At The Rust Belt Market: It's the fuzz

The offers a unique experience for patrons as well as vendors. The new art market is host to more than 60 artists every weekend. Each week, Patch will feature one artist and get a closer view of what the heck they do.

Ferndale Patch: Who are you and what do you do?

Liz Kruckemeyer: My name is Liz and I decided a long time ago that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up.  I don’t know that I’m actually a grown up now, but since participating in the Rust Belt Market I have really felt like an artist.  I went to art school at Wayne State for drawing and painting.  I took a couple of sculpture classes and really bombed. I think that’s why I’m so surprised that I found my real medium in needle felting.  Now I almost exclusively work in 3D. Who would have guessed?  Now I make needle felted art dolls.  Mostly monsters and weirdos, like zombies.  Even the cute ones are a little strange. 

Ferndale Patch: How did you get your start?

Kruckemeyer: I’ve been making something, whether it was good or not, since I was a kid. I really got my start with needle felting when I bought a book about making plushes and one of the images was of this wee little bear.  It was like the only thing in the book that didn’t have instructions.  The only thing it said was that it was needle felted.  After that, I got on YouTube and watched a video, with the sound off since I was at my day job and then I decided to give it a go.  That was in 2008.  I’ve been poking ever since.

Ferndale Patch: What inspires you? 

Kruckemeyer: I find great inspiration in those weird homemade decorations from the '50s and '60s that were HUGE around Christmas time.  Those monstrous little elves made of pom poms and googley eyes, or poodles made of pipe cleaners -- those sorts of things.  Those things, over the many years of sitting in someone’s attic, have really deteriorated and turned into something extra spooky but to me, still somehow cheerful.  That’s sort of the feeling I hope most of my work gives off -- a little weird, a little creepy, but still sweet.   

Ferndale Patch: What is it about the Rust Belt that attracted you to it? 

Kruckemeyer: It's an amazing location, its dedicated owners, the other awesome vendors and the really cool artist community that I feel like it’s helping to build.  The Rust Belt is a great place and a huge asset to the city.

Ferndale Patch: Tell us one thing about your work that would surprise us. 

Kruckemeyer: Every monster I make has a name.

It’s the fuzz will be at Rust Belt Market December 16 – 18. If you miss her at Rust Belt, check out her funky creatures on etsy.