Choose felt paintings for your original work of art because ... 

felt, through its tactile qualities instantaneously triggers and connects to the act or memory of stroking your beloved pet.  If photographs capture a moment in time and paintings depict more of a story, felt provides a tangible memory.

Hello, thank you for visiting Purr & Wag It,

purveyor of fine felted pet portraits hand made by Heather Fiona Martin.

For me it’s the sensory response that makes felt absolutely perfect for pet portraits.  

Perhaps more so where, similar to the Victorians who kept lockets of hair to secure the memory of a loved one, groomings from your pet are incorporated into the felt - the choice, of course, is yours.

Alchemy of felt making

contradictions of the process

My Paintings always use the wet felt making process

It has a kind of alchemy to it which repeatedly amazes me. I start with an amorphous mass of loose fibres - soft and fluffy and, with little more than good old fashion elbow grease and water, turn those fibres into a cloth - felt.

But this seeming simplicity belies its complexities. Wet felt making is known to be unpredictable as, in the making, the fibres must entangle and contract.

This shrinkage gives wet felt making the reputation of also being imprecise. For me, these are reasons I enjoy using it as a process. It pushes me through my comfort zone. Controlling the shrinkage in just the right way to create my 'paintings' is always a challenge.

Metaphor for memory

As a practicality I work from photographs

I aim for the pets in my finished works to be both photo-realistic - clear interpretations of the photographs used but also something softer capturing more than a moment in time. The slightly fuzzy nature of finished felt means my portraits, whilst in focus, have an impressionistic appearance in style.

For me this almost indistinguishable blurring stands in as a metaphor for memory. I like that my “paintings” made from wool might lead owners to sit back, relax and indulge in reverie … woolgathering of good times spent with their pets.

To top