Artist Cherie Davidson smiles with one of her favorite creations, a gargolye she made when she first started needle felting.
Cherie Davidson’s first three creations are her pig, Santa Claus and gargoyle. The pig and Santa are the only two that she won’t sell.
Cherie Davidson can bring any idea to life with just a needle and some wool. A couple of her favorite pieces she’s made have been a Santa Claus and a pig, but what she’s becoming known for is a little more spooky.
“One of the things I’ve loved since I was a kid is classic old black and white monster movies,” Davidson said. “So that’s kind of where I got started. I did a Frankenstein on a whim and it sold before he was done.”
She started sculptural needle felting five years ago and since then has made four Frankenstein’s monsters, three Nosferatus (a vampire from a 1920s horror movie), a gargoyle, a vampire and various other monsters and mythical creatures.
The time it takes to make her creations depends on the difficulty. One of her more complicated pieces, a Frankenstein’s monster, took 110 hours to make.
“You can do something in three hours and get a cute little thing or do something in 300 hours and have something that’s unbelievable and you don’t even know it’s wool and that’s one of the things I love about it,” Davidson said.
This summer she has been preparing inventory for her trunk show on Oct. 20 at Ewe and I in Chehalis. It will be a chance for her to show off her work, as well as a celebration for the store’s anniversary.
“They give me a table out there and I have a little banner and I do demos through the whole day and I answer questions for students that come in,” she said. “If anybody has custom orders, I’ll take them … and pretty much I give everything at a discount because it’s here and they just buy it up at the front.”
Davidson gives classes once or twice a month at the Ewe and I on needle felting and the trunk show gives her an opportunity to see her students again.
She said she loves showing her students that there is no end to what someone can create.
“I love when they start giggling — they can’t help themselves. Then they just see the potential that there’s no limits to what they can come up with,” Davidson said. “When they do a little nose or put teeth in something and they just start laughing that just makes my day.”
She is hoping to have her needle felting hobby take over as her career and be able to retire from her current job.
“Once I can make an equivalent amount doing this, then I won’t look back and then this will be my business, my retirement so to speak, and that’s my goal, that’s my dream,” Davidson said.
She also recently launched her own website at darlingirlcreations.com, but mostly takes custom orders.
She suspects that the reason her business has taken off lately is that she is able to make creations that people never imagined could exist and that they’re one of a kind.
“Sometimes it’s just that too-cute-to-let-go-of factor, which is what I go for, but I think that it’s that they’re so unique and a lot of people don’t realize what can be done with wool,” Davidson said.
“Which is part of the reason that Ewe and I wanted me to show my things originally was because they also were trying to teach people wool is so much more than a sweater or sock and I think this really does help illustrate that.”
After five years she said she is still amazed with every piece she makes and is constantly fascinated by the way wool can be manipulated.
“It tickles me to see the dimensions that can be made and illusions I can create and I can’t imagine it ever being boring,” Davidson said.
She said that if anyone is slightly interested in needle felting they should go take a class, or watch a YouTube video and try it.
It focuses you in a way that I can’t really describe,” Davidson said. “It gives you a very positive state of mind, just using the creative part of your brain. So this is something I would urge people to try if they have any curiosity.”
