Wednesday, August 5, 2009

What is Needle-felting?

I often get asked how my needle-felted pieces are made. It's very hard to explain without demonstrating the process; and hard to envision because it is like nothing else. You don't use a needle & thread; you don't use scissors; you don't use knitting or crochet needles. You use something called a felting needle, which most people have never heard of. I made this display piece to go alongside my work at the Graton Gallery.

It's a bit of a 3d display, as I actually stuck a real felting needle through the paper where the illustration is, and glued some fiber and felt into the boxes on the right side.

Click for larger view:

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Russell





If you haven't seen "Up" yet, see it! My favorite Pixar film so far. There are lots of endearing characters in the movie, but Russell is the most adorable. I was compelled to make this needle-felted sculpture of Russell. He's about 8" tall and made completely out of wool fiber. For his base, I felted over a tree branch, leaving some areas of the wood exposed so the felt would look like moss.