My Second Annual Needle Felting Safari: Crafting, Friendship, and Wildlife at Nome Schoolhouse
A Week of Giraffes, Friendship, and Needle Felting
There is something pretty special about spending an entire week surrounded by people who love needle felting as much as you do.
For our second annual Bear Creek Felting Safari, eight felters came together from California, Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota, and North Dakota for a week devoted to one ambitious project: creating a detailed needle felted giraffe.
The previous year we had tackled elephants. This time, we turned our attention to those long legs, graceful necks, expressive faces, and, of course, all those giraffe spots.
It was definitely a challenge—and that is exactly what the Felting Safari is meant to be.
Friendships and Bonding:
More Than a Felting Class
One of the things I love about the Safari is having enough time to really slow down and work through a detailed sculpture.
Instead of trying to squeeze everything into a short workshop, we have days to build the form, refine proportions, add details, make adjustments, and learn new techniques along the way.
There is time to ask questions. Time to take something apart and try it again. Time to watch a demonstration and then work through it at your own pace.
And there is plenty of time to laugh.
Watching Eight Giraffes Come to Life
At the beginning of the week, creating an entire giraffe can feel a little intimidating.
That is part of the fun.
We broke the project into manageable steps and worked through the sculpture together. Slowly, piles of wool began turning into legs, bodies, long necks, faces, ears, ossicones, and finally those unmistakable giraffe markings.
One of my favorite parts of teaching is watching the moment when someone realizes, “I really can do this.”
Although everyone followed the same basic project, no two giraffes were exactly alike. Each one developed its own expression and personality as its maker worked.
By the end of the week, every student had created a giraffe to take home—and had learned techniques they could use in many future sculptures.
The Friendships May Be My Favorite Part
The finished projects are wonderful, but the friendships that develop during these retreats may be even better.
Eight people arrived from different parts of the country, many of them not knowing one another. Within a very short time, everyone was sharing ideas, encouraging each other, laughing over the challenges, admiring one another's progress, and talking about wool and felting long after we had put the needles down for the day.
There is something about spending several days creating together that builds friendships very quickly.
That sense of community has become one of the most important parts of the Felting Safari for me.
There Has to Be a Little Adventure Too
We did plenty of needle felting, but we didn't spend every minute at the felting table.
During the week we also made time to get outside, explore, relax, enjoy good food, and simply spend time together.
Those breaks are part of what makes a retreat different from taking a class. The goal isn't to rush through a project. It is to step away from everyday responsibilities for a little while and enjoy the whole experience.
And wherever a Bear Creek Felting retreat happens, you can be fairly certain there will be very good food involved. Chef Libbie has become an important part of making these weeks special.
How the Felting Safari Has Grown
When I started the Felting Safari, I hoped it would give experienced felters the opportunity to tackle larger, more challenging sculptures with plenty of hands-on instruction.
It has become much more than that.
Each year has brought a new animal, new techniques, returning students, new friendships, and plenty of memories. The Safari has continued to grow and evolve, but the heart of it has stayed the same: a small group of felters spending a week together creating something they weren't quite sure they could make when they arrived.
That is still one of my favorite things to watch.
And every time another group of finished animals lines up at the end of a Safari, I find myself already thinking about what we should felt next
