Commission Spotlight: Chimney Rock

I always enjoy taking commissions. Making felted landscapes for customers based on their treasured photos or favorite places is the most rewarding thing I do, and I typically take 2-10 commissions per month. However, during the month of March, I only took a single commission and here’s why.

Previously my largest commissions have been 24x36, which is huge for needle felting, but this recently completed felted landscape featuring Chimney Rock at Sunset is a whopping 36x48. It comes up to my hip! Never before had I attempted anything at this scale.

The frame didn’t fit in my car, I used several pounds of dyed wood roving and a total of 45 different colors, I had to put together 2 tables to make a work surface large enough, and I had no other choice but to stand and felt the whole time because I couldn’t reach most of the piece unless I walked around the table. Thank goodness for my standing mat! Needless to say this project was a challenge but I’m so happy with the results and can’t wait to work large again in the future. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

This piece was commissioned through LS3P for an upscale multi-family housing project near Charlotte, NC and the client wanted to feature a semi-local landmark in their leasing office. What an honor to create this piece for them! The scene was inspired by two separate reference images - one of the general landscape showing Chimney Rock and the second one was a vibrant sunset sky.

Since this was a milestone commission for me, I filmed my work each day to track progress. I don’t usually draw guidelines for my landscapes but on something this large, I worried I’d lose track of the overall composition, especially since I knew I’d be working upside down and at odd angles out of necessity due to the size. You can tell how long this piece took to make because my nail polish color changes 3 times during the time-lapse video. Enjoy the process!

Ready to commission a piece of your own? Pricing, frame options, and general info can be found here. Feel free to reach out with any questions!

Shade of the Season: Lemonade

When the Pantone color of the year “Illuminating” was announced for 2021, I wasn’t wild about it. I’m not a big yellow person (with the exception of mustard tones), but the more I thought about this “Illuminating” color, the more it grew on me. I’m not about to paint my walls this color, or wear it head to toe, but I’m definitely planning on pops of this bright saturated yellow this season.

Introducing “Lemonade” my newest addition to the Studio Graffiti collection. A lemon yellow background with pops of coral, white, cobalt, and spring greens can’t help but put a smile on your face as you accessorize your warmer weather outfits. I really enjoyed playing around with brighter colors for a change!

Enjoy this new colorway at www.onceagainsam.com in the “Painted Acrylic Earrings” and “Painted Acrylic Pendants” sections. Here’s a peek at my process in the studio.

Hand painted acrylic, laser cut into jewelry. Watch the process from start to finish and see how the magic happens! This combination of handmade and high tec...

Dapper Den Collection

Here we go - the first series of needle felted portraits of 2021! I don’t make these very often but when I do I sure enjoy giving these creatures personalities (and some fantastic accessories too). The new limited-edition collection features nothing but bears, and they’re now available on the website. Hope you enjoy the collection!

I’ve been wanting to focus on bears for awhile, but this kind of series takes way more time than you might guess, and between the holiday rush and moving, there was no room for a passion project in the last few hectic months. Thankfully I’m coming up for air now and back to having creative time in the studio.

Fortunately I had a nice stash of accessories already built up from last year, so I rummaged through my tiny doll glasses, handmade pipes, and faux foliage, and came up with some fun backstories for these bears. Check out the promo video!

Introducing the all new "Dapper Den" collection featuring 10 handmade needle felted bear portraits. These are sculpted with dyed wool fiber and are one-of-a-...

New Year, New Studio

Greetings from my new studio! After nearly a month offline, I’m finally set up in my new workspace and it’s a dream come true. This dream has been many years in the making. For the last 9 years I’ve had my workspace spread out over 4.5 rooms and a storage unit, and while it certainly worked fine for a long time and allowed my business to grow from a hobby to a near-full time gig, it wasn’t ideal for my workflow.

My husband and I closed on a house this fall, started renovating it immediately, but I left my studio untouched because it was my busy season - the holiday rush is not the time to shut down! Once my Christmas cutoff date passed, I started packing up my supplies and implementing my plans for the new space.

One of the big reasons we chose this house was the studio space, which is a one bedroom apartment over the garage. It’s attached to the house, so I can still come up in my slippers and start working while I finish my morning Earl Gray, but it’s separate enough that I can “leave” work at the end of the day and I don’t have to see shipping supplies or inventory bins while going about the rest of my life.

The 800 square foot apartment needed some work, and there’s many things I’ll update / change out in the future once my bank account recovers from the initial renovations, but as of this week, I’m officially moved in and open for business once again. It feels so good! The natural light is amazing, the view of the cows and chickens across the road is still very exciting and novel to me, I’m thrilled to have heating and air (and running water!) in my laser room for the first time, and I love love love having ALL of my workspaces in one space. It’s so efficient! I’m now able to laser cut, paint, assemble jewelry, do computer stuff, store inventory, photograph things, pack and ship all in my studio apartment. I feel so grown up.

Before moving in, we had the popcorn ceiling scraped, textured walls sanded and painted, new carpet installed, got new sub panel and outlets for my equipment, and put up new light fixtures. I was able to reuse almost all of my existing studio furniture and only had to replace one desk since it wasn’t the right size.

In the future I plan to replace the green tile floors in the shipping area and bathroom, replace the doors to the deck, get new countertops, and add a few can lights, plus little odds and ends like dividers for my wall of wool and yarn.

Here’s a peek at what the space looked like before we started renovations:

Year in Review: 2020

My studio is closed, I’m in the middle of moving, but I wanted to share my year in review for Once Again Sam as I’ve done in past years. This was a hard year for all of us, for so many different reasons, and I’m just thankful my small business was able to survive. Just about everything I had lined up and was looking forward to got canceled, and I certainly made far less than I was expecting to since in-person events were canceled and all of the shops that carry my work were closed for awhile, I’m so grateful I was able to lean on my website to keep me going. Having several income streams and ways of working with customers really saved the day/year!

Thank you to all who supported Once Again Sam this year, whether you liked & commented, worked with me on a commission, took one of my virtual workshops, or shopped online. You are greatly appreciated!