Artist interview: Sharon Salt

 Sharon Salt first came to Wraptious during the one of our biannual competitions, and her work has been incredibly popular with our customers (especially those who own wire fox terriers!) Sharon is a very talented felt work artist, and uses wool to create life-like dog sculptures and wool paintings. Each 6-7 inch  dog can take up to 12 hours to create! She answered a few questions for us about her work…

1) How long have you been creating felt work? 

I’ve always loved arts and crafts , I gained my Art A level but from there whatever medium I dabbled in was always self taught. I began needle felting about 4 yrs ago, and knew I’d found my true passion in ‘wool’.

2) How did your particular style develop? What were your influences?

My love of dogs has always been the basis for my Art, and in particular Wire Haired Terriers for their cute, characterful, and often comical expressions. 

3) Which artists do you admire?

Cecil Aldin for his dog sketches , Sam Toft for her humour , and David Shepherd for his amazing talent and devotion to conservation.

4) How did you take the step to start selling your art? 

Lovely feed back from friends and acquaintances made me think there was a market for my ‘wooly sculptures’ . Wool sculptures are still the mainstay of my work , and I then added wool paintings about a year ago.

5) How did you start promoting yourself?

 I created a business page on Facebook and then built myself a website [which took a while as I’m not particularly technical minded!] I then did a lot of networking and people began to share my work. These days my waiting list is longer than I could have dreamed possible, I feel very lucky.

6) What's been the biggest challenge you've had to overcome as an artist?

Needle felting is for the much part seen as a craft, and to have it seen as ‘Art’ is often challenging.  I’m extremely grateful to Wraptious for adding ‘Fibre Art’ to their designs.

7) What's the best piece of advice you could give to emerging artists, from your experience?

Explore the many art mediums that are out there, try something a little different, and then use social media to it’s fullest extent to get your work seen and shared. 

8) What has been your favourite piece of work to date and why?

The majority of my work is personal dog commissions and each one becomes a favourite because they all have a story behind them. But my Hare sculptures always make people smile, and this Kerry Blue wool painting is a favourite because it shows so well the different textures that can be  applied with wool. 

9) In an ideal world, what would you be doing?

Having rid the world of animal cruelty , I’d be sat on the veranda of a beach house, felting needle in one hand, G&T in the other, and my dogs at my feet. 

You can find Sharon's work on our website, or why not take a look at her own page: www.woolypawsneedlefelteddogs.co.uk