Welcome to Felter Skelter, your essential guide for needle felting inspiration and ideas!
Previously published in April 2013, we are giving you a new chance to read this awesome column on character felt, by Zoe Williams.
In this post, I’d like to showcase just a few of the artists using felt. It would be impossible for me include all of my favourites in a single post, so I’ve chosen just a few to whet your appetite. No doubt I will circle back to this topic at a later date to show you more!
Jezabel Nekranea is a sculptor and illustrator (http://www.nekranea.com/). Her dual talents enable her to seamlessly translate into 3D the pop surreal sensibility I am more used to admiring in paintings. I am totally smitten with her Blue Deer; the leaves that sprout from his antlers perfectly complement those on the ground. Is this a kind of camouflage?
Kit Lane is a non-traditional needle felter and sculptor of “oddjects” I have long been a fan of her sweetly macabre landscapes and the blithe little creatures that inhabit them. Hers is a sugar-coated world with an undercurrent of darkness, achieving a balance that is tenuous at best. Is the skull simply part of the hillside, or will it snap shut at any moment to devour the unlucky creatures within? It is her version of characterful felt. What is yours? I bet we could all have a try.
Megan Baehr is the artist behind Nonesuch Garden. These are two from her ongoing series of “Sproutlings” – anthropomorphic seed-like creatures that bring good luck to your garden – character felt in an outdoor setting. The backstory she has written invests them with their own lore, which is a great catalyst for the imagination and makes the sculptures all the more charming.
Hine Mizushima is an illustrator, needle-felter, crafter, and stop motion video artist/ Magical maidens, friendly octopi, aliens, and ectoplasms fill her meticulously crafted dioramas….. = character felt! I’ve had the pleasure of seeing her work in person, and they are even more exquisite first hand!
