Lucy Sparrow is a felt artist, or as she likes to call herself, a "Feltist." You might remember that in 2017, she packed a NYC bodega full of her faux products in felt and that last year in Los Angeles, she opened the Sparrow Mart Supermarket at the Standard Hotel. Well, she's back! Her latest all-felt venture is a pop-up delicatessen in Rockefeller Center. The British artist created over 30,000 soft sculptures for this Delicatessen on 6th.

This sixth installation in her felt shop series is a New York City upscale deli, with every single one of the items, from cheese to fish, chocolate to fruit handmade out of felt. All items in the fine food shop is available for purchase. This installation is part of the ‘Art in Focus’ public art program at Rockefeller Center presented in partnership with the non-profit Art Production Fund. Open 11am - 8pm, 7 days a week, October 1 - 20, 2019.

photos by Heather Cromartie, via the Art Production Fund

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UK artist Lucy Sparrow is back with a new shopping opportunity for lovers of her fantastic felt products.

Until August 31, at The Standard hotel in downtown Los Angeles, Sparrow is showing her most ambitious exhibit yet: the Sparrow Mart Supermarket. This is her fifth and largest all-felt installation (it features 31,000 handmade products) and her first West Coast one.

She writes, "As a child, I was obsessed with the exotic, turbo-charged technicolour glow emanating from across the Atlantic. The source of this neon rainbow was Los Angeles – a seemingly mythical place to a child growing up in grey, post-recession Britain – and one that has hugely influenced my artistic practice. Thanks to the amazing team at The Standard, Downtown, the felt is finally coming home to the city of endless possibilities and colour.”

The store is quite spectacular. There's aisles of handmade awesomeness, including a felt ATM, as you can see here:

According to Sparrow (in this video), it took her and five assistants exactly one year to create all the items in the shop.

Special thanks to my friend Michael Fleming for the heads up on this! I hope I can get myself down to LA before the end of the month to check it out for myself. For those of you who don't know, I'm a Fluff superfan (long story). So, when Michael texted me from the store to see if I wanted one of Sparrow's felt Fluff jars, I was ecstatic. He delivered it today and it already as a special spot in the Fluff section of my trophy case. Read the rest

For a group gallery show titled, "The Kingdom of Specimens," longtime fave Hiné Mizushima created these delightful felt paramecia. Read the rest

Paolo del Toro makes delightful and otherworldly sculptures from felt, most recently working in pastel palettes. Read the rest

British artist Lucy Sparrow spent nine months creating 8 ‘Till Late, a pop-up art installation that looks like a fully stocked convenience store but is actually made entirely of felt. This Tech Insider video has all the details on the 1,200 square foot installation, which is made up of over 9,000 hand-sewn felt items, including a felt bodega cat! Read the rest

Sarah Vaci creates wonderful portraits with colored wool and felt from her UK studio. Watch her make a dog eye in this 24-minute relaxing tutorial. Read the rest

Hiné Mizushima creates whimsical felt sculptures that combine insects and plants into adorable new life forms, like this Venus Anttrap Beetle, or this Amanita Beetle: Read the rest

Artist Hine Mizushima makes cute things out of felt. Lately, she has been making insects. I love this ant! (check out her beetle, too.)

Here's the "Insect Hospital" video Hine directed for They Might Be Giants. Read the rest

Artist Hiné Mizushima makes these super adorable models of microscopic crustaceans called Daphnia out of felt. Scientists like to get the real-world versions of these creatures drunk, and use them to study how alcohol affects the nervous system. I suspect that Daphnia are cute drunks.

Via David Ng Read the rest

Barbara Keal makes unusual felt hats, perfect for cold winter mornings and pagan orgies. [via Trendland] Read the rest