I felted a Santa this year for my high school art teacher. I can’t draw. Never could. And yet she worked tirelessly trying to teach me perspective, values and composition. Not many people have that kind of patience. But through all of my underwhelming experiments with 2D art, she continued to encourage me to find my creative spark. It wasn’t until years later when I started needle felting that all of her efforts finally hit home. I wanted to thank her for her encouragement, and a felted Santa Claus seemed like a fun way to do it.
In addition to all of her support in High School, more recently she was instrumental in my having a collection of felties on display at the Sewickley library in October (my first show!) and she talks up my work to anyone who will listen. She was my all time favorite teacher. Not only because she’s so generous with her time and talent, but under all of that she’s just a really great person.
This Santa is slightly different than the last Santa I made. Oval eyes this time, instead of round (I thought the slight tilt made him look kinder) and his jumbo mustache might actually reach out farther from his face than my last Santa, if that’s possible. And since I can’t seem to run a photo shoot without one cat or another sticking their head into the mix, I’m including the photo of Bing the tabby sizing up Santa as a potential chew toy.
I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! And the Happiest of New Years!
There are more photos of Santa in the gallery if you want to check them out.
run red run needle felted collectibles 