Whispers in progress

This piece is the first experiment with using relief-type sculpting to create a 3D effect. It all happened sort of by accident, but when I noticed what was happening, I ran with it and accentuated it.

This is also a piece that is felted onto artificial hobby felt, as I knew that the entire background was going to be covered with a thick layer of wool. I figured that here was my chance to save my back a little pain, and save some time to boot!

See how this piece developed in the photos below:

I'm building up the first layer of puffiness with my coarsest wool. I'm working on my favorite tool, one that is now indispensable. It's a piece of soft styrofoam that I felted with wool, and has become my trusty felting pad. I intend to make a post about my various homemade felting tools at a later date.

It looks pretty cool just like this!

I added some more fluffy texture and then started to cover everything with colored wool.

Originally, I had planned to include figures. In the end, though, I decided to leave it empty, with only the "light" shining from within the form.

And here's the finished piece: