When I walk through the woods and see the light playing on the leaves and see how the greens have a zillion shades, when that moss reflects all those colors with their little airy faces . . . my soul just sighs with the beauty, it squeezes my heart and brings me to such a deep contentment and inner peace. I am in wonder of creation’s beauty and it takes me away from the every day stress and norms.
When people see my work for the first time . . they are in wonder of how it was put together, the depth, the colors, the tiny details .. the reflection of creation’s beauty. They can touch it and FEEL the texture and then the picture is more than a flat surface. I feel like I can bring some of that awe into their four walls, making it a place of inspiration and call it their home.
Before I made felted pieces, I did all kinds of other paintings, such as, oil, acrylic, water colors and anything I could get my hands on in order to release that inner drive to create!!
Then one day I just quit. It was too frustrating to paint and take care of 10 children, train dogs, and keep up the farm and house. (and later, I figured out the oil fumes were making me crazy)
Years later, I sold a trained Border Collie to a fiber artist, Gale, (to help with herding her sheep) who in turn, trained me to make a purse from wool. I wondered if I could add colored wool during the processes of making a purse in order to create a picture on it. I gave it a shot. It turned out so well, someone wanted to buy it.
I was hesitant to turn this into a business wondering if other people would be as interested, but the purses kept selling and I kept working at it!
Then one day someone said, “This is too pretty to use, I’m just going to hang it on my wall!”
DING, DING! The lights went off and that settled it for me! I set out to make most extraordinary, brilliant wall hangings, for the distinguished art collector.
It turns out, the road was more difficult than I imagined.
Needle felted art is such an emerging art, that many people don’t know about it and unless you see it in person, you really can’t appreciate it. A photograph just doesn’t capture the texture, the depth or the character of the piece. My son was accurate when he said, “Let’s face it Mom, the photos just make it look like a bad painting.”
I just keep plugging along and with each new show new opportunities have increased.
Through it all, we released our products and continue to travel far and wide to art shows and the response has always been so amazing. Everyone who sees a felted picture for the first time are awestruck at the CHARACTER a picture can have and absolutely love it. . . and THAT makes it all worth it.