Artist Statement
There is something wonderful about wool fiber. It is soft, light, and warm. It has all kinds of natural colors and then you can dye it into whatever colors you need. Next, there is the 'magic' part; how the felting needle interlocks the fibers and creates form and shape. You kind of paint and sculpt at the same time. It feels alive to me.
I discovered needle felting in 2010 and started making figures and animals and participated in the yearly Swedish Christmas Fair at St Mary's Cathedral 2010 to 2016. I had my kids sell and I taught children and adults to needle felt. It was fun because needle felting was not as known at the time, and it was as if you performed a magic trick to people. After we moved to El Granada on the Coastside of the Bay Area, now a decade ago, I started doing wall hangings with wool and different fibers, adding stitching or beads and small objects like shells to my paintings.
I‘ve enjoyed oil and watercolor, but with wool I like the sculpting part and how I can just keep changing and working on it until I feel I’m done. I don’t have to know exactly what I’m doing like it is with watercolor, and I have time to work out the problems that I encounter. Also, I keep discovering new things within textile art and am currently trying my hand at dyeing cotton and linens and want to incorporate that in my future projects and want to get into free form machine stitching after seeing some wonderful work that other textile artists do.
The canvas when needle felting can just be the wool itself if you wet felt a surface to work on, you can buy prefelt (loosely felted wool that come in sheets), or lately I’ve used linen. I don’t put my paintings under glass, I mount it as simply as possible, sometimes with a ‘frame’ of wool. I want to keep it light and tactile. Like anything with color and dye, it’s best to keep out of direct sunlight to preserve the colors.
My wool is mainly from Romney sheep that keep the rows clear of weeds in a vineyard in Occidental, Sonoma. Since the wool has not been mechanically carded I am continuously removing what is known in fleece circles as 'vegetable matter'; foxtails and other seeds that get stuck in the fur of the sheep. I'm also using alpaca from "Alpacas by the Sea' in Montana, art yarns, silk and whatever else I have gathered over the years. The Fengari yarn store in Half Moon Bay is a good source or interesting yarns.
I love to hike with my dog, experiencing and photographing and then using that to create a picture. (That’s why my motives are usually not from State Parks, where dogs are not allowed regrettably). It is very satisfying, when I have completed a big piece, to think of the big dirty mass of fleece that it came from, and how the long process of washing, cleaning, drying, dyeing, felting, stitching and mounting the piece transformed it into my interpretation of the world around me. It is fun to share with people, so I hope you enjoy it.
Birgitta Bower in El Granada, California
There is something wonderful about wool fiber. It is soft, light, and warm. It has all kinds of natural colors and then you can dye it into whatever colors you need. Next, there is the 'magic' part; how the felting needle interlocks the fibers and creates form and shape. You kind of paint and sculpt at the same time. It feels alive to me.
I discovered needle felting in 2010 and started making figures and animals and participated in the yearly Swedish Christmas Fair at St Mary's Cathedral 2010 to 2016. I had my kids sell and I taught children and adults to needle felt. It was fun because needle felting was not as known at the time, and it was as if you performed a magic trick to people. After we moved to El Granada on the Coastside of the Bay Area, now a decade ago, I started doing wall hangings with wool and different fibers, adding stitching or beads and small objects like shells to my paintings.
I‘ve enjoyed oil and watercolor, but with wool I like the sculpting part and how I can just keep changing and working on it until I feel I’m done. I don’t have to know exactly what I’m doing like it is with watercolor, and I have time to work out the problems that I encounter. Also, I keep discovering new things within textile art and am currently trying my hand at dyeing cotton and linens and want to incorporate that in my future projects and want to get into free form machine stitching after seeing some wonderful work that other textile artists do.
The canvas when needle felting can just be the wool itself if you wet felt a surface to work on, you can buy prefelt (loosely felted wool that come in sheets), or lately I’ve used linen. I don’t put my paintings under glass, I mount it as simply as possible, sometimes with a ‘frame’ of wool. I want to keep it light and tactile. Like anything with color and dye, it’s best to keep out of direct sunlight to preserve the colors.
My wool is mainly from Romney sheep that keep the rows clear of weeds in a vineyard in Occidental, Sonoma. Since the wool has not been mechanically carded I am continuously removing what is known in fleece circles as 'vegetable matter'; foxtails and other seeds that get stuck in the fur of the sheep. I'm also using alpaca from "Alpacas by the Sea' in Montana, art yarns, silk and whatever else I have gathered over the years. The Fengari yarn store in Half Moon Bay is a good source or interesting yarns.
I love to hike with my dog, experiencing and photographing and then using that to create a picture. (That’s why my motives are usually not from State Parks, where dogs are not allowed regrettably). It is very satisfying, when I have completed a big piece, to think of the big dirty mass of fleece that it came from, and how the long process of washing, cleaning, drying, dyeing, felting, stitching and mounting the piece transformed it into my interpretation of the world around me. It is fun to share with people, so I hope you enjoy it.
Birgitta Bower in El Granada, California
Press/ Articles
June 2024 edition of the Half Moon Bay Review Magazine:
https://www.hmbreview.com/coastside_magazine_stories/a-fluid-approach-to-wool/article_259f1396-16da-11ef-9660-e7d2a774fb5e.html
https://www.hmbreview.com/coastside_magazine_stories/a-fluid-approach-to-wool/article_259f1396-16da-11ef-9660-e7d2a774fb5e.html
Essay by Peter Tokofsky: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6371670c7ac48726400f7815/t/6641297989842c561916c8fc/1715546489301/Needle-Felted+Landscapes+by+Birgitta+Bower+Are+Coastside+Gold%2C+by+Peter+Tokofsky+PhD.pdf
Past shows I've participated in
- M Stark Gallery in Half Moon Bay showed 12 of my pieces for a solo show, June 1 to July 14, 2024: https://www.mstarkgallery.com/bower
sold work: Mt Tam from Loma Alta, Mori Point - looking north, Coastal Farm #1, Costal Farm#2, Fort Funston 1, Pines of El Granada, Coastal Gold, Devil's Slide, Surfers Beach.
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, All Media Show "Anything Goes", May 9 - June 30.
My "Blue Skies" and "Montara Mountain" was accepted.
My "Blue Skies" and "Montara Mountain" was accepted.
![Picture](/uploads/4/3/5/3/4353653/published/img-4886.jpeg?1701377983)
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, November 2022, Member Show 'Falling Water'
- Coastal Arts League, Half Moon Bay, May17-June 15, 2022. Group show, 'Life on Earth'
https://www.coastside-artists.com/life-on-earth.html#/ |
- Falkirk cultural Center, Spring Show 2020, theme: 'California Pride'. 'Devil's slide' was accepted. Online show because of Covid, (it's #13):
https://www.facebook.com/FalkirkCulturalCenter/videos/514096939481367/ |
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