Curious Botanicals: Hand-Felted Wearable Art Inspired by Nature

Curious Botanicals, Curious Maximalist, and the Joy of Wearing Art

Some artworks are meant to live on a wall. Others are meant to travel with us.

Over the past few months, alongside creating larger felt sculptures for upcoming exhibitions, I’ve found myself returning again and again to smaller forms. Hand-felted flowers, brooches, and wearable sculptures have become a way to explore many of the same ideas that appear throughout my studio practice: interconnectedness, curiosity, and our relationship with the natural world.

Each piece begins with loose wool fibers that are transformed through slow, tactile processes of wet felting, needle felting, and hand stitching. Layer by layer, soft fibers become sturdy sculptural forms. No molds, patterns, or shortcuts. Every piece develops its own character as I respond to the materials in front of me.

My Curious Botanicals collection is inspired by seed pods, blossoms, lichens, and the quiet architecture of plants. They’re designed to be worn as brooches or hair clips, inviting people to carry a small piece of fiber art into everyday life.

The Curious Maximalist collection explores a different side of my practice. Influenced by the joyful adornment of Mardi Gras, psychedelic color, vintage treasure hunting, and botanical forms, these wearable sculptures celebrate curiosity, playfulness, and the stories we choose to carry on our bodies. They sit somewhere between jewelry, sculpture, and tiny companions.

I love creating large installations, but there’s something especially meaningful about wearable art. A brooch becomes part of someone’s day. It travels, sparks conversations, and gathers its own memories long after it leaves the studio.

This weekend, people in Santa Fe will have two opportunities to experience these collections in person.

On Saturday, July 11, I’ll be celebrating the second anniversary of Collect Santa Fe with a selection of Curious Botanicals wearable flowers. The following day, Sunday, July 12, I’ll be participating in Mottainai Santa Fe’s second anniversary celebration with works from my Curious Maximalist collection, alongside local artists, vintage sellers, musicians, and food vendors.

If you’re nearby, I’d love to meet you.

If you’re reading from somewhere else, know that these events are part of a much larger season in the studio. I’ll be sharing new wearable works throughout the summer as I continue preparing for my upcoming solo exhibition, Curious Maximalist, opening this August at Little Bites Gallery in Santa Fe.

Whether we meet at a pop-up, through an exhibition, or here online, thank you for following along as these curious objects continue to find their way into the world.

Needle Felting Workshop at Meow Wolf Santa Fe | Andrea Dupree | Curious Bluebird

If you’re looking for a needle felting workshop in Santa Fe, join me on August 2nd at Meow Wolf Santa Fe for an afternoon of creativity, curiosity, and making. In this beginner-friendly workshop, we’ll transform colorful wool into imaginative soft sculptures inspired by the surprising beauty of the natural world.

Needle Felting in Santa Fe: Finding Inspiration in Nature

When I begin making a new creature, I rarely start with a sketch. Instead, I spend time observing the world around me. The surreal landscapes of Fantastic Planet, the intricate patterns revealed through macro photography, and the remarkable forms of flowers, insects, fungi, coral, and seed pods all find their way into my work.

a close up shot of a crawling snail
Photo by Egor Kamelev on Pexels.com

The closer we look, the stranger nature becomes. Tiny organisms resemble distant galaxies. Blossoms look like underwater creatures. Mosses, lichens, and mushrooms seem as though they belong on another planet.

Nature has always been the greatest science fiction writer.

What You’ll Create During This Needle Felting Workshop

During this three-hour needle felting workshop at Meow Wolf Santa Fe, you’ll learn the fundamentals of sculptural needle felting while creating your own Strange Soft Companion.

We’ll explore how to build forms with wool, shape expressive features, layer color, and add personality through texture and detail. No prior felting experience is necessary. Whether you’re an experienced maker or trying fiber art for the first time, you’ll leave with new skills and a one-of-a-kind sculpture.

Why I Love Needle Felting

Needle felting invites collaboration with the material itself. Wool has a way of suggesting unexpected directions. A lopsided ear, oversized eyes, or an unusual texture often become the qualities that make a piece feel alive.

Rather than striving for perfection, we’ll follow curiosity. The goal isn’t to recreate something that already exists but to discover a companion that gradually emerges through the making process.

register here

Contemporary Fiber Art in Santa Fe: Exhibition, Workshop + Artist Talk

Bound by the High Desert: Contemporary Fiber Art, opening May 15, 2026, at El Zaguán

This May, I’m honored to be included in Bound by the High Desert: Contemporary Fiber Art at El Zaguán 545 Canyon Road, presented by Historic Santa Fe Foundation. The exhibition in Santa Fe brings together five New Mexico-based artists including myself, Benita Ortega-Rael, Nancy Kozikowski, Pando Speer, and Dain Daller, whose work reflects both deep-rooted traditions and contemporary approaches to fiber as a fine art medium.

Exhibition image from Historic Santa Fe Foundation

Set within the adobe walls of this historic space, the exhibition highlights how fiber practices continue to evolve while remaining grounded in place, material, and cultural memory. There is something especially meaningful about showing this work in a site where history is not abstract, it is physically present.

Exhibition Details

Opening Reception: Friday, May 15, 2026 | 5–7 PM
On View Through: June 20, 2026
Artist Talk: June 20 at 2 PM (free, registration required)

Interconnected Materials, Living Systems

My work in this exhibition continues an ongoing exploration of interconnectedness- between humans and the natural world, between materials and memory, between what is seen and what is felt.

Working primarily in wool, plant fibers, and stones, I create felted and embroidered forms that function as contemporary altars. These pieces emerge through slow, tactile processes including wet felting, needle felting and stitching. Through this work I’m collaborating with water, pressure, and time to transform raw fiber into structure. Many of the materials I use are gathered locally or sourced through reuse, carrying traces of place and human history.

Guided by animism and ecological attunement, I approach these materials as collaborators. The work becomes a site of relationship between body and place, between care and making. Within the context of this exhibition, I see these forms as part of a larger conversation about how traditional fiber practices continue to hold relevance today, not only as craft, but as a way of thinking, sensing, and connecting.

Artist Talk: Fiber as Continuity and Change

On Saturday, June 20 at 2 PM, I’ll be participating in an artist conversation moderated by Anne Kelly alongside Nancy Kozikowski, Pando Speer, and Dain Daller.

This conversation asks a simple but expansive question: What does it mean to create in fiber today?

We’ll be speaking about process, material knowledge, and the ways fiber practices carry both ancestral memory and contemporary experimentation. It’s a great opportunity to hear directly from artists working across different fiber traditions and approaches.

Workshop: Mindful Making – Wet-Felted Vessels

I’ll also be offering a hands-on workshop:

Mindful Making: Creating Wet-Felted Vessels
Saturday, May 23, 2026 | 1–4 PM

This workshop is rooted in both technique and presence. Participants will learn the fundamentals of wet felting while creating hollow wool vessels using water, natural soap, and fiber. We’ll begin with a short grounding practice to support attention and connection to the materials, then move into the physical process of shaping and forming.

Wet felting is an ancient practice that is simple, yet deeply transformative. My goal is to create a space where participants can engage both creatively and reflectively, leaving with a finished object and a deeper sense of connection to material and process.

No prior experience is needed, and all materials are provided.

Looking Forward

This exhibition feels like a meaningful convergence of place, material, and community. To be showing alongside artists who are deeply engaged with fiber traditions in New Mexico, and to share this work within a historic space dedicated to preservation and cultural continuity, feels both grounding and expansive.

If you’re in Santa Fe this spring, I’d love to see you at the opening, the artist talk, or in the workshop.

Create Nuno Felted Wearable Art with me on Zoom

Weaving Wool, Silk, and Spirit

There is a quiet kind of magic in the meeting of fibers. Wool and silk come together through water, soap, and steady movement to create a fabric that is both strong and fluid, structured and soft. In my upcoming Nuno Felted Wearable Art Workshop on May 2nd from 12-3p PT/ 1-4p MT/ 2-5pCST/ 3-6p ET on Zoom (sign up here), we’ll explore this process together through hands-on technique, mindful presence, and the shared experience of making wearable art.

What Is Nuno Felting? A Brief History

Nuno felting is a contemporary textile technique developed in the early 1990s by fiber artists such as Polly Stirling. The word nuno comes from the Japanese word for fabric, reflecting the method’s defining feature: combining fine wool fibers with lightweight, open-weave cloth, most often silk.

During the wet felting process, wool fibers migrate through the silk and bind to themselves on the other side, permanently fusing the two materials into a single cloth. The result is a fabric that is lighter and more flexible than traditional felt, with beautiful surface texture and movement. It drapes, stretches, and responds to the body, making it ideal for wearable pieces like cowls, scarves, and wraps.

nuno-felted wearable

Materials as Metaphor: Interconnectedness and Strength in Togetherness

One of the things I love most about nuno felting is how clearly it demonstrates that strength does not always come from thickness or density. It comes from relationship.

Wool is resilient and responsive. Silk is smooth, open, and luminous. On their own, each has beauty and purpose. When they are brought together through friction, warmth, and patience, they transform into something entirely new. The fibers lock into one another and create stability through interdependence.

This process offers a powerful metaphor for community and care. Just as fibers support one another across the weave of the silk, we rely on shared effort, trust, and connection to build strength in our own lives. In making together, we experience how individual contributions become part of a larger, more resilient whole.

Making as a Community of Care

In this workshop, we will approach nuno felting not only as a technical skill but also as a slow, sensory, and collaborative practice. We will begin with a brief grounding exercise to help everyone arrive fully and connect with the materials. From there, I will guide you step by step through layout, wetting, rolling, and shaping as your fabric transforms into a finished wearable piece.

This is a space where:

  • Curiosity is welcomed and perfection is not the goal
  • Each person can work at their own pace
  • Questions, experimentation, and conversation are part of the process

Whether you are new to fiber arts or have prior experience, you will leave with a one of a kind felted cowl or headwarmer and a deeper understanding of how simple materials can come together to create strength, beauty, and meaning.

Join me on May 2nd, 2026

If you are craving hands-on making, connection, and time to slow down with beautiful materials, I would love to have you join us.

Sign up for the May 2nd Zoom workshop via Española Valley Fiber Arts Center:
👉 HERE

Wet Felting Workshop in Taos, New Mexico

Mindful Making: Creating Wet Felted Vessels

Wet felting workshops offer a hands-on way to explore fiber art through slow, tactile making. In my recent Mindful Making: Creating Wet Felted Vessels workshop at Omnihum Gallery in Taos, participants gathered to learn the fundamentals of wet felting while engaging in a process that supports creativity, attention, and embodied awareness. The workshop combined fiber art techniques with a gentle, reflective approach to making.

What Participants Learn

Participants begin by learning the basic principles of wet felting, a traditional fiber technique that uses warm water, soap, and friction to interlock wool fibers into strong, sculptural forms.

During the workshop, participants explored:

  • how wool fibers shrink and bind during the felting process
  • layering and shaping wool around a resist to form a vessel
  • techniques for compressing, shaping, and strengthening felt
  • how slow handwork supports focus, creativity, and mindfulness

Each participant created a small felted vessel while learning techniques they can continue exploring at home. The workshop emphasized curiosity, experimentation, and the pleasure of working directly with natural materials.

Materials Used (Merino Wool, Silk, Plant Fibers)

The workshop used a selection of natural fibers that highlight the expressive qualities of felt.

Materials included:

  • Merino wool roving for its softness and ability to felt smoothly
  • Silk fibers to introduce subtle texture and luminosity
  • Plant fibers (flax, ramie & bamboo) that add structure and visual contrast within the felt surface

These materials allow participants to explore how different fibers behave during felting while creating richly textured vessels.

Workshop Formats (In-Person Gallery)

This workshop was held in person at Omnihum Gallery, a contemporary gallery and community gathering space in Taos that regularly hosts creative workshops and events.

The gallery setting created an intimate environment where participants could:

  • work at shared tables
  • observe each stage of the felting process
  • exchange ideas and inspiration
  • experience the meditative rhythm of fiber art making together

In-person workshops allow participants to fully engage with the physical processes of felting while building connections through shared creative practice.

Book a Felting Workshop

Participants interested in learning felting techniques can book upcoming workshops or inquire about private sessions. Workshops are currently offered in galleries, community art spaces, and small group settings throughout Northern New Mexico. Adult, children’s and mixed-age group options are available.

If you are interested in hosting a workshop or joining a future session, visit the workshops page or reach out directly through the contact form.

Workshops include:

  • mindful making sessions for artists &/or beginners featuring fiber art explorations with natural materials
  • wet felting vessels
  • nuno felting wearable textiles
  • also available- needle felting small objects

Complimentary Practices

Finished a third felt panel for Gathered and Felt this weekend. Tried to capture not only the physicalities of the felting process, but also the ways that the process compliments gardening. For these I’m using raw Navajo-Churro fleece, so the felting process is also the washing process. All of the water (and grey-water safe soap, dirt & VM) used in this process goes to my greenhouse garden and trees. I’ve been using this method for about a year and the plants are thriving.
It was 88F today and the sun/heat was a helpful collaborator. Overall these 6.5’ x 2.5’ panels take about 5 hours from start to finish 🐑💧🌱

gathering and feeling

For the last year or so I’ve tried to write blogs in a way that the SEO gremlins say is desirable. I edit and format and reformat until the little wordpress yoast SEO faces turn from red to green with smiles. Do the smiling greens direct more eyes to my words? I doubt it.

So here is where I will reenter the blog-o-sphere in a way that feels more fun. And creative and natural. Un edited, except for spelling error corrections, versions of me. We’ll see how it goes, I will likely continue to jump back and forth across styles, for clarity’s sake.

will return to this in a separate post about fiber & connections to place

Today’s short update:

I’m continuing to refine and edit all pages of this site. There are many things nested in the pages here, but visually tightened. Less is more (maybe?). And I also hope these little eggs are found…

I’m continuing to share learning experiences with children and teens on Outschool and in-person. Time spent practicing Yoga, creating art and following curiosities about the natural world in the company of young people is a gift.

Also a gift sharing creative practices with grown ups.

Recently I started seeing unexpected connections in my artwork. I think I’ve also started making more art to escape feelings of being out of control…as it relates to situations out of my control. Or maybe I’m just becoming more aware? I heard the phrase political trauma today, and I think that’s part of what I’m feeling. I can’t stop looking at the news, but at the same time it feels paralyzing. It’s a privilege to be able to explore and sometimes escape into art.

Here’s some of what I updated here today:

Gathered & Felt
Excited about new information related to this project. Peek at the “research & info” section on this page
HOME
it took me way too long to edit and adjust this home page…but it was a fun puzzle

Ok. I’m losing interest in writing anything more, lol…. If you got this far and go deeper into the folds, please let me know what you think. And how you’re coping with *all the things* Let’s connect show the little SEO gremlins what’s what.

Leave a Reply

Curious Bluebird LLC Awarded New Mexico Creative Industries Business Expansion Grant

New Mexico Creative Industries Business Development and Expansion Grant

This week the New Mexico Economic Development Department announced that ten creative industry businesses will receive a total of $241,000 dollars through the New Mexico Creative Industries Business Development and Expansion Grant. The program supports creative businesses across the state as they scale operations, strengthen infrastructure, and expand market opportunities.

My company, Curious Bluebird LLC, was selected to receive $25,000.

Growing a Creative Business

The grant will support investment in studio infrastructure, locally sourced fiber materials, marketing, and technology to increase fiber art production, expand inventory, and strengthen educational offerings. The project will support workshops and virtual programming, grow earned revenue through art sales and teaching, and enhance long-term business sustainability.

I share this with gratitude and also with perspective, because this moment did not begin with this grant or my early years of freelancing, or even five years ago when I founded Curious Bluebird.

In Praise of Every Job

It began decades ago in places that did not look like solo entrepreneurship. Hospital corridors. Restaurant kitchens. Theater lobbies. Classrooms. Nonprofit offices.

Before I built an art and education company rooted in fiber, ecological practice, and relational teaching, I held many jobs.

Hospital volunteer. Janitor. Dishwasher. Fast food cook. Movie theater concessions. Mall photo booth (Santa and Easter Bunny!) photographer. Video rental clerk. After-school teaching artist. Nonprofit arts administrator. Grant writer. Early childhood educator.

For a long time, I told the story in a linear way. Those were the jobs before my art career began.

But that framing no longer feels honest.

Self-employment is not inherently better than wage or even salaried work. Running a business is not superior to cleaning a floor, washing dishes, changing diapers or staffing a desk. I do not believe in a hierarchy of labor where some forms of work are elevated and others diminished. All labor carries dignity. All labor shapes communities.

What changed for me was not status. It was alignment.

Self-employment allows me to weave together my studio practice, my educational philosophy & training, and my commitment to ecologically-attuned practices. It allows me to pull all of these experiences together to design a business around values that matter to me. That is what feels fulfilling. Not ascent. Not escape. Integration.

When I volunteered at a hospital and worked in a dentist’s office, I learned that visible care rests on invisible systems- coordination, sanitation, timing, and attention. That understanding now informs how I run my company. The public sees workshops and exhibitions. Behind them are spreadsheets, supply orders, registration systems, grant reports, and long hours of planning.

As a janitor, I learned that detail is a form of respect. Clean corners matter. Attention to details matter.

As a dishwasher and fast food cook, I learned rhythm. In a rush, you find flow or you fall behind. Entrepreneurship requires that same steadiness.

Working concessions and photographing families in hectic settings taught me public presence. Every interaction shapes someone’s experience. Reputation is built moment by moment.

At a video rental store, I learned that organization is generosity. Systems help people find what they need. Today that lesson lives in how I structure my offerings so that access feels intuitive rather than overwhelming.

In nonprofit arts administration, I learned how cultural ecosystems function. I saw how funding moves, how programming is built, how fragile and resilient creative economies can be. That experience now shapes how I collaborate, how I write proposals, and how I understand the broader impact of creative work in New Mexico.

As a teaching artist and early childhood educator, I learned layered leadership. I learned how to translate complex ideas, how to adapt when plans shift, and how to hold emotional, physical, and intellectual needs at once. I learned that creativity is relational and emergent. That philosophy anchors both my classroom and my studio.

“My name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. And if I’m here today at Super Bowl 60, it’s because I never, ever stopped believing in myself. You should also believe in yourself. You’re worth more than you think. Believe me”

Recently, I watched Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio (Bad Bunny) say on one of the largest stages in the world that he never stopped believing in himself.

Belief does not always look impressive. Sometimes it looks like finishing a shift and quietly holding a dream. Sometimes it looks like applying for a grant even when nearly one hundred businesses across the state are doing the same.

Belief is not entitlement. It is endurance.

The Business Development and Expansion Grant invests in infrastructure, professional services, equipment, technology upgrades, and long-term growth. For Curious Bluebird, that means strengthening the physical studio space, sourcing more regional wool and fiber, expanding production capacity, improving marketing systems, and enhancing virtual and in-person educational programming.

It means building something sustainable.

Receiving this support does not erase the years of labor that came before. It affirms that the labor mattered.

Nothing was wasted.

The jobs that once felt temporary (and at times, overwhelming) built systems thinking, communication under pressure, emotional intelligence, and respect for every form of work. They built the foundation that made this moment possible.

New Mexico’s creative industries are described as defining our culture and our economic future. I believe that. I also believe that culture is built not only by artists on stages or in galleries, but by cooks, janitors, educators, clerks, administrators, and volunteers. By all of us.

Self-employment, for me, is simply the weaving together of everything I have learned.

I am grateful for this investment. I am grateful for the labor that shaped me. And I remain committed to building a business that honors creativity, community, and the dignity of work in all its forms.

Belief carried me here….and the work continues.

Reflecting on Our Zoom Felting Workshop

Last weekend I had the pleasure of gathering online with a group of fifteen makers from around the US for a Zoom wet felting workshop. Even across screens, there was a shared rhythm that emerged. Wool laid out carefully, hands moving slowly, water and soap doing their quiet work.

What I love most about virtual fiber art workshops is how they invite making into daily life. Participants worked at kitchen tables, studio corners, and sunny windowsills, each space becoming a temporary felt studio. As the fibers began to bind and transform, conversations unfolded naturally about process, patience, and trusting what wants to emerge.

Felting asks us to slow down and stay present. You can feel when the wool is ready, when it needs more time, or when it resists being rushed. Watching vessels take shape in real time reminded me how powerful it can be to make together, even when we are physically apart.

I’m grateful to everyone who joined with curiosity, care, and openness. These shared moments of mindful making continue to affirm why this work matters to me. It is not just about the finished object, but about the experience of being with materials, with ourselves, and with one another.

If you missed this workshop, more opportunities for both online and in-person felting are coming soon!

Create Nuno Felted Wearable Art with me in Española

Weaving Wool, Silk, and Spirit

There is a quiet kind of magic in the meeting of fibers. Wool and silk come together through water, soap, and steady movement to create a fabric that is both strong and fluid, structured and soft. In my upcoming Nuno Felted Wearable Art Workshop on March 1st at the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center, we will explore this process together through hands-on technique, mindful presence, and the shared experience of making wearable art.

What Is Nuno Felting? A Brief History

Nuno felting is a contemporary textile technique developed in the early 1990s by fiber artists such as Polly Stirling. The word nuno comes from the Japanese word for fabric, reflecting the method’s defining feature: combining fine wool fibers with lightweight, open-weave cloth, most often silk.

During the wet felting process, wool fibers migrate through the silk and bind to themselves on the other side, permanently fusing the two materials into a single cloth. The result is a fabric that is lighter and more flexible than traditional felt, with beautiful surface texture and movement. It drapes, stretches, and responds to the body, making it ideal for wearable pieces like cowls, scarves, and wraps.

nuno-felted wearable

Materials as Metaphor: Interconnectedness and Strength in Togetherness

One of the things I love most about nuno felting is how clearly it demonstrates that strength does not always come from thickness or density. It comes from relationship.

Wool is resilient and responsive. Silk is smooth, open, and luminous. On their own, each has beauty and purpose. When they are brought together through friction, warmth, and patience, they transform into something entirely new. The fibers lock into one another and create stability through interdependence.

This process offers a powerful metaphor for community and care. Just as fibers support one another across the weave of the silk, we rely on shared effort, trust, and connection to build strength in our own lives. In making together, we experience how individual contributions become part of a larger, more resilient whole.

Making as a Community of Care

In this workshop, we will approach nuno felting not only as a technical skill but also as a slow, sensory, and collaborative practice. We will begin with a brief grounding exercise to help everyone arrive fully and connect with the materials. From there, I will guide you step by step through layout, wetting, rolling, and shaping as your fabric transforms into a finished wearable piece.

This is a space where:

  • Curiosity is welcomed and perfection is not the goal
  • Each person can work at their own pace
  • Questions, experimentation, and conversation are part of the process

Whether you are new to fiber arts or have prior experience, you will leave with a one of a kind felted cowl or headwarmer and a deeper understanding of how simple materials can come together to create strength, beauty, and meaning.

Join Me on March 1st, 2026

If you are craving hands-on making, connection, and time to slow down with beautiful materials, I would love to have you join us.

Sign up for the March 1st Nuno Felted Cowl Workshop at Española Valley Fiber Arts Center:
👉 https://www.evfac.org/classes/nunofelted-cowl-march-1