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		Feltmaking is the most ancient form of fiber art dating as far back as 6,300 BC. In the 19th century, there was a thriving feltmaking industry in Rensselaerville. One can still find the remains of the Huyck Felt Mill just over the footbridge within the Huyck Nature Preserve. It is quite fitting that a new breed of feltmaker (one focusing on the artistic rather than the industrial uses of felt), Sharon Costello, would make her home in this historic village. A seasoned felt artist and teacher, Sharon has been sharing her passion for feltmaking for over a decade.
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Bio
Through her feltmaking business, Black Sheep Designs, she produces handmade felt wearables which she markets through select, juried crafts venues, such as the American Craft Council and Designer Craft Council. In addition to her limited production wearables, Sharon is known for her whimsical, hand felted art dolls, which she creates using industrial felting needles.

Her work has been featured in Cloth Doll Magazine, Hudson Valley Magazine, the North American Felters' Newsletter, Echoes: the Journal of the International Feltmakers Association and fiber and doll newsletters throughout the US and abroad. She has exhibited in the Ferrin Gallery and Mill Cottage Gallery, as well as juried shows through the Hand Weaver’s Guild of America. In October 2001 Sharon’s needle felted dolls will be featured at New Pieces Gallery in Berkeley, CA.

Sharon has turned countless students into feltmaking and doll making enthusiasts. She teaches through schools, colleges, guilds, museums and privately at her studio. She even hosts a "Felters' Fling" where she brings internationally known felt artists to teach at her studio every year. Sharon's teaching engagements have included: The Canadian Doll Artist Association, The Visual Arts Academy of Concord, The New York Sheep and Wool Festival, Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, Harrisville Designs, The Fiber Studio, Northeast Hand Spinner's Association, Interlaken School of Art, the John Campbell Folk School, Hancock Shaker Museum, the Kansas City Doll Fair, and countless fiber guilds and Doll clubs across the US.

Sharon has studied feltmaking with internationally known felt artists including Beth Beede, Polly Stirling, Jorie Johnson and Ewa Kuniczak. She has traveled to Turkey to learn traditional feltmaking techniques and to Denmark to participate in a juried, international feltmakers conference with felt artists from Japan, Russia, Norway, England, Denmark and more. Sharon has studied doll making with Wendy Froud, (best known for creating “Yoda” for the Star Wars film series) and Birgitte Krag Hansen, a feltmaker and doll maker from Denmark.