buy a canvas. I finally decided on one that was big enough and left some breathing room.  I painted it in the same mocha colors as the felt.  So now how to get it on the canvas?  NEEDLE AND THREAD!  It took many hours to stitch the felt onto the canvas (the back is quite lovely)!

"TEA, FELT AND FROTH""

36" x 48" on gallery wrapped canvas

By the way - it smells delicious!