Needle Felting Series with Laura Blankenship
Before it was co-opted for mass production, felting had been a vital community art that provided beauty, housing, and clothing for nomadic tribes across Asia and Europe. Now the felting needle brings it back into the hands of the people! All classes teach the basics of this craft and are customizable to the skill level and aesthetics of the student. Expect to leave feeling empowered to take what you’ve learned to create anything you can imagine. Ages 12 through adult. All supplies included for each class.
This class:
Needle Felted 3D Pumpkins
$40 per person ($35/ea when you register multiple people. Call for discount)
Thursday 10/15/26 from 5:00PM-8:00PM at Art Lab
Create your own 3d colorful pumpkin, jack-o-lantern, or if you’re feeling advanced, even a gourd.
Others in the series:
Needle Felted 3D Pumpkins – Thursday, October 15 from 5:00PM-8:00PM
Needle Felted 3D Black Cats & Bobcats – Thursday, October 22 from 5:00PM-8:00PM
Needle Felted 3D Winged Creatures: Beautiful Bats & Luna Moths – Thursday, October 29 from 5:00PM-8:00PM
Needle Felted 2D Local Leaves –Thursday, November 5 from 5:00PM-8:00PM
Needle Felted 3D Wild Turkeys – Thursday, November 12 from 5:00PM-8:00PM
Needle Felted Pouches – Thursday, November 19 from 5:00PM-8:00PM
Needle Felted Ombre Earrings – Thursday, December 3 from 5:00PM-8:00PM
Mushrooms & Upcycled Forest Chic Clothing – Friday, December 4 from 5:00PM-8:00PM
Needle Felted 2D Local Animal Ornaments – Thursday, December 10 from 5:00PM-8:00PM
About the Instructor:
Laura Marie Blankenship’s wild, wooly work bridges the gap between the tactile craft of felting and the embodied art of abstract expressionism. Her art is deeply informed by her 8 years as a live music painter, teaching yoga and meditation, and time spent as a wilderness therapy field guide, and answering crisis/suicide hotline calls, with her formal background in Psychology from The College of William and Mary. She was awarded a scholarship and studio assistantship at the Penland School of Craft in 2015, is a frequent instructor of wet felting and needle felting at Earthskills Gatherings throughout the Southeast, and from 2022 to 2025, she served as a full-time public school art teacher. With painting names like “there is nothing that cannot be transformed into joy,” her current studio practice centers create action-painted abstracts that serve as victory cries (and sometimes desperate pleas) for emotional integration and personal transformation. Laura Marie Blankenship lives and works in Damascus, Virginia, where she continues to paint, teach, hike, bike, kayak, share beauty, create connection, and ask for guidance from the trees, trails, and beings in and around the South Holston River.