Joey
In the early years of the new millennium we bought some delightful vintage chevron beads and thought what wonderful pantaloons they would make ... and our first ever character was born.
Joey's creation caused a creative surge of beaded characters... then we experimented with clay and now we work with fibres.
We rediscovered the joy of felting, thanks to a new house, a search for a new medium that doesn't need a heat source, Roz Dace & Judy Balchin, authors of some brilliant needlefelting books and Living-Felt on You Tube, who between them made us realise you can give felted figures as much character as clay, in just as many sizes!
We have dabbled with needlefelt for years, our transition to felt figures is due to another move, where polymer clay is impracticable, the discovery of a fantastic book by Roz Dace and Judy Balchin,
"Needle Felting Dolls ... A Complete Course in Sculpting Figures"
ISBN-10:180092013X
ISBN-13: 978-1800920132
We have never copied anyone's design or work to make an identical re-creation, instead we take an idea from here, a technique from there, that is why we never have just one book on a subject.
We pick and choose, develop and design, so our felt figures incorporate several sources of inspiration and a little resin here and there!
The book used to motivate us to add life to our clay figures and is still used while we felt.
Anatomically correct, Katherine's creations are beautiful and the book has been an invaluable tool, although now working with felt and fibre this book, along with those of Carlos Lischetti are still as usable with felting as they were with clay/sugarpaste. We're just working with a different medium!
