The Art of Moy Mackay

Introduction 6Materials & equipment 10Inspiration 22Developing ideas 36Colour 48Composition & perspective 58Texture & embellishment 62- Mark making 64Felting techniques 78- Choosing your colours 70- How to card? 71- Carding colour charts 74- Wet felting 76- Needle felting 85- Freehand or Free-motion embroidery 88- Hand stitching & embroidery 92- Finishing 94Projects- Landscape Loch Lomond 88- Animals Highland Cow 94- Still life Vase of Flowers 108- Architecture Doorway 122A final word 158Index 160

About Moy Mackay

Since graduating from the Glasgow School of Art in 1990 with a degree in Design specialising in printed textiles, Moy Mackay has gone on to develop an innovative felting style. Using merino fleece fibres in the same way that a painter uses brushstrokes, she then embellishes them with machine and hand embroidery. She has exhibited her work at numerous venues throughout the UK and also in the US, and she has built up a steadily increasing fan base. Moy works from her studio in the Tweed Valley as well as running The Moy Mackay Gallery in Peebles. Since her first bestselling book Art in Felt & Stitch was published in April 2012, followed by Flowers in Felt & Stitch in 2014, Moy’s work has gained worldwide exposure and she now teaches classes both at home and abroad. In 2013 she won Silver in the category of Textiles and Needlecraft, judged by Kaffe Fassett at the British Craft & Design Selected Awards. In 2016 Moy was a contestant on Sky Arts' Landscape Artist of the Year where she was shortlisted to the final three in her heat.

Thread Magazine

The book buyer at the Hutt Public Library must be a textile artist there are a whole lot of new and yummy titles on the shelves at the moment. The cover of this gorgeous book caught my eye, even though my felting prowess leaves something to be desired. Moy Mackay is a Scottish artist and the work in this book is what she calls painted felt pictures. The painting is not on the felt but she uses a palette of coloured wools, silks, and embellishments to create landscape pictures. This could be twee, but Moys skill with colour makes them atmospheric and startling. The examples she makes use of in the book are relatively small (mostly less than an A4 size) so the process is manageable for a kitchen or small studio.

The process of wet felting supplemented with needle-felting, machine, and hand sewing, is described well, with a good description of equipment (and workarounds if you dont have the best). There are several projects that are worked through step-by-step. Even if you are not a felter and wet-felting is not for everyone there is a lot of good material here about colour and working with samples to perfect your composition, tips on perspective, selection of colours to reflect a mood, mixing threads to achieve the colours, and presentation.

Her work reflects the often sombre moods of the Scottish highlands with dramatic Prussian blue skies, scarlet and orange sunsets, and purple hills. It probably wont appeal as much to those who like pastels, but it was glorious eye candy for a wet week.

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East Kent Embroiderers Guild

Following her two previous successful books, this latest title from Moy explores some new ideas for combining felt and stitch and is bursting with examples of Moys colourful and inspiring felt works, depicting many beautiful Scottish scenes, and other subjects. Suggestions are given for the fibres that can be used in felting and the wet-felting process is shown with clarity. Moy demonstrates how the detail is then added using extra fibres and threads, with hand or machine embroidery, to give perspective and dimension to each piece. There are four projects, with step-by-step instructions, for the reader to try, and a gallery for additional inspiration.

This is a beautiful book for those who already love felting, or for anyone wishing to try something different, as, such is the nature of the technique, each piece of work produced will be as unusual and unique as the maker. Highly recommended.

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I have always enjoyed using different media in my artwork to create sumptuous texture in my paintings. In this book, the artist offers up all of her knowledge and experience of using different fibres and stitch to create texture and depth.

I hadnt heard of feltings before reading this book. They are the use of fibres to create a painting, a felt painting.

The artist takes you clearly through materials and equipment to start with. Lots of pictures accompany some of the unfamiliar bits of equipment, which was very helpful in the beginning.

I found lots of new ideas to try and plenty of inspiration for projects in the dedicated chapter which included lovely quotes and picture showing the steps in the creation of a project.

Felting techniques are covered extensively and the artist takes a very practical approach which I found easy to follow.

The final part of the book sets out step by step several different projects to try yourself, all of which would produce a stunning result.

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Moy Mackay is a true master of her craft. Her generosity in sharing her skill, and encouraging others to tap into their creativity through this book/guide, is a testament to Moy's role as champion of this very distinct art form that she has made wholly her own. Moy Mackay can rest assured that she has shown the world that fibre and felting, in her hands, rightly deserve a place at the high table of art