BRAINERD — Finding the right artform in life can be a difficult task.
Luckily for Karen Storkamp, she found needle felting 10 years ago. And she fell in love. Now she’s teaching, and hoping others find it a passion as well.
She stumbled upon needle felting in an odd way. Storkamp and her husband made soap and tried adding felt. The idea is to wrap wool around a bar of soap, and as the bar is used, the wool condenses and the fibers shrink around the bar.
“It's actually really hard to do and really time consuming," Storkamp said during an Area Voices interview. "So, I decided I didn't really love that, but I had all this wool I needed to use up ... so I decided I needed to figure something out.”
At the time, she had a lot of upholstery fabric and put it together to make needle-felted pillows. Since then, she has expanded to two- and three-dimensional artworks.
How it works
Sheep’s wool has scales on it, and a felting needle has little notches to cut into it. As you repeatedly poke the wool with the needle, the notches catch onto the scales and tangle the fibers.
Not only does Storkamp find it fun to needle felt, but she also finds it to be extremely therapeutic. It’s a repeated rhythmic motion that’s right in front of your face.
“It's like my Zen place,” Storkamp said. As you listen to the conversation above, you can hear she's working as she talks.
Each project is unique. To make a small bear, it could take Storkamp five hours. For a pillow, she might put in 30-50 hours.
“There is no set time. What I tell people, though, is that really you should just keep poking on whatever you're making until you absolutely love it.”
The beginning steps
When Storkamp is creating a new project, she’ll look at hundreds of pictures of the subject and get an overall sense of the shapes that make it up. There’s a lot of trial and error, but she said wool is the most forgiving medium to work with. She can take off or add more wool as needed.
Storkamp has advice for anyone interested in trying out felting. First is to get quality wool and needles. Second, realize it is not a fast art form, and there’s no need to quit too soon. And third, if people have an opportunity to take a class with a good teacher, they should do it. Valuable information comes from learning from others in classes.
Becoming a teacher
Storkamp will be teaching a class to make felted sheep with The Crossing Arts Alliance on Saturday, Sept. 7, in Brainerd. Teaching has been a surprise to Storkamp, who defines herself as an introvert.
“I have just this real passion for it ... and when I see what people are doing, I get really excited about it because there's just fun things that happen in a class.”
For the class, Storkamp created a kit for the students. They include wool and needles needed to make a sheep. Storkamp herself made the sheep probably 40 times, so she is confident in teaching even beginner students to make their own.
Sign up for her Crossing Arts Alliance class is available on their website. The class fee includes supplies for the class. People can also follow along with Storkamp’s work on her Facebook page I Felt It.
Storkamp said she is so happy she found needle felting in her life.
“I really feel so lucky every day that I found what makes me happy. I think we all need to have that ... so, mine is right here every day with me and I'm just very, very thankful for it.”
Tell us about upcoming arts events where you live in Northern Minnesota by emailing psa@kaxe.org.
Area Voices is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.
