Kay Petal - Needle Felted Dolls - The Purple Pomegranate

The Purple Pomegranate, a fine craft specialty store, is featuring work by Alaska artist Kay Petal during the month of May. Kay is a sculptural needle felt artist originally from Wasilla, Alaska. She was working out of her home studio, overlooking a scenic Alaskan lake, but her Felt Alive Studio is now on the road. She and her husband have left Alaska in their RV on an indefinite teaching tour.

With just a single barbed felting needle borrowed from industry; lofty, lustrous wool tangles into solid felt creations bound only by one's imagination. Wool is an amazing sculpture medium with endless possibilities. Kay's focus is on dolls. Her dolls are 100% needle felted wool batting made without using any patterns or a single sewing stitch; just thousand of pokes with her felting needle. Kay uses various colors of dyed wool almost like paint as she adds the details. They are quite flexible and have a very unusual lifelike quality to them that Kay contributes to the living qualities of the wool.

The first Whitefish Gallery Nights is Thursday, May 6th from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Kay will be teaching needle felting classes at Camas Creek Yarns in Kalispell, May 14-16. Spaces are still available. For more information regarding classes, please contact Camas Creek Yarn.