Lochs to Landscapes!
We met the lovely Sara from Artisan Felt Studio inside my membership on zoom this week. Read below to learn a little bit about Sara's journey.
If you are a member, you can check the replay out by clicking below and logging in:
Members login: https://hub.learnfelting.com
Sign up at: https://heart-felt.co/membership25
I love to hear the stories behind the wonderful artists we have the privilege of meeting, and Sara’s is an inspiring example of how perseverance can be the key to success.
When younger, Sara's confidence for her artwork was unfortunately undermined by comments from her art teacher. Consequently, Sara was left believing that she was not very good at art.
Fortunately though she did not allow those comments to stop her creating altogether, and would still get the urge to get her paints out and let her creativity flow.
As time went on, this creativity led to Sara discovering painting with something quite different, and she truly found the thing she feels most at home with: painting with wool! She now creates beautiful felted landscapes combining needle felting and wet felting.
Although originally from New Zealand, when Sara met her other half, she eventually traded in the predictable warm weather of the land down under, and moved to the not-so-sunny village of Glencoe in Scotland!
Despite the frequent dull and gloomy weather, Sara enjoys photographing the stunning Scottish countryside, and from time to time shares her photographs on her page.
Sometimes she even uses her photos as reference pictures for her beautiful felted artwork; turning those dull clouds into something beautiful using a variety of wool shades and textures, which really brings her scenes to life.
Here is one of her works of art depicting the beautiful Scottish scenery and fluffy clouds:
But where did Sara's felting journey first start?
It was whilst Sara was still in New Zealand, that she came across felting for the first time- the work of a talented artist who created a variety of wet felted items, including beautiful bags, hats and wall hangings. Sara was instantly fascinated by the incredible things that could be created out of wool.
Some time later, when Sara saw a felting workshop advertised with the National Trust in Glencoe, she jumped at the chance to get to learn this wonderful skill for herself!
Where it all started: Sara's first pieces created at a felting workshop:
Anyone who has experienced working with wool, will be well aware of the highly addictive nature of this fluffy medium. So it is no surprise that straight after the workshop, Sara found herself filling up her online basket with all the necessary materials to kickstart her hobby at home!
...Her passion for felting had begun!
Initially Sara's work started off primarily being wet felted, but then an unfortunate accident caused her to have to adapt her methods, which you could say turned out to be rather serendipitous!
After breaking her leg, Sara had to endure a period of enforced rest which made her usual wet felting process unworkable. So she set out to find a way to still keep her love of felting alive, whilst not compromising her recovery.
Enter: convalescence table!
She found an adjustable table which enabled her to sit and feed her felting addiction, whilst keeping firmly off her feet. This led to her experimenting with a new style; that of needle felting her work first to keep the fibres in place before then wet felting.
Her new process was so effective that it has stuck with her to this day and she even still makes good use of her convalescence table, angling her work to suit her needs. Thus enabling her to produce work which is appreciated by customers all over the world.
Most artists will tell you that it can be tricky to sell their work and you often have to go through many rejections before finding the right place to market your work.
This happened to Sara, but instead of giving up, she persevered and was finally able to find the right gallery to display her felted pieces.
Sara now also makes good use of social media, as well as her website, and her work has attracted many customers from all over the world, including many from America.
Sara also sells prints of her artwork to give her customers more options, and for those who want a print with some extra finesse, Sara also started offering hand-finished prints, where she adds some wool back into the finished print.
In addition to her website and gallery, Sara recently also started displaying her prints in a little shed by her home where passers-by and tourists can view and purchase some of her lovely pieces.
After learning about Sara's process and seeing some of her art, we were all in awe of her work. It’s incredible how she captures details and textures entirely with wool, without even drawing an outline beforehand.
Sara makes use of different varieties and textures of wool to create her artwork like these beautiful scenes:
When you look at her work, there’s no question that her felting is well and truly art, and fine art at that!
Why not combine a workshop with your next trip to the beautiful Scottish countryside!
For those of you who are interested in learning Sara’s felting techniques, she offers in person workshops where participants get to have a go at both wet felting and needle felting.
To be able to give individual attention to everyone on her workshops, Sara usually limits numbers to around 6 people, so if you’re hoping to create a landscape masterpiece (or at least have a stab at one), it’s worth checking Sara's page regularly for upcoming workshop and dates.
To see more of Sara's work, please check out the links below:
To buy from her online shop:
Go to: Sara's Artisan Felt Studio Shop
Check out Sara's fabulous fibre art on social media at:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/artisanfeltstudio
and also
Instagram: www.instagram.com/artisanfeltstudio
Thanks once again for meeting with us Sara; it was so nice talking to you, and a privilege to find out just what goes into your incredible felted artwork!🤩
If you are an artist or work with wool/ fibre, and would like to meet us on zoom, get in touch at [email protected]
