Needle Felted Mushrooms

Learn how to sculpt with wool through the art of needle felting. During this two and half hour free workshop that is a part of the community art program, Entangled Threads, you will learn how to work with wire to create an armature, how to cover it with wool, how to use the tools to form the wool into some fantastic fungi and finally how to mix and blend colors to bring your wooly mushroom to life!

Entangled Threads is a community art project taking place in Schenectady, NY, July through August 2024. It is intended to engage the community through art, conversation and education. Taking a cue from the mychorrizal fungi that inspired this project, our aim is to connect members of the community to one another and to our planet. Through a film screening of Fantastic Fungi and book discussion of Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, along with free fiber art workshops that will culminate in a collaborative community art piece called a "Living Log", we want people to learn about the land, to understand more of the ecology of fungi, how they knit together our ecosystems, how the earth is habitable because of their role in the environment and how they are critical in addressing climate change and living more sustainably on our planet. To protect our environment, we have to care about it, to understand it and that only comes from education and experience. We hope this program will connect people with not only each other but also with our living planet.

Work created during this free workshop will be donated to the “Living Log” a community created fiber sculpture detailing the magical organisms that populate the forest floor and felt together our ecosystems.

The sculpture will be donated to the Schoharie River Center’s new Environmental Education Center in Central Park, Schenectady, NY.

There will be a chance to take your work back at the conclusion of the program if you wish, but we hope if you participate you will choose to leave your work to become a permanent part of this sculpture.

Entangled Threads was made possible by an Arts Thrive and Grow Community Art Grant. Arts Thrive and Grow has been funded by New York State, Kathy Hochul, Governor. We thank Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins for her extraordinary commitment and leadership, and our elected officials who represent our grantmaking region: Senators Jake Ashby and Neil D. Breslin; Assemblymembers Scott H. Bendett, Patricia Fahy, John T. McDonald III, Angelo Santabarbara, Phil Steck, and Mary Beth Walsh.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Arthur's Market, 35 North Ferry Street, Schenectady, United States