Laying Out 1. To begin, lay down your bubble wrap with the bubble side up. Next lay down the design template or be creative and develop your own unique style.

TIP: When laying out wool top fibres hold the wool just below the fringe, and gently pull out the delicate fibres, you will need to use these to achieve an even finish. In addition, ensure that the fibres are laying horizontally to the prefelt.

2. Then, lay down the A4 sized prefelt, and lay out one fine layer of wool top over the entire surface area. Each line of fleece may slightly overlap.

3. Once you have completed the structural base, begin with laying down the neutral coloured tissue silk, to form the landmass in the background. You may like to also layer thread, gauze and hankies, as I have.

4. Then using the blue wool top, lay out a fine layer of fibres in the bottom quatre of the design. You can then, if you wish, lay out small wisps of wool top to form waves and curls; this can be achieved by twisting the wooltop around your finger and placing them in the desired spots.

5. Additional silk fibres such as Sericin fibres, threads, gauze, silk hankies, and even tissue silk can be arranged to form tonal depth and a great basis for embellishment.

6. Now for the skyline- using the tissue or other silk fibres, position on prefelt as desired. Keeping in mind that further fabrics and stitch work may be added after the felting process.

7. Cut black prefelt into various small shapes (squares) and layer these along the landscape to represent buildings.

8. If you have used the template as a base, now is the time to remove it.

PLEASE NOTE: Remember that the usual shrinkage of the felt can be 30-50% depending on how many layers you have. For this piece a shrinkage of approximately 30% will occur. Use your template to guide your size.

Now its time to start felting.

Wetting 9. Carefully lay the netting over the fleece ensuring that you do not disturb this layer.

10. Add warm soapy water to your design. Now using your hands, press the water and the soap into the surface so that all the layers are wet and more compressed.

TIP: Do not add too much water at once; you can always add some more later if you are finding that the felt is not bonding well in areas.

11. Now in a circular motion gently, at first, rub the surface of the netting until small fibres begin to pile through the netting. This action will begin the process of intermingling the fibres and begin to felt. Add more water where necessary.

Rolling: 12. The next stage is the rolling. Start at the end bubble wrap and firmly roll up the felt.

13. Roll the felt approximately 100 times. Then pull the folds and wrinkles apart and turn the entire piece and repeat this process again another 100 times from the opposite side.

14. Do a pinch test. To do a pinch test you use two fingers to pull the felt fibres to see if they are bonding well. The felt should be holding together. Then repeat step 13, however turn the felt vertically, or in the opposite direction to how you started rolling it. Then repeat the same process until the felt has become quite firm.

Rinsing: 17. Rise the felted landscape in almost boiling water, then rise again in cold water with a dash of vinegar, this helps to neutralise the alkalinity of the soap used during the rolling process.

Shrinking/ Fulling: 18. Now throw the silk 60 times against a flat surface (eg. Table or sink) to shrink the fibres and ensure that any remaining fibres are bonded well.

Embellishment: Now its time to let your imagination run wild and embellish the final landscape. Use your template as a guide, use your imagination as your memento.

19. I have used a variety of stitches such as running stitch, couching, seed stitching and French knots, but please do not feel that you need to limit yourself to these stitches.

Voila! You know have a beautiful Afternoon Memento Landscape.

20. Complete the landscape by framing as a wall hanging, as a large greeting card or even made into a cushion or it can be left as is.

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