We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Linda Facci a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Linda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I went to an event/workshop for wet felting but towards the end of the class, the instructor showed us how to needle felt. It was such a small demonstration, but I was so intrigued. I asked if I could take home some of the wool and the special needle needed to needle felt. I started poking the wool…and poking around the internet to learn more.

At that time, about 2012, the obstacle that stood in my way was the fact that there weren’t many videos or images on needle felting, but I managed to find some and taught myself.

You need a lot of patience and at the beginning, bandaids! The needle is very sharp and very thin, so you end up poking yourself and breaking many needles.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’ve always been a very creative, crafty lady :) My hands never stop making something, my mind never stops thinking about my next project. I was in the corporate world for over 20 years, working as an Art Director for magazines like Life, People, In Style, Everyday with Rachel Ray and my last corporate job was Creative Director for Magnolia Bakery. I was needle felting at night, making a few cute animals here and there, always trying to perfect my craft. I was obsessed and decided to open an Etsy shop to sell all the stuff I was making. Things started to sell, so I continued felting at night. A customer asked for a needle felted version of his dog, never did it, but thought I would give it a try…Viola!, the start of it all.

At one point, one of my social media videos went viral and orders started pouring in. I remember a co worker asking me if I would ever do this full time, I laughed in her face, “that’s crazy, I would never do that”, well, I did it. About 3 years into needle felting I decided to leave the corporate world and go out as a full time artist…scary but so worth it. I’m so proud that I took that step.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Making people cry – let me explain. They are tears of joy and happiness but maybe a bit of sadness at times. I try my hardest to recreate their dog in miniature, wool form. I am known for my perfectionism and realism, so when my customers see their dog for the first time, they often tell me they cried. Many of my customers order replicas of their deceased dog and if I can bring back their dog in miniature form, it is so rewarding.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I got on the Instagram bandwagon when it first started, posting pics here and there of things I was interested in, but when I started posting the things I crafted, people were interested. I try to give craft tips and tricks, I try to offer my followers some information, always thank them for their likes, answer their questions, offer give-aways – appreciate my followers.

I would also enter contests. When Instagram first started, they would have a Weekend Hashtag Project. They would post a topic and I would create something for that topic. At the end of the weekend, they would post their favorites. Well, one weekend, I entered a time-lapse video of me needle felting a cute sloth. Instagram liked it and posted it. That’s when all hell broke loose :) I got over 10,000 followers overnight and that was the start of my journey.

Image Credits
Linda Facci