Artist Interview with Jzin Teng of Castle of Costa Mesa

Castle of Costa Mesa owner Jzin Teng is a Needle Felter/Crafter/Artist based in Southern California. She uses needle felting to create enchanting fairy tale scenes & irresistibly charming characters. Her style of creating is instantly recognisable and enticing to fairytale lovers of all ages. Her pieces emit such joyful, loving energy, and seem to encapsulate the fun, laughter and absolute delight that has clearly gone into the process of their creation.

Hello Jzin, let me start by saying thank you so much for taking time out to speak to me today. I've been a huge fan of your work since I first discovered Needle Felting & it's such an honour for me be actually talking to you! I'd love to find out more about how your first discovered Needle Felting. You are an artist, a painter and you also have a background in Molecular Biology (Wow) - so how and when did you begin Needle Felting?
I was a cancer researcher/biochemist whose 2 young children succumbed to chronic, devastating, mysterious health problems. It overthrew my whole paradigm of ethical medical practice/healthcare. I went on a personal mission to cure them and for years, was entrenched in high stress, deep grief, exhausting shadow boxing, focusing on the destination, ignoring the journey. I decided to change and just do what I can and be a relaxing, present mother to my children instead.
I made Cinderella's doll house in 2010 without knowing how to make dolls to populate it at first. I soon encountered needle-felting at Waldorf School of Orange County in Costa Mesa, California where Christine Newell taught our craft group how to needle felt. I learned for fun and then was hooked by this versatile, fun and natural medium.
My children made wonderful daily progress with specialized diets, years of therapies, careful environmental modifications, patience and more. I continue crafting to heal myself from the trauma of it all. You can read our Castle of Costa Mesa Craft Blog here.

I think it's wonderful that you have been able to use your craft as a therapeutic tool to help you to deal with such difficult circumstances. It really comes across in your work that crafting is a way of life for you, and not just something that you do.
So many of us struggle to fit our crafting time in around our work and family, yet you seem to have formed an incredible bond with your daughter by involving her with your work. She is an amazing needle felter! How old was she when began needle felting?
Hmmm... I don't remember exactly - I think she was 7 or 8 when I allowed her to begin needle-felting. In the Waldorf education way of thinking, it is preferable delay starting needle-felting work which is very focused and fine motor practice, until the child has adequately developed her other more developmentally appropriate faculties first. It was hard to wait because she really wanted to join me in felting, and I succumbed to her request.

What was the first thing you ever needle felted? And were you happy with the result?
Hmm... I think it was a doll. When I first experimented, the head was very hard to make - too soft and would cave in as I added eyes and mouth; the arms were unravelling and coming apart, the wool was loose or the pipe cleaner would jut out and impale anyone who would hold it. I went back and forth with sewing small fabric dolls instead of needle felting because I could not make a satisfactory needle felted figure.

That sounds familiar! I think we have all experienced similar struggles at some point! How did you overcome those issues? Was it just trial and error until you found what worked, or did you attend more classes?
I diligently paid attention to projects that worked and tried to understand what they did right. Fiona Duthie wrote a tutorial on how to make a gnome and that showed me how to wrap doll arms with thin layers of wool top instead of my old way of wrapping with thick wool batting, then jab the arms to make them smaller, in the process breaking my needles. Truthfully, my not knowing did not stop me from bungling and making dolls, they were less polished but I kept making them and improved along the way. I wanted to make fairy tale dolls for children with sweet faces like Sybille Adolphi's Hansel in her book, "making fairy tale scenes". My inspiration for fairy tale scenes came from the copious fairy tales read to me by my mother during childhood



There are so many different types of fibres that can be used in Needle Felting, depending on the type of project. What is your favourite fibre & why?
Peace Fleece's wool batts are very rich in color and easy to use. Felt alive has nice skin color batts (and more) that makes it easy to craft. Presently I am crazy in love with kid mohair locks, they inspire me. Dyeing For Colour, a Canadian shop on Etsy has really nice fibres. I love all fibres and love to find out new and unusual fibres and thinking up the best places to use them. I like to support small farms and local business whenever possible.

What are your favourite needles to use? I personally mostly use 38 gauge star and 40 triangle more than any others. I also found that fine crown needles (where the barb is right on the tip) are great for adding tiny details and really fine sculpting.
36 and 38 regular and spiral work well for me. I love my clover felting pen. Occasionally, I may use my 40T spiral needle.

What is the one piece of advice that you would give to someone who is just starting to learn needle felting?
Enjoy! It is hard to make mistakes in felting. This is a very versatile and forgiving medium. If you don't like how something looks, you can always lift it up and move it around.

I wholeheartedly agree!
My last question for you Jzin, is what does 2016 have in store for you? Do you have any upcoming projects/workshops/promotions that you would like to tell us about?
Well, I have plenty of great projects and workshops. I will be posting them on my Blog CastleofCostaMesa.Com

If you would like to find out more about Castle of Costa Mesa & the beautiful needle felted artwork that Jzin & her Daughter create you can find everything you need to know here:
Castle of Costa Mesa.Com Fairy Tale Dolls, Handmade with love -
Workshops
Instagram or search #castleofcostamesa
Facebook - Please 'Like' to see offers for Seasonal Handmade Giveaways
Gallery of Waldorf School of Orange County, California Craft Group Projects
Google+
Twitter @ahjzin
Pinterest
Jzin's Fine Art works on Facebook
And of course, you can view all for sale items in the Castle of Costa Mesa Etsy Shop

Jzin, Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to speak with you and to gain a little more insight into the magical world of Castle of Costa Mesa and the inspiration behind it.
- Lisa.

The Felting Lounge Social Media Sites

Hi Everyone!

Wow, The Felting Lounge has only been live for a few days & already received a lot of love from all you needle felters out there! A huge shout out in particular to all of you from the Needle Felting & Needle Felting UK groups on Facebook, who have given so much encouragement & support. I love you all!

So what's new?
Well, This Blog is all about providing a platform for artists to share their work, in order to reach a wider audience. Of course the most powerful tools at our disposal are Social Media sites. You will therefore (hopefully!) be pleased to know that you can now connect with The Felting Lounge on Twitter. To get your work re-tweeted, simply tag your post with @feltinglounge.

You can also add your pins to The Felting Lounge board on Pinterest. To request permission to add pins please send me a message with your email address via my Facebook page.

Last but not least, you can also find us on Facebook

I hope to see you all there!
Until next time,
- Lisa.

My Needle Felting Journey

The story of Heartfelt Creations by Lisa.

I have some very exciting stuff lined up for you here at The Felting Lounge, but for my first article I would like to introduce myself properly, and tell you a little bit about my own needle felting background. I also want to talk a little bit about the artists I admire the most and who have had the biggest influences over my own work.

I first began needle felting in 2013, using a kit that I purchase from a friend. Like many needle felting starter kits, mine came with a variety of coloured Merino wool tops. I threw myself in at the deep end and decided that I wanted to make the Gruffalo. I was astounded at how easy it was to make a 3D sculpture simply by stabbing at a bit of wool with a barbed needle! This was my Gruffalo (be kind, he was my first attempt!)

Needless to say, from that moment I was completely hooked. I spent hours trawling the internet for ideas & inspiration, and I was in awe of what I found. I was mostly drawn to whimsical, fantasy art, such as toadstools and fairy houses and wool fairies. I was amazed yet slightly intimidated by some of these artists - I wanted to be like them. I wanted to be able to create beautiful works of art & be able to fully indulge my childhood fantasies of elves and fairies and enchanted forests. During my time ogling images on Google & Pinterest, one of the first artists to catch my attention was Castle of Costa Mesa.


I absolutely adore the whimsical, fairy tale themes of these beautiful 3D wool paintings. The appeal to me on so many levels. I love the use of different fibres to create different effects, and the how the pictures tell stories. They are such a joy to look at and I found that they encouraged me to embrace my own whimsical 'style'.

Images from Heartfelt Creations by Lisa

The next outstanding artist to grab my attention was Sarafina Fibre Art
I found a tutorial on YouTube for a mouse by Sarafina and followed it step by step. It was the first time I used a proper wire armature (I had previously used pipe cleaners) and the first real attempt at tiny mousey fingers! This is the mouse that I made..

As you can see in the pictures, I was following the tutorial on my tablet. I later used what I learned in the tutorial to make some Squirrels.


I have also followed the Forest Folk Tutorial from Sarafina, and I have to say that it was a huge turning point for me. Faces were something that I always shied away from simply because I was absolutely rubbish at them! I could never get them to turn out like I imagined and so I avoided them wherever possible.
This was a fairy that I made a few weeks before watching this tutorial. Her face turned out....horrifically! Things were not going well & so I completely re-did the face, which at the time I was really happy with, but it still wasn't great & I knew that I could do better. First Attempt...

I know, scary stuff! Anyway, I ripped off her hair & started again.
Here is my the final result...

Much better, but still not very 'skilful' with the facial details. Anyway, I watched the Forest folk tutorial and immediately felt excited! These were so 'Me', these were the sort of thing I had been really wanting to make, but had never dared to. And now I had a secret weapon (actual follow along instructions!).The first one I made was a Wizard/Forest man. I was so thrilled with how he turned out that I immediately started on a Witch, closely followed by the Troll, Winter King and Pan.


I am thrilled with how these guys turned out & I hope to make many more like them in future.

The next artist I'm going to talk about is Felted Art to Wear. From time to time I dabble in wet felting, but as I am self taught I like to think that most of my wet felted creations are a happy accident, as opposed to well thought out & skilfully made! I saw these felt fairy lamps on Pinterest & I absolutely fell in love with them.

I love everything about them, the vibrant colours & quality craftsmanship and I am so envious of her talent! I took so much inspiration from these & they are always in the back of my mind whenever I make fairy houses or lanterns. These are some lanterns that I have made by wet felting & then needle felting details onto them.


They were so much fun to make & I love the results.

So, now you know a little bit more about me & what I do (and who has influenced me the most). I would also like to share with you some things I've learned along the way.
- Merino Tops are difficult to needle felt! Carded wool is much better for 3D sculptures (Merino is great for hair & Beards).
- Use core wool to build the basic shape of your creation! It's cheaper than dyed/carded wool which means that you can buy in bulk & you will only use your coloured wool where it is needed.
- Maybe it's the type of core wool that I use, but I find anything lower than a 38 gauge needle is just too coarse to work with. I love my 38 gauge star needles & use them for most of my work, I also use 40 gauge triangular needle for finer details. Fine crown needles are great for extra fine details (they are meant for attaching fur/hair, with the barb right on the tip of the needle).
- It's ok to start over. This one has been hard for me to accept & it has been a steep learning curve, but if something really isn't working, no amount of poking/shaping can make it better. It is better to take bits off & re-do them completely.
- When building a shape (without an armature) start small & felt it well. Then add more wool & continue to felt solidly. That way your creation won't be squishy in the middle.
- The internet is your friend! Look for online tutorials or local classes.
- Join an online group - Facebook has some wonderful needle felting groups, for people of all skill ranges, beginners & experts alike. Very friendly groups where you can ask for advice & make new felty friends.

So there you have it, a little introduction to me, my work and my favourite artists. If you would like to know more about me or see more of my work from when I first started out to the present day, you can head over to my Blog; Heartfelt Creations By Lisa. You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and you can also check out my for sale items in my Etsy Shop.

I hope you have enjoyed this little peek into my world, and I really hope that you will stick around to see what I have got lined up for you. I am absolutely thrilled to tell you that in my upcoming articles I shall be INTERVIEWING all three of my favourite artists!!! So if you are a fan of Castle of Costa Mesa, Sarafina Fibre Art or Felted Art to Wear, or you would love to find out more about what they do, then stick around because I shall be poking around inside their brilliant minds & finding out more about what makes them 'tick'. I will also be finding out what felting hints and tips the masters have learned along the way.

To make sure you don't miss out on new articles from The Felting Lounge, you can subscribe with your email address at the top of the page & get them hot off the press straight to your inbox.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope to see you again very soon.
- Lisa.

Welcome to The Felting Lounge!

Hello and welcome to my brand new blog page: The Felting Lounge – A Celebration of the Art of Needle Felting.

As the name suggests, this is a place to celebrate this wondrous and versatile art in all its forms, and to get up close and personal with some of the most skilled and talented artists from around the world. I am also on the hunt for fresh new talent & will be giving new artists a chance to showcase their wares.

I would be thrilled if you will join me on this journey of discovery!

- Lisa.