Who Would Have Thought It?

You never know where life will take you.  About 3 years ago, my brother gave me a gift card to a craft store.  I always like to spend gift cards on something special. One thing I had been eyeing for a while was the needle felting kits. The little projects were cute (mostly little animals) and the idea of poking a needle into wool and creating something fascinated me. So I bought a kit of two little fish.  

The kit was wonderful.  It had the roving, little pattern pieces for the fins and tail, the needle, the foam block and very detailed instructions.  But I will admit it took me a while to actually start it because I was afraid I would mess it up.

I did finally delve in.  The instructions called for wet felting which involves water and soap on the roving and in this case rubbing the roving in your hands to created the friction needed to felt.  Wet felting is another way felt is made.  It was a bit messy and took forever for the body of one fish to dry so I could complete it.  When I did get to finish it and needle felted the face, eyes, fin and tail, I was hooked (or maybe needled).

I did a little research and dry needle felted the body of the second fish.  I liked the ‘dry’ needle felting better than wet felting.  I was able to control the shape of the fish better and did not have to wait for it to dry.

I found things on line to needle felt, went back to the store and bought more  felting supplies.  I found a kit to make a bowl over a Styrofoam ball.  And with that I made a little bowl for our Fiber Arts group holiday gift exchange.  When the other members saw the bowl, they asked me to teach them how to do it.  

I continued to try all kinds of projects.  This past spring I made a little owl and posted its picture on facebook (by the way, I am so glad owls are popular again.  I have been able to bring out the owls I collected as a teen). Anyways, an artist friend saw it and wanted one and then asked me to teach a class at the Creative center where she worked (it is a paint your own pottery place that is expanding to include other crafts).  I taught that owl class in May. 

The owner asked for another class which I did a couple of weeks ago.  For this class I did a bowl made much like the clay coil  bowls we made in art class at school.   But this time it was the students who asked for more classes.  So now we have 6 classes scheduled for this fall.

Who would have thought that a gift card and a little fish felting kit would lead to me to teaching classes?  I certainly didn’t and never would have thought it would be needle felting but I am so glad life turned out this way.  You never know what will come from a curiosity.  So if you ever get a change to demo your craft or teach a class, do it.  It might lead to wonderful things.

©2017  Cheryl Fillion