Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Brigid educates the local fair on Needle felting....sort of


Brigid loves entering items in the local county fair. Above you see a picture of her needle felted entry. yes, he is really small. Maybe 1.5 - 2" tall. We have been needle felting for years. The needles have barbs on them that interlock the scales of the wool and make a nice texture / fabric.  My mother knows how to needle felt really well also. And Mom, Brigid and Zoe all wet felt as well (as do I).

So, we go to the fair on Sat and we find the cute little guy on the front table with the Best of Shows and Judge's Choices. And it was the only item there that had no blue ribbon.
We went back to the hall later and were listening to people talk about things on the front table. We heard Owl and Penguin. And the person in charge of watching the hall said Monkey. After a while, we went over to the hall monitor and said "why don't you ask the artist?" Well, she was thrilled to meet Brigid. Turns out, the judges has no idea what it was (owl vs penguin, vs??; it is an owl), they had no idea what it was made out of (wool), or how it was made (needle felted). But they loved it. Apparently, one of the judges wanted to take it home with her. And they had to put signs up on the table requesting that people not touch the items on the table, because people kept wantign to hold it and touch it and well, take it! Brigid needs to make a ton of these things!

So, what a coup! No one knew anything about the piece but they absolutely loved it! And B is thrilled with the award.

Our needle felter has 720 of the needles discussed above.  Not terrific for such adorable 3D items but killer for other things!  Brigid says next year we all need to enter items and compete against each other.  And educate the locals about needle felting!