The best she's ever felt

Chinese artist, Yin Yue, originally sought solace in learning her craft, but as fans clamor to buy her work, she is finally able to express herself fully and face the future with confidence.

Many people who coop themselves up to stay safe as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on might consider it a loss being unable to freely savor the season and go out to let the scented spring breeze caress their faces.

To Yin Yue, a 30-year-old needle felting sculpture artist who will stay at home and repeat the motion of stabbing wool over and over again from 8 am to midnight every day for several consecutive months when preparing an exhibition, the feeling of springtime FOMO－fear of missing out－is nothing new.

Basically, the time-consuming process of needle felting starts by rolling up a small amount of wool and puncturing it with a needle that has tiny barbs on the end, thus entangling the wool fibers and creating a denser material.

To build a woolen felt sculpture, the wool must be poked continuously until it becomes a round or cylindrical base onto which colorful wools, cottons and other materials can be added to achieve certain designs.

Although needle felting requires almost infinite patience to make finger-sized figurine, which would take a beginner at least a few hours of needlework, the craft still enjoys great popularity in China.

Today, it's easy to find a store on the online-shopping platform Taobao that sells more than 10,000 needle felting kits per month.

However, when Yin first picked up the barbed needle eleven years ago, the handicraft was much less popular.

Back then, she happened to see some pictures of the Japanese artist Chiaki Suzuki's felt sculptures and was suddenly captivated by their warm, soft and fluffy texture and delicate appearance.

"I got a strong desire to have a try. Then I searched out the raw materials on Taobao only to find one shop that offered the needle felting kits," she recalls.

She bought the barbed needles and a myriad colored wools.

Her initial efforts produced a tiny felt rabbit, which took a whole afternoon of skewering the wool to produce.