I started sewing these felt patches when I wanted some extra goodies to bring to a zine fest with my music comics. To keep with the music theme, I chose to recreate a few well-known historical composer portraits.
At left and still available: Clara Schumann and Ludwig van Beethoven
Several years later, I revisited felt as a creative outlet during a time when I wasn’t able to write much music. Each little piece took a few hours maximum to make and delivered a quick “win” of having completed something. Working in little themed collections (much like writing variation exercises in music) also took some of the idea-generating struggle out of the mix and got to the creating part faster.
During that time, I was also inspired by the art fundraiser Project Pizza to attempt using art to raise money for food aid. Through a weeklong tournament bracket on Instagram, people could vote the felt foods through to the championship and were encouraged to donate to a food aid organization highlighted each year. In return, I created stickers and artwork from the felt lineup to send as thank-yous.
2022 Ice Cream Noveltourney
2023 Produceapalooza
2024 Great Felted Bake-Off
What next? I hope to keep making these, finding ways to do good with them, and figure out how to transfer that carefree creative mindset back into my music-making.
