Call of the water (Fine Art Print)

Limited Edition fine art (Giclée) print from an original felt painting by Noelle Ferris.

The original felt painting is inspired by a tranquil and scenic spot in Glengarriff, Co. Cork. I noticed the boat was tied and secured on the land near the water’s edge.

Boats are designed and made to be on the water which isn’t always without peril. There are times in our lives when the most obvious thing to do is to retreat from life as such. This is most probably what we need in difficult times. But there will come a time where the call of the water will begin to sound waiting for you to emerge and calling you to live with a renewed vigour.

Felt paintings are made primarily from wool, but other fibres such as bamboo and silk, along with Angelina, can be added.

To start, I create the canvas by laying out multiple layers of undyed wool tops, overlapping them like tiles. Then, all the different colours required for the design need to be mixed using hand carders. The top coloured layer forms the design.

It is then wet felted by hand, using hot soapy water, and fulled (shrunk) by rolling the piece hundreds of times. After that, it is left to dry. During the wet felting process, the design will shrink unpredictably.

Following wet felting, many hours of needle felting are required to add detail and fix any distortions that may have occurred during the wet felting process. Needle felting entails taking strands of wool fibre and stabbing them into the felted design using specially designed felting needles.

Additionally, free motion embroidery by sewing machine and hand embroidery can be added.

This giclée print is produced from a high-resolution scan of the original felt painting, using quality ultra-chrome pigment inks. It is printed on pH-neutral heavyweight art paper of archival quality ensuring the longevity of the print.

The print image size is 12″x 8″ and is mounted with an off white acid-free mountboard (16″x12″) in size. It is packaged in a cellophane bag which is recyclable.

This design has a limited print run of 250. All prints are numbered, titled and signed by Noelle.