Sunday, May 1, 2011

Meet my followers : Julie

On Sundays, I like to introduce you to someone who has been a follower of my blog and show you their work.  I hope you enjoy meeting them. Today I want to introduce you to Julie Blanchette.  She has been a follower of my blog for quite a while now.  She told me that she first came across my work on Craftgawker. If you aren't familiar with craftgawker, you should take a look. It definitely is a good way to be seen by a lot of people.

Geeky maths gnomes by Julie - notice the maths symbols on each gnome
Anyhow, Julie asked to interview me in February 2010 for an article on Handmadespark - The Five Sparks interview.  We chatted back and forth via email, she did a lovely interview, and that was how I came to find her work!

Felted Bunnies by Julie
Julie is a French Canadian from Montreal and now lives in Sydney, Australia.  In between caring for  her three children, she makes animals and figures by needle felting. Needle felting is a process where you repeatedly stick a barbed needle in and out of wool roving so that it mats to make felt.  You then sculpt figures by adding more wool to certain places.  It's quite sore on the fingers when you accidentally miss the wool and stab yourself with a barbed needle!

Julie sells a tutorial in her Etsy store on how to needle felt, teaching you to make a little pocket gnome! I can just see her kids carrying these around in their pockets at school!



It's lovely to hear Julie describe her life in Australia with beauty all around.  She lives on the coast and does her needle felting sat on an old church pew in a room in her home, looking out over the water.

Mother and Child by Julie

I hope you've enjoyed meeting Julie and seeing her work. Hope all is well with you Julie.  Come back and see who I interview next week...it may be you!

6 comments:

vilterietje said...

i love her work! does she have a blog? ruth i like the way you describe the work uour followers, it's a great idea:) love, riet

Sue McNenly said...

These are soooooo precious! Thanks for showing us. I've been doing a "too precious for........" series and couldn't find anything new for April but I think this is it...a few days late:)

Sue McNenly said...

Hi...I sent a comment earlier, but it never posted? Anyway, these are lovely!!! I'm especially drawn to the math one:) These are definitely going to be featured in my "To precious for......." series (for April....yep, I'm days late)" Thanks for introducing us to this wonderful artist.

Ruth said...

She used to have a blog Riet, but I think she has sadly discontinued it. Glad you like this blog topic ;=D

Glad you like them Sue.

Julie Blanchette said...

WOWzzzzzzy! Thank you gorgeous for the lovely feature! What a wonderful and unexpected surprise! I am a tad touch!

No, I do not blog at this time as I am slowly building a Web Site which the launching will be announced on Facebook...

http://www.facebook.com/handmadejulieblanchette

I am a big fan of your work and loved doing the Interview on Handmade Spark! It is alway fun, exciting, motivating and inspiring to get to know the Artisan behind their fabulous work!

Thank you gorgeous Ruth and thank you lovelies for your kind comments about my work!

Bisous ...

Julie xxx

Ruth said...

Did you see Julie that my friend Sue - who commented here - also featured you on her blog this week http://suemcnenly.blogspot.com/

Glad all is going well.