Needle Felting and I

I have fallen in love with sculpting with wool. I've always had images living in my mind of animals that I would love to capture but wasn't happy with what I could draw or paint, now, these animals come to life thru my needle felt. I can tweek, re-poke, rearrange and add to my sculpture without any adverse side affects, to finally recreate the visual picture that I have. Even though these sculptures can be so re-workable, they are densely felted to create a long lasting and durable piece of art. Even with my own beloved animals, I work from a photograph or two because I am just a bit of a perfectionist and they get REALLY tired of having to sit still for me to compare proportions. I have been creating custom furbabies for people for the last 6 months and absolutely love seeing beloved animals rise from the photographs and become 2-D.
Sometimes I go searching for photographs or animals that tickle my fancy for a needle felt creation, other times, I just bump into an image that draws me. Like with ElmCreekCountry.etsy.com, she has 2 animals that she has photographed that make my fingers itch to start a needle felted, her husband’s Buckskin Stallion & the Buckskin’s Sire, a beautiful Palamino.
As a dairy farm kid that grew into a 4-H Leader, kennel owner, dog handler & small hobby farmer, I have an interest in animal breeds, proper proportions (conformation) for each breed, and utility of each breed’s original purpose. It is funny to me that even not owning or desiring to own a certain specie, I can get just as excited about a well proportioned beef animal as a beautiful Arabian.
I've been a seamstress since middle school, attending many sewing competitions, state & national, thru 4-H and Make It With Wool. In the past year, I created a process for needle felting on recycled blue jean leg purses and played with turning wool sweaters into felted purses, what a great way to recycle and re-love. Plus, having elementary school boys and an active teenage farm girl, I have lots of pieces and parts of past garments to try new things with. I’m continually making use of various vintage fabrics and trims that my grandma, mom and my early sewing projects have left behind. Another project is making t-shirt totebags from leftover shirts, I was doing this before Martha Stewart or anyone had posted directions for the idea (amazing how many minds can come up with the same ideas).