meet: ayelet of lazy animals
ayelet of lazy animals makes the most wonderful hand felted animals. they are so detailed and adorable, you can easily imagine your own magical world with them. ayelet shares with us how she got started making these whimsical babies below, enjoy!
what is your background?
i studied fine art and worked in different media like animation, photography and drawing. i slowly got drawn into textile crafts and spent hours searching craft and design blogs for inspiration. (here are a few favorites: hermine van dijck, fine little shop, misako mimoko) i taught myself to knit and felt mainly by watching video tutorials and started experimenting and checking out the different possibilities these techniques offer.
how did you start making & selling?
after my first son stared going to daycare and i was back at the studio, i spent loads of time experimenting with knitting and felting and came up with the first set of knitted- felted animals finger puppets. i felt it was a good place to start, and opened my etsy shop soon after that.
how did you develop your first felted animal?
the materials and techniques i work with are always an inspiration for me. i like to try to figure out what the materials "want" me to make of them. i think the combination of knitting, which is quite strict, and needle felting, which is much more "forgiving", and allows more improvising, was perfect for me. the first animal finger puppets were a natural outcome of the combination of these two activities.
what’s your favorite item in your shop?
this is an impossible question. they are all my children!
what are you looking forward to this year?
i would love to try out some new textile techniques like weaving and machine knitting, and eventually develop some new products. i have a one year-old daughter that is still at home with me most of the time, so i guess this will take a bit longer than a year, realistically speaking. but watching her grow and develop is also something i am looking forward to this year.
what advice would you give to makers who are just getting started?
this is hard, maybe this: promoting on social media is important but careful not to spend too much time on it. making is what you're better off doing. not sure it's such a good advice actually. i'm not so good at advising….
