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For artists and collectors sponsored by Intercal...your mohair supplier and Johnna's Mohair Store
Sophie Z'OursHi!
I am ready for finnishing paint touches on a mohair bear with a needle felted nose.
I was thinking about adding acrylic paint touches on his nose prior to waxing.
Has any of you ever done this? Where you happy with the result?
Why acrylic paint? The nose is sort of ocre colour and I want to add some yellow on it : yellow is a lighter colour so I think textile paint would not work.
I am familiar with waxing traditional embroidered noses.
Please, be quick to answer, as I want that bear finnished asap : I have got a show the coming week-end.
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
desertmountainbearI Have painted and inked felted noses before I have waxed. I have had no problems, although I do not use wax in the traditional way. But I do think it will be ok.
Joanne
Faux Paw BearsI have tinted felted noses with fabric markers and Prisma markers...then waxed the felted noses and even used colored markers over top of the wax.
Pat
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)YES! Acrylic paints work perfectly on fiber!
But I'm not sure why you'd need to wax afterwards, as there are many other sealing applications, from full gloss to the flattest matte, that can be applied to finish it off with and they all are more 'permanently' bonded to the nose than wax.
JMHO!
desertmountainbearYES! Acrylic paints work perfectly on fiber!
But I'm not sure why you'd need to wax afterwards, as there are many other sealing applications, from full gloss to the flattest matte, that can be applied to finish it off with and they all are more 'permanently' bonded to the nose than wax.
JMHO!
With all due respect Bobbie as I know you to be one of the finest felters I have ever seen. When you add hot bee's wax to a needle felted nose it sinks deep into the fibers. It really becomes one with the fibers. You can not remove without taking the whole nose off. I have felted and waxed many noses, it is absolutely permanent.
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)LOL - Thx Joanne, I know just what you mean! I didn't mean non-permanent in that way, in that it would ooze or rub off... and gosh, you needn't tiptoe around me - I've got a really thick head and pretty thick skin!
I too know your excellent work and know that NOTHING is ever going to come off yours, but there are waxed noses and then there are 'waxed' noses... and unfortunately not as many go to the trouble of buffing in as many layers for as long as you do, until it becomes an integral part of the face.
And the nature of some of the (softer) needle felting being done leads to a more non-stable base, so that the wax cannot be rubbed and buffed in until it virtually melts in by virtue of 'elbow grease'.
Rubbing a waxed surface to buff it would certainly dislodge much of the more softly needled work that I've seen on offer online, even much that I've seen advertised as firmly needled. I'm not quite sure how deeply the wax will sink in if they've applied paint, (how much paint? how many layers? it's all subjective..) as it wiii(? might?) seal the surface and the waxed area will become firmer than the surrounding fiber; buffing it may then distort the nose shape and muzzle and it will not be possible to reshape them with the needle.
Sophie, you didn't describe or show us an image of particular nose you were working on—I know that you were working under time limitations and I wasn't checking TT at the time you posted your query so I missed the original time frame—my only thought for asking why you might want to still add wax on top of the paint as a top coat was because of the multitude of finishing types of paints available, from flat matte to high gloss, giving so many different looks to the nose.
I found that paints bonded better to the under-layer of other paint than wax (or at least I wasn't as worried about getting into every miniscule spot in the fibers.
And that may also be the major part of my answer's background, because I'm coming from a miniaturist's standpoint.
That Roly Poly panda you saw, Joanne, is about the second or third largest item I've ever needled so the nose was about ⅔" across. I don't usually have that much space! Most things I create are about 2" to 3" tall and the noses in miniscule about ⅛" wide.
The smallest 'drop' of wax is larger than that and is hard to control and apply accurately w/o messing up the muzzle around the nose edges.
The tip of a tiny/narrow paintbrush, filled with a dot of paint will fill in all of the spaces between the fibers with complete control during applying and also give me all of the different wet-to-dull looks that I want a nose to look like, depending on the species.
So the difference in firmness of needling the project and the size of the project were behind my questioning applying wax over paint rather than staying with more paint as top coat.
I too didn't mean to step on any toes!!!
hggzz
desertmountainbearYou certainly did not step on my toes Bobbie. I did not even think along those lines.
Joanne
