Winter in the Woods Collection

My first series of needle felted animal portraits for 2020 is coming soon! I don’t get to make these portraits very often and when I do, they sell so quickly it’s a bit of a blur. I’m excited to share these 12 woodland creatures who are all bundled up for the winter season but I know they won’t last. I’ve got bears in hats, owls in scarves, chipmunks in earmuffs, and I had way too much fun putting together this little trailer that my husband helped fiml in the woods behind our house. 

This new series of needle felted animal portraits all bundled up for the the winter will be available starting tomorrow night at 7PM on Instagram. Follow @onceagainsam for details and a chance to snag one of these rare creations!

Follow @onceagainsam on Instagram for details about adopting one of these woodland creatures. As with my past animal portrait collections, I will be listing them for sale on Instagram and the first person to message me with their email address for payment gets the piece. 

These quirky felted portraits range in price from $50 to $125 depending on size.

Fun fact: my talented mother-in-law hand know those tiny hats! Aren’t they just the cutest!?!

Evolution of a Maker: 11 Years of Once Again Sam

You probably know me for my handmade jewelry and fiber art. I’ve been making & selling jewelry on Etsy since January of 2009, and added fiber art to my offerings shortly after that, but I bet you didn’t know I once dabbled in making coasters from marble samples, bowls from old vinyl records, magnets from glass tiles, and some steampunk jewelry from old clock parts? Yes, it’s been a wild ride here at Once Again Sam! 

When I started out, I was working almost exclusively with up-cycled materials for two reasons: 1. I had a very small budget, and 2. I had access to a lot of interesting materials for free thanks to my career in interior design (which is an industry that is constantly clearing out samples from their design libraries). This combination caused me to be resourceful and experiment, which is still to this day the spirit of my handmade business Once Again Sam (and that’s also where the “once again” comes from in my company name). 

My monthly “crafting budget” in 2009 was $25 plus whatever I made selling on Etsy. When I started out, I wasn’t selling much on Etsy - maybe a sale a week for the first few months. However, I was surrounded by cool materials, thanks to my design career. The firm I was with at the time was relocating and downsizing the materials library (this was right when the Architecture industry was hit hard during the recession) and we were discarding samples like crazy, so I started reclaiming things from the trash like stone flooring samples, glass tile mockups, leather upholstery swatches, and wood stain chain sets. These odd bits and random pieces bound for the trash are how this business began!

I did eventually branch out and started buying inexpensive items at Goodwill that I could repurpose. Some of my favorite items to up-cycle at that time were suede clothing, old belts, vinyl records, broken costume jewelry pieces, and clocks. 

After about 2-3 years, I finally hit my stride working with wood, leather and wool. I stuck to these mediums and started selling enough online that I couldn’t get by using only recycled materials - I had to start sourcing from suppliers with future growth in mind. I still use recycled leather when possible.

Before I invested in my first laser cutter in 2012, all the leather earrings, cuffs, and rings were cut by hand, and that limited my design capabilities. The laser cutter really opened things up for my business - not just with leather, but also with wood and acrylic. However, there are still several hand cut leather designs I still make today.

My needle felting projects went from simple to complex within just a few short years. I dabbled in mostly 3D work, focusing on animals and plants as my subject matter. Some of these designs are still around in my shop today - they’re just more refined after years and years of practice!

I always get asked if I’d ever try a menswear jewelry line. I have, and it bombed. In 2015 I did a series of wooden dog tags, wider leather cuffs, and engraved wooden cufflinks and the collection was a total bust. Sometimes ideas just don’t work out - either the product isn’t quite right or there’s no customers who want to buy it. You live, you learn. No more menswear in the future - got it!

In 2016, my fiber art changed dimensions, literally. For the first time ever, I decided to work in 2D. It was completely different and I loved it immediately. I don’t know why I never thought to try that before! My first needle felted landscape was created in May of 2016 and it took my in a whole new direction, one I’m pursuing enthusiastically at the moment. Switching from 3D to 2D helped elevate my fiber art. I discovered as soon as you put something on a wall, it’s thought of more as art instead of craft.

In more recent years I’ve changed my fiber art focus almost entirely to 2D but I still do animal portraits and felted plants from time to time. The jewelry is still primarily laser cut but I’m enjoying hand painting and finding ways to marry the technology of the laser cutter with traditional art methods.

I enjoyed this little trip down memory lane and hope you did too. We’re all evolving, but it’s hard to see that on a day to day basis sometimes. When I look back at where I started, what I made, what I learned, I feel like a whole lot has happened in the last 11 years. There’s things I only made once and never tried again, there were things I made a decade ago that I still create and sell today, and it’s cool to see how it all ties together. My maker story is still being written. Who knows what the next ten years will bring! 

Rug Hooking at the Folk School

Last week I had the pleasure of returning to the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC for an intro to rug hooking course. This fascinating fiber art form is something I’ve wanted to learn for years, but I was having a hard time finding anyone locally who could teach me (or who had ever heard of rug hooking, for that matter). The history of traditional rug hooking is interesting, and the craft itself is quite remarkable, but I had a very specific reason for wanting to learn this new medium. I knew somehow, some way, I wanted to incorporate this dimensional texture into my existing needle felting work. Even though I could easily envision how I’d combine the two mediums, I had absolutely no idea where to start, so when I saw there was a rug hooking course coming up at the Folk School, I knew the stars had finally aligned and it was time to find out if this idea was possible.

 The Folk School is located in the misty Appalachian mountains, about as far west as you can go and still be in the state of North Carolina. It’s remote, it’s beautiful, and it has a special community that’s been teaching a variety of traditional handicrafts for nearly 100 years. You can learn blacksmithing, chair caning, felt making, book binding, metal smithing, pottery, glass bead making, photography, wood turning, and weaving, just to name a few. The class sizes are small, typically less than 10 students, and you learn by total immersion. By the end of my week, I had put in 40 hours in the fiber art studio! 

The first hour of class, we learned about the tools, materials, and techniques required for rug hooking, and then we were off to hook our first practice piece – a small coaster, using a simple log cabin pattern. Learning to hook a rug seems simple, but it’s not simple at all. After cutting thin strips of wool, you use a hooked hand tool and pull them through the open weave of a piece of fabric. It sounds so basic, but there’s a lot to it. You have to pull the loops through the fabric just so, and space them out enough, but not too much. You can work with a predetermined pattern, but after my first practice piece, I chose to make up my own or work free form. 

By day two, I was hooking away on my first large piece and finally had the chance to try out my idea of combining rug hooking and needle felting, and I’m thrilled to say – IT WORKED! I hooked a landscape, creating a foreground and mountains with little loops of wool, then I needle felted the sky with roving. I absolutely love how the two wool textures look together. I’m comfortable with landscapes, I make them almost daily (in felt), so this seemed liked a good place to start. 

The third day, I tried a more abstract piece, a longer tapestry wall hanging in a pale color palette, still experimenting with mixing roving with the wool “noodles” I was hooking through the linen background fabric. I also learned various ways to finish the pieces, like binding the edges with yarn.  My loops aren’t perfect, my edges aren’t straight, I ran out of wool so the finished piece is about an inch shorter than I had been planning, by I learned so much by the time this one was finished and I’m in love with the irregular pattern and soft earthy colors. 

 Towards the end of the week, I challenged myself to try hooking precise geometric shapes with curves and points, change colors more often, work with smaller scale fabric strips, and switch directions with my loops. I created two more pieces, both using scrap wool and remnants. I also went bold with my color choices and have no regrets about that! 

After my first 40 hours of rug hooking, all in one week, I’m only just starting to understand how it works. I’m a beginner and will be for quite some time, my work is far from perfect, but I’m so happy to be off on this new adventure in a different medium that compliments what I’m already doing. My fiber art is bound to change in the future, and that’s exciting in so many ways.

Check out this short 5 minute video showing highlights of the week, time-lapse footage of my first few hooking projects, and work from the other students in various classes.

I would like to extend a special thanks to Metropolitan Arts Council (MAC) who made this educational undertaking possible by awarding me a grant to help fund my week at the Folk School plus the investment of the new tools and equipment required to continue to pursue a new dimension in my fiber art. Thank you thank you thank you!

This program is funded in part by the Metropolitan Arts Council which receives support from the City of Greenville, BMW Manufacturing Company, Michelin North America, Inc., SEW Eurodrive and the South Carolina Arts Commission.

The Return of the Animal Portraits

It’s been awhile (I think maybe 2 years???), but I’m finally bringing back my quirky needle felted animal portraits for a limited edition series! These sometimes-realistic and sometimes-ridiculous wall hangings range from bookish bunnies, to cool cats in hats, and my most recent favorite, a professorial beaver in a bowtie. The 3D wool portraits are large enough that I’m able to develop the head shape and facial details pretty well, and adding just the right accessory – a pair of glasses, a pearl necklace, a pipe, or knit cap (my mother-in-law knit some of these for me!) is one of the most pleasing parts of the whole process for me. Sourcing those small scale accessories can be a bit of a treasure hunt, but they sure give the piece personality.

 I’ve been making these felted animal portraits for many years, but only in short bursts, never in a continuous or predictable fashion. I take commissions year round and am always up for a special request, but I’m rarely producing more than 15-20 portraits a year outside of custom orders. That’s extremely limited when I compare to how many hundreds of wool paintings I make in a year, several thousand pendants & earrings, plus dozens and dozens of Christmas ornaments.

Each summer, in preparation for Indie Craft Parade, a major craft fair here in Greenville, SC, I typically make one small collection of the felted portraits, put them all out at the show, and they’re sold out by noon the first day, so there are no remaining pieces to add to my website. I don’t know why I even have a section for these on my site. It’s permanently empty!

Recently, I started to realize customers outside of the Greenville area (or even those in the Greenville area who didn’t attend the show or got there too late) don’t have the opportunity to purchase or even see the animal portraits in person. This year, prior to Indie Craft Parade, I’m trying something a little different in hopes of giving those interested a chance of adding to their collection. I’m going to offer these quirky creatures for sale in a brief pre-sale / flash sale on Instagram so there will be a short chance to snag one before they ever make it to the craft show (or if you’re local, you can purchase in advance and pick up at the show). Plus, I made nearly twice as many as previous years, so hopefully there’s enough to go around this time!

Hope you enjoyed this advanced look at the pieces available. Please follow along on Instagram for details about when they’ll be up for grabs in early September.

 As always, if you don’t see the exact animal you want, or you have something specific in mind, please reach out. I truly love custom orders!

Fiber, Paper, Scissors Exhibition

Photo by Eli Warren

My series of needle felted landscapes from #the100dayproject are on display as part of the “Fiber, Paper, Scissors” exhibit for one more week at Greenville Center for Creative Arts. This is my largest collection to date and it’s in good company with the work of Meredith Piper, Douglas Piper, and Mark Mullfinger through July 24th.

Photo by Jeremy Tufts

Earlier this week I gave an ArtTalk and shared about how I got into needle felted, why I chose to do 100 landscapes in 100 days, and a little about what it was like to work every single day in one medium. I thought I’d do a little recap here while it’s fresh in my mind.

Photo by Jeremy Tufts

HOW IT ALL BEGAN:

Back in the fall of 2009, I was doing a lot of knitting. I had never heard of needle felting. A neighbor in Rockville, MC had recently learned and showed me a quick little demo, and I was hooked. I asked for a needle felting kit for Christmas, and haven’t knit since. I started out with simple 3D projects like ornaments and succulents, then taught myself to sculpt more complex shapes like animal figurines and anatomical hearts. My fairly new business at the time, Once Again Sam, became more than a handmade jewelry business.

A CHANGE IN DIMENSION:

Up until April of 2016, I had only ever worked in 3D. My needle felted had advanced quite a bit since learning, but I never dared to work flat until the #creativesprint challenge that changed it all. I made a tiny little felted landscape in an embroidery hoop, and that little project pushed me in a whole new direction. Working flat, creating landscapes from wool fiber, was the ultimate combination of traditional painting and fiber art.

BEFORE THE CHALLENGE:

I applied for a gallery show at Greenville Center for Creative Arts sometime in 2017. I had been getting a great response from my 2D wool landscapes that were relatively new at the time, and thought a larger-scale show would be a great way to get exposure and push my needle felting to more of a fine art level rather than a handicraft. I was not expecting my gallery proposal to make the cut, since I had previously only shown my work in small-scale short-term shows, but when I got the news, I began planning immediately.

Having secured the gallery show, I decided to apply for a grant from Metropolitan Arts Council to help fund my supplies. I had never written a grant before, so I really wanted to impress the committee with my project idea. The whole idea was to create a large body of work and challenge myself to work larger, try new subject matter, and generally improve my skills, but that doesn’t sound very exciting on paper. That’s where I decided to commit to 100 landscapes in 100 days. It sounded impressive! I had seen other artists go through this challenge and loved seeing daily progress, and knew if I got the grant and posted on social media, I would be held accountable to carry out the project.

Photo by Jeremy Tufts

100 DAYS OF FELTING:

With a gallery show deadline fast approaching, grant money in my pocket, and no excuses, I began the 100 Day Project on February 1, 2019. Every day, I made a needle felted landscape of some place in South Carolina. Some days I didn’t have much time - those days, my work was very small. Other days, I wasn’t pleased with the outcome of my work, but I had to post it on social media anyway, because that’s part of the challenge. There were days when my wrists hurt, but I felted anyway. There were many days where I felted away from my home studio while traveling for work or on vacation, and there was a very special week where I felted at Edisto Beach State Park as the Artist-in-Residence.

Previous to the 100 Day Project, my work mostly featured fields, mountains, and simple marshes. I typically worked 8x10 or smaller. During the 100 Day series I knew I had to push myself to work larger and expand on what subject matter I was willing to tackle. I’m so glad I did! My largest piece in the series is 24x36, which I had to felt standing up because it’s far too large to work on in my lap. I attempted bridges, water towers, and other buildings - all totally new for me, and I love how they turned out. Knowing I had to come up with 100 different landscape scenes, I really had to research and keep my eyes open for inspiration around my home state of South Carolina. It’s so beautiful here, and I loved having an excuse to go visit new places to “get inspiration”.

Photo by Jeremy Tufts

SHOWTIME:
Just a week after completing the series, I delivered all 100 pieces to Greenville Center for Creative Arts and they took care of the amazing installation job. The pieces are hung in chronological order around the gallery, so you can easily follow my needle felting journey that took place this spring. The scenes showcase some of my favorite spots in the state of SC, and I can honestly remember what was going on the day I made each particular piece.

The work of 3 other artists are also in the gallery as part of the Fiber, Paper, Scissors show, and everyone’s work compliments each other’s so beautifully. We were all featured in TOWN Magazine and had the opportunity to share about our work in the article.

POST SHOW PROMOS:

I know many of you are not in the Greenville area and didn’t have the option to come to see the work in person. Several of you have been wanting to get a piece ever since the day I posted it - months ago - and I wasn’t able to sell it to you because it was for the show and the gallery doesn’t ship. Thank you for being so patient! The remaining work from The 100 Day Project (plus a bunch more I’ve been working on this summer) will be live on my website August 1st, and as a special thank you, I’m doing free shipping on all items at www.onceagainsam.com through the end of August. Use this coupon at checkout: FREESHIPPING2019

Thank you for being a part of my 100 Day Project journey!