MY STORY
Hello! I am Amanda Cairns and Welcome to The Felted Hare! I'm so excited to share my journey as a self-taught fibre artist with you!
So heres my story ...so far!
I am extremely lucky to live and work in an amazing place up in the North East of Scotland just in the Cairngorms National Park. I'm surrounded by hills and moorland full of the most amazing wildlife.
I find the modern world is too loud, too fast and too confusing most the time so for me, I am happiest and calmer living in a fairly remote place with a strong connection to the natural world.
I have always been a practical and creative type person and have turned my hand to many a task and crafts. I do believe in having a go , before saying "I can't do that!"
I stumbled upon Needle felting around 10 years ago - while out walking the fields and hills with my lovely dog Tilly, I would casually pull the wool off the barbwire stock fencing until I realised my pockets were stuffed with wool! Not wanting to just throw it away I started researching what I could do with a smallish pile of raw fleece/wool. I found a little information about Needle felting... it was not a widely know craft back then, like it is now a days. ..and thats where this journey began! with a felting needle and a small pile of raw wool.
Lots of research, practice, experimenting, failures and more hours of practice I found my little niche.
I stepped away from Needle felting for a few years when life and work commitments got in the way. Then in 2022 ,with the support and encouragement from a close friend and my husband The Felted Hare was born!
Why the name ??
Well, I had never seen a Hare until the day I wandered around my "Forever Home" here in Scotland... I turned a corner and came face to face with a large Hare! It was an amazing experience. I never knew they were can be so big! From that day I have had many more encounters with Hares, both Brown and Mountain Hares. There is always at least one Hare living in my garden and the fields and moorland around the house are full of Hares and I am very privileged to be able to watch them quite easily. I love their movement and form and they are a huge inspiration in my creations. With all the animals I create I aim to show their beautiful form and movement as well as I can.
I have decided to create all my work from British Wool and British Sheep Breeds, as my way of supporting British Sheep farmers and highlight the wonderful properties and eco-credentials of wool. That has led me to use Jacobs wool as my Core wool (the wool that forms the structures) and Shetland Sheep Wool ( to provide the finishing colours).
I'm sure this is just the start of my Felting journey and who knows where it will take me !! Thank you for being a part of this exciting adventure in felt-making!
Amanda