Felting- Finding Community in Disability Identity

For one of my classes this semester, I had to work on something my professor called craftwork. In addition to my final paper, I had to create a craft that I felt was tied to my identity in some way and share my artistic process, story, and experience making my craft. This week, I want to talk about my journey felting and how it is tied to my disability identity.

First, let's start with what felting is. Felting is a process of mattifying a wool-like fiber into different objects by using objects such as felting needles to poke the material. To maintain safety, I used finger gloves when appropriate. I must emphasize the importance of finger protection; Annie's were only slightly harmed during the felting process due to the finger protection guarding my hands from the needles. I decided I wanted to make animals. I made butterflies, cats, snails, frogs, a tiger, a bee, and a ladybug. Ultimately, I made enough animals to thematically go together in pairs: bugs, snails, frogs, and cats.

I chose felting because traditional art, such as drawing and painting, is hard for me. When I was diagnosed with autism, I was also diagnosed with a visual-spatial learning disability. This makes it hard for me to tell proportions by looking at things. I wanted to find an activity that involved sculpting but was not as messy. I am not a fan of how clay feels on my hands for extended periods of time, and air-dry clay dries out to the point of sculptures cracking. Through my investigation, I found felting and thought it was a perfect way for me to make art through touch instead of visual proportions.

I started making cats because a little grey Lego cat was my transitional item as a child. A transitional item is something an autistic child might carry to bring comfort during transitions, moments of anxiety, overstimulation, or other events where comfort is beneficial. I then branched out and made other animals I felt connected to due to my love of being outside as a kid and trying to hold as many animals as possible. I loved catching ladybugs, rolly pollies, snails, and, once, a baby snake. I tried to make all of the animals look cute because I am not a fan of horror, and I am not great at realism art due to my visual-spatial learning disability.

This then brings me to the finding community part of this blog. I ended up making a lot more animals than I originally planned because I wanted to have enough to give to everyone in my class. I have struggled to find community in school, as making friends is harder for me. My personality can be a lot; I have very strong opinions, and I miss a lot of social cues. Now that I am in this master's program, I want to use my art as a way to highlight community because community is important to me.

I usually try to leave my blogs with a clear point, and this blog might be more ambiguous. I hope that reading about felting encourages you to try new forms of art, and find art that is accessible for what you are looking for. I also believe art can be used to tell a story, and can symbolize whatever you intend for it to symbolize. Before I met my partner, I would have told you all that I am not an artistic person. Now that I have been exposed to art through my partner, my master's program, and my hobbies, I am changing my view on art and am trying to find my place in art.

Thank you for reading about Felting and finding community through making art. If you have any questions or comments, please comment on the blog, reach out at @Anniekrollblog on Instagram or Facebook, or email me at Anniekrollblog@gmail.com. I hope to see you next week!