Tufted landscapes (and the struggle behind them)

It's been well over 6 months since I picked up my tufting guns, but I'm so glad I did this summer. While this particular fiber art medium is still very new to me, I'm starting to get the hang of it and slowly developing my own style. 3 sets of tufted diptychs are ready to ship & hang in your home, and here's a time-lapse video showing a peek at the process. 

While learning to work in any new medium or figure out the nuances of using a new tool can take time (and lot of trial and error), it’s what keeps me going. I need to learn new things, always. Tufting seemed like the next logical step for me once I started expanding on my needle felting work and doing mixed media fiber art a few years back, but tufting has been a rocky road so far. I love that I can work larger and faster, but I am having a hard time accepting that the detail level that I’m able to achieve with punch needle, needle felting, and rug hooking, is just not going to be possible with a tufting gun (or at least not at my current skill level). I had to rethink my ideas and adjust accordingly.

Some of my other struggles when it comes to tufting are purely comfort-related. It’s a very physical art form - you are on your feet for hours and hours, the tufting guns are heavy and they take a toll on hands and wrists in a way hand-work doesn’t seem to effect me. Plus, it’s loud and messy, and I like to keep my studio neat, even though the whole point of a studio is to have a workspace where it’s totally acceptable to have a mess. It seems silly that these drawbacks are part of what’s kept me from tufting for half a year, but I’m just being honest.

I was considering selling my tufting guns and frame, I hadn’t used them in months, they were new and in good condition (and too expensive to just sit here and not be used). I wasn’t looking forward to setting up the frame and having whatever project take over my studio for days on end. Although I may eventually eliminate tufting from my studio I needed to give it another chance, a REAL chance, a chance to be it’s own thing and lead the way to a new style, a chance to change my expectations. It can’t do what I want it to do but it can do a lot of other very cool things. I need to embrace those things.

All 3 of these diptychs have a completely different style, though the subject matter is very similar. One is focused on two-tone gradients, one it’s very abstract and blocky, and the last has a bit of a stained glass or paint-by-number feel. I like all of them for different reasons, and it’s enough to push me to keep trying and keep tufting. I hope to add more tufted pieces to the website later this summer, but for now shop the small collection online.

Carolina Color Study Exhibition

My very first solo exhibition opens August 8th at Limestone University in Gaffney, SC and I couldn’t be more excited about the collection. The exhibition has been in the works since the fall, but the concept has been in my head for much longer. I’m thrilled to share a sneak peek with you and a little info about the collection!

Every place in this world has a specific color palette. Its unique to the region, created by the wildlife & plants that live there, the water that passes through it, and the makeup of the earth itself. As an aspiring naturalist and lover of the outdoors, I’ve always sought inspiration in my environment, but ever since relocating to South Carolina in 2010, I’ve begun to study it much more closely, through the lens of an artist but also an interior designer.

My background is in the field of commercial interior design, which I pursue in conjunction with my art career, and I’m constantly surrounded by samples and color swatches. These colors and textures give me such joy, whether I’m pulling finishes for a client or creating a mixed media fiber art piece in my studio. The Carolina Color Study Collection is the culmination of my favorite regional landscape views, topography, tonal gradients, and swatches of our regional color palette here in the Carolinas, all created through a mixed media fiber art process that includes needle felted wool fiber, punch needle yarn, and rug hooked fabric strips. 

This opportunity is made possible through the Individual Artist Career Opportunity Grant, a program of South Arts. A HUGE thank you to South Arts for helping with funding the materials & framing needed to create this collection! Checkout this feature on the Your Carolina morning show from August 17th.

I hope you can see the exhibition in person now through September 21st or attend the Artist Talk & opening reception on September 16th, but if you’re not able to make it, the entire series is available for purchase through my website. Pieces will ship AFTER the exhibition closes. If you’re local and prefer to pick up in person, just let me know and I’ll refund your shipping.

Flat Out Under Pressure Art Competition 2022

Every year in Greenville, SC the Metropolitan Arts Council (MAC) hosts an event that brings all the local artists out of the woodwork within this community. 150 artists competed this year, some professional some amateur, all very talented. Between 9 and 11 am on Friday, all artists must get their worksurfaces stamped (you can do up to 5 surfaces but in the end only one piece can be submitted), then you have 24 hours to create a piece of art.

The following morning we all bring our pieces back to MAC in downtown Greenville, and their doors close for most of the day while they install all of the finished pieces inside the gallery for judging. That evening, the party and awards ceremony takes place, and it’s always so impressive to see what others created during the same time period.

This year my piece was a 20x20 mixed media fiber art landscape featuring a farm at dusk and I used needle felted wool roving, punch needled yarn, and rug hooked fabric strips. A piece this size normally takes 3-4 days, but I was able to get it done on time (though it was an extremely full day and yes, my wrists still hurt)!

Hope you enjoy the process video from my 2022 piece, and if you missed my post from 2020, here’s a look back at a past submission to the competition: http://www.sarahmandell.com/blog/flat-out-under-pressure-competition

The Emerald Isle Collection

Last year, on a whim, I created a small series of needle felted landscapes inspired by Ireland. Pleasantly surprised when they all sold within 48 hours, I decided to revisit this idea the following year. I’ve been looking forward to it for months, researching landmarks and scenes that would inspired the Emerald Isle Collection’s second iteration.

This year, 7 wool landscapes, all fairly small scale and under $200, will be available starting March 1, 2022. Some rolling green hills, cottages and livestock make an appearance, plus some favorite landmarks such as the Cliffs of Moher, Bunratty Castle, and Dunguaire Castle are featured as well.

It’s been almost 30 years since I’ve set foot in Ireland, but I still remember being inspired by the beautiful scenery, especially the green countryside and majestic ruins. I hope to get back there someday and find new inspiration!

Enjoy this special preview of my newest series and shop the collection at www.onceagainsam.com

Tufting My Heart Out

Back in July, when things were slowing down for the summer, I finally invested in something I’ve been wanting to try for years: tufting. My current body of fiber art keeps getting bigger in size & more and more textured. Plus, my background in commercial interior design has given me a major soft spot for textiles and carpet, so all of that seemed like the perfect combination of reasons to try out this new technique. However, by the time my tufting guns, frame, and materials arrived in early August, I was neck deep in commissions and fall season craft show prep. The box sat unopened in my studio until the week of Christmas, when I finally came up for air.

If you’re not familiar with tufting, it’s kind of like a sewing machine gun for making rugs (or art, or home decor, or whatever you can imagine). Yarn is threaded through the gun, and it pushes the yarn through the foundation fabric. A loop gun gets you tight loops, like you might see in commercial carpet. A “cut” gun gets you cut pile, which is what you probably have in your home (plush yarn fibers sticking straight up from the floor).

Learning something new is very exciting for me, and it’s so tricky to make time for these things, but it’s always worth it. I just recently got to try out my new glorious tools and it was worth the 6 month delay! I took an online training course last week and got started experimenting with the different guns and yarn options right away. Definitely a major learning curve coming from doing every little stitch by hand to a piece of machinery like this, but after a few practice pieces I finally got the hang of things. The gun is almost too fast, compared to what I’m used to, but one of the big reasons I wanted to try it was to be able to speed things up a little with my work. I’m not rushing things, I just dream BIG!

I have really enjoyed playing around with different yarn so far. Of course I started out only using the yarn that the instructor advised, but then once you learn the rules, you’re free to break them, right? Some yarn, like thick rug yarn i use for punch needle projects, works fine but only as a single ply. Thinner yarn, like the nylon I received as a donation from Milliken Floors earlier this year, works well as a 2 or 3 ply.

I LOVE all the possible textures you can achieve with different yarn types, plus changing between the loop and the cut pile guns. I haven’t worked up the nerve to adjust the loop and pile heights yet, but believe me, it’s on my list of things to try once I get comfy with the basics. Until then, I’m here tufting my heart out and enjoying learning something new. Where has this been all my life!?