Amy Rawson - multi media artist, instructor, wool dyer and supplier

Amy L. Rawson

Multi-media Artist, Instructor and Wool dyer/supplier

I met Amy thru The Felting Forum, and had the pleasure of interviewing her recently.

See the transcript which follows:

Hi Amy, How are you Friend?

I'm great, how are you? :)

I’m doing great Amy and I’m so excited to have this opportunity to interview you. You are one very talented artist in many mediums, with needle felting being only one of them. I would like to ask you a few questions so we can get to know you better. A few questions OK?

Happy to. :)

1) Where are you from? state/country

Currently residing in Willington, Connecticut, USA.

2) How long have you been needle felting?

Since 2003.

3) How did you learn it? Was there someone particular that introduced you to it?

My friend, Suzanne Urban, introduced me to it. I'd never heard of it before but was instantly hooked. She showed me the basics, then I went out and bought a couple of needle felting books, and took off from there!

4) Why do you like it? Do you combine it with other forms of felting like wet felting, machine felting?

I'm pretty much just a needle felter - I keep wanting to learn more about wet felting techniques because I've seen amazing stuff done by people who combine the two techniques, but I've never gotten around to it. I love needle felting because it is sculptural. I remember when I was a child, I learned how to make stuffed animals, but most of the stuffed animal patterns you can buy are simplistic and don't look a whole lot like real animals. I was never very good at drafting my own, more realistic patterns, though. When I found needle felting, it was the answer! I can make soft creations without having to draft patterns or sew anything. I also use needle felted parts in combination with hard sculpture and costuming in my mixed media doll creations. Needle felting is just very versatile!

5) Is needle felting your hobby or your full time job/career? Do you teach needle felting? At a physical location or thru online classes? If online, where at?

It's somewhere in between hobby and full time job. It is more of a side business for me, as I am a full time student again and will have a day job once I finish this degree. Needle felting will probably never be my sole source of income, but I do sell my work, and I also hand wash, card, dye and sell wool suitable for needle felters, so it's a big part of what I do. :)

I do also teach needle felting classes online at Joggles.com, this is the one that is currently running:

Introduction to Needle felting with Amy Rawson

http://www.joggles.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2756

I have two other classes that she runs seasonally, as well.

6) Do you have a website, brick and mortar store or location, ebay, etsy, flicker, picturetrail, photobucket site?

I have my own website with all sorts of my art on it: http://thirdroar.com/

I sell on eBay sometimes, my username is dra1gathar. I don't have an eBay store, but I have an about me page:

http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=dra1gathar

I have an Etsy shop, where I sell most of my felties and my wool: http://draigathar.etsy.com/

I have a flickr site with many photos of my work: http://www.flickr.com/photos/draigathar/

I have a livejournal blog as well, where I post progress photos of work from time to time:

http://draiguisge.livejournal.com/

7) Do you have any tips, advice, articles, recommendations or tutorials you would like to share? Do you use one needle or multiple needles? Do you have a favorite type of wool for core and surface work that is your main wool? Do you use armatures in your felties? Anything you would like to share that you feel is your particular style, preference etc that you want to share?

I use both single needles and multi-needle tools. The tool I use has six needles in it, and I usually use it when building forms. Then I switch to single needles for detail work. I like to use down breeds of wool for everything - core fiber and surface fiber. Breeds like Dorset, Hampshire, Cheviot, Montadale, Texel, Suffolk, these are all my favorites. I use armatures in some of my larger creations, when support is important. My needle felting style tends to be pretty whimsical. I make a lot of silly or cute things, because to me needle felting is just plain fun. :)

8) What photo's of your needle felted creations would you like to share and what would you like us to know about them?

You can use photos of any of my felties that you like! Some of my favorites are my needle felted pumpkins, and recently my Whimsigulls have pleased me. My most ambitious work so far was a needle felted carousel horse which is part of another Joggles class I am working on. Photos of all of them can be found on my Flickr site.

The pumpkins in particular have a fun story behind them, as they were inspired by a song written by Peter Mayer, a fantastic folk singer. His song, "John's Garden," is one of my favorites, and I wanted to create a doll sculpture of the character in the song. I contacted Pete to ask for his permission to use the character, and he was happy for me to do so. The sculpture that was born from this is here: http://thirdroar.com/sculptures/2004-007-FarmerJohn/

Then I got to meet Pete in person some time later, so I made him a needle felted pumpkin like the ones in the sculpture. He loved it. He's a friend of mine now, I get to see him whenever he has a concert out on the east coast, and the pumpkins have been one of my most popular creations. :)

9) Anything else Amy?

Thanks so much for your interest! :)

The pleasure is all mine Amy!!! Thank-you so much for taking the time to share a bit about yourself with us. Needle felting is a fairly new art form and many people are being attracted to it and have many questions about it, which makes your interview very valuable to us. Blessings to you Amy in this new year!