Fresh Eyes Artist Spotlight: Amy Scharmann

I discovered needle felting at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Northern California, not only did the pandemic separate us from friends, the nearby fires separated us from the outdoors. For months our air ranged from unhealthy to hazardous. So we were home. My husband was swamped with work, with no office in which to complete it. My daughter (age 3 at the time) was instantly pulled from her preschool and confined to a space where she wasn’t able to touch even her dearest friend. My son celebrated his first birthday in our front yard; a few friends drove by and honked. With that said, our experience was nothing compared to what so many went through, what so many lost—jobs, homes, loved ones. Our experience was tough, but by no means catastrophic, and not everyone can say the same. 

I dealt with the spike in my anxiety by making shit. I bought my first needle-felting kit impulsively, and I’m so glad I did. The process of needle felting involves repeatedly stabbing wool with barbed needles, interlocking the fibers, resulting in more condensed shapes and images. There was something haunting yet hopeful in felting the details of our planet during this stressful time. From space, one does not see despair, loneliness, or death. It’s incredible just how dense this microscopic point in time has seemed. But it won’t last. Nothing does.

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

-Albert Camus

Instagram: @riverlee_handmade