Natalia Oridoroga is a young woman who brought some fresh air into the world of needle felting. I am very happy to have found out about her, because she has a unique enthusiasm.
It’s also great to know that there is a generational turnover in the needle felting community. I would like to set up a collaboration between DHG and Natalia Oridoroga! What do you think, will I be able to? In the meantime, take a breath of fresh air by reading this interview and looking at the pictures of her creations.
Hi Natalia, where are you at the moment?
Hello! Now I'm in Moscow, Russia. I was born here, although the last half-year I live by the Baltic Sea in the Kaliningrad region.
You are a very young needle felter. What do you enjoy most about this creative technique?
Oh, needle felting is a wonderful technique. Wool is a perfect material, which have limitless possibilities. I am very pleased to work with a natural, eco-friendly material that is obtained without doing any harm to animals, for me it is important! And what I like about this technique the most is that I feel like a sculptor. I like that you can create absolutely any form. I like to build up and create size using only wool and needle. Although I've been practicing felting for 6 years and I know how it works, I still admire the magic of transforming shapeless wool lumps into objects, volumes and expressions of mind.
What are your favorite subjects for your works?
I often felt animals. Before now I liked anthropomorphic animals or cartoon characters. I made the project book with woolen illustrations for children. There's a story about brave hare and terrible wolf (video here). Now I tend towards characters and realistic animals too. But besides this, I want to experiment and do everything that comes to my head!
Any tips for someone who is just getting started with felting?
More experiments and less fear. Create what you just want to, listen to your feelings and hands. More experimenting, wool can do much!
Can you tell us something about your project Needle Felting Battle?
I can talk about this project forever, because I love it so much! This project-competition is organized by me and my friend master feltmaker Mary Khait in February 2016. In the "Needle Felting Battle" we do artworks in needle felting technique on a given topic within one month. And at the end of each month we compete in a social network where our followers vote for the better work. So together we have finished 12 felted works on 6 different topics in half a year. And now our team has grown and feature 8 masters of needle felting! Now it is the end of the second season. We all compete and grow, making unusual decisions and experimenting. Limitations in themes, forms, colors, sizes of work make you think more, and the terms do not allow you to relax, it is a very useful experience. I like to communicate with my colleagues and rivals, to be on the same wave with them. We try to do better than we once did. In addition, we try to inspire our subscribers with creativity and talk about the possibilities of our favorite material - wool!
Who is your favorite fiber artist?
I adore participants and my rivals from the Needle Felting Battle project, they inspire me. Plus I want to highlight a few felting masters, whose works I admire: Yvonne Herbst, Gladys Paulus, Atsuko Sasaki, Irina Andreeva, Yaroslava Troynich.
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