Three by Three: Guest Artists in Focus

QUESTION 2.   How do you decide whether a character should remain whimsical, realistic, or symbolic — and what internal cue decides the final “tone”?

• ANSWER 2.    About 50% of my work is commissioned, and I love collaborating with my clients, which drives the type of character and adds to the fun and sometimes the challenge. My own personal projects often start from a childhood memory. I grew up in England during the 50s and early 60s. I had a vivid imaginary world and also wonderful grandmothers who very much shaped who I became. My style is just about always whimsical, I love the gentleness of the era of my childhood and it's my comfort zone. My dolls are always older characters. I really want the beauty of a life well lived to shine through the wool, regardless of the actual type of character.

  I always try to make my characters as realistic as I can. I don't have any formal art background but love to study faces and figure out how to capture features in felt. It takes about a month to create a character and I feel very connected during the process and really start to have an understanding of who is there under the fluff. This very much guides me and helps me build a face that expresses an inner being.

  I occasionally get inspired to use a little symbolism. One example is 'The Love Seat.' I was thinking about the very lucky few who find genuine and life-long love, and spent 3 months writing a story, creating a felted sofa and the characters Digby and Delphine Darling. Another, called The Last Leaf Promise', was a character created thinking about my first garden and the loving care it required. My favorite use of symbolism was a character based on a story my grandmother would tell me about flying in an early biplane as a young woman and how much she loved looping-the-loop. I thought about how it would feel to remember that sensation as a much older woman and created Roberta Periwinkle Jones who "on some summer days when the sky is brilliant blue and she feels the westerly breeze upon her face, puts on her magical coat with wings, slips into the garden, closes her eyes and remembers."

Carolyn St Clair
3-Dimensional Needle Felter & Writer

MEDIUM:    mixed-media

BIO:    I discovered the art of needle felting in 2018 after retiring from a 44-year career in nursing. I live in Roseburg, Oregon. I immigrated to the USA in 1965 and have wonderful memories of my childhood spent in England. Those memories very much influence my work. I quickly fell in love with creating dolls of a certain age, and I started trying to show an inner spirit and the beauty of aging, which I feel is often overlooked as we become almost invisible to many as we grow older. I started my company, Swete Woolies in 2021. Swete is not a spelling error, but a way to honor my grandmother, it was her middle name. I also write short stories for each doll and just completed my first book, 'A Swete Book of Tales.'

WEBSITE:    SweteWooliesFiberArt

QUESTION 3.   Mixed media expands your creative toolkit — what unexpected material or technique has most surprised you in how naturally it integrates with felted sculpture?

• ANSWER 3.     Several years ago, a client wanted me to create a 'Queen Bee' character. This was based on a loving nickname bestowed upon her by her husband, who had sadly passed away. During the process of getting to know more about my client, I discovered her love of all things bling. She very kindly mailed out a box of sparkles and baubles that I could use for Queen Bee and I had so much fun combining her treasures into the character that I started adding pieces to other dolls. From my newest box of bling, I wove wool through a 'diamond' bracelet to make a crown for a very glamorous queen. I always post pictures of my characters and know my client gets a kick out of seeing how I've used her old treasures.

QUESTION 1.  Needle felting is sculpting with softness — how do you maintain emotional or conceptual strength in pieces built from delicate fibers?

• ANSWER 1.    There are 2 components that help maintain strength and emotion.

  My dolls are usually 16" to 20" tall. They require a skeletal wire armature and clay feet for strength, movement, and balance. I like to add character touches and enhance emotion using head, body, and hand movement, and the use of an armature allows me to create these poses.

  When I start a project, I use wool that has been cleaned, dyed, and processed into batts, which look like soft, fluffy pillows of fiber. Taking a small section, I use a single barbed needle in a gentle, repeated stabbing-type motion to entangle and firm the wool fibers so that I can start to build shapes.

  There are no hard and fast rules in felting, and many felters create wonderful projects that don't necessarily require a lot of firmness; it's very much a personal preference. However, for facial expressions to remain in place, it requires many hours of work to make sure the fibers are solid. My test is that my project has the same firmness as a tennis ball. That way, a smile, a crinkle around the eyes, or the position of a cheek will always remain as intended.

The Love Seat mentioned in question #2

Queen Serafina and Aiden. She is wearing the crown mentioned in question #3

Roberta Periwinkle Jones, mentioned in question #2

All copyright and reproduction rights are reserved by Carolyn St Clair.
Artwork may not be reproduced in any form without the artist's express written permission.

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