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Cozy Classics was created with an integrated approach to illustration which combines needle felting, scale model-making and photography.
Felting is the process of tangling fibers. It is one of the oldest fiber crafts, dating back as far as 6300 BC, and pre-dates spinning, weaving or knitting. The earliest felting technique, called wet felting, relies on the unique properties of wool and its tendency to shrink and matt together under friction, moisture and heat. For centuries, non-woven felt has been used to create everyday items such as tents, rugs, hats and footwear.
Barbed needles set in looms were first used to create industrial felt products in the late 1800s. However, it was not until the 1980s that needle felting developed as a handcraft. The process of repeatedly “stabbing” loose wool with a barbed needle entangles wool fibres, providing an effective means of shaping felted surfaces and sculpturing fine detail. All of the felted figures and objects in Cozy Classics were painstakingly made by hand with this needle-felting technique.
There are no computer graphics used in the creation of the illustrations in Cozy Classics. For example, the skies which appear in Moby Dick are natural backdrops, either captured by shooting photographs out open windows or on location. The stars which appear in the last illustration in Moby Dick were created by backlighting small holes punched into cardstock.
