"Whimsical" might not be the first word that comes to mind when you think about Halloween, horror, and other creepy things. For artist and dollmaker Morgan Shapen, however, the concepts of whimsy and macabre go hand in hand. Morgan creates and sells art that blends a fantastical feel with spooky subject matter. I recently had the chance to interview Morgan about her shop, Mystical Morg, and the art she creates.
Morgan has been felting since college, eventually starting her own shop in her senior year. "My shop started out with smaller needle felted dolls and I slowly expanded to offer more variety of creatures along with prints of my artwork," she told me. "My very first Etsy sales started out with dolls I made for art challenges hosted by fellow doll makers on Instagram. My first sale was a felted wizard frog and they are still one of my favourite things to make. I continue to mix creatures, fantasy, and whimsical details in my art today and I love making sure each doll I create is special. As I got more into doll making, I started incorporating different materials into my work such as felt fabric for details, metallic fibres, iron-on shapes, and ribbon. I love working with high quality materials and most of my dolls are made with soft alpaca fibre and wool felt. I have seen so much growth in my shop since the beginning and I am thankful for the community I am a part of on Instagram. I love using Instagram as a tool to share my work and keep my followers updated on my new projects."
Morgan's work is inspired by a variety of things – Halloween, Tim Burton, and the nature around her hometown of Bent, Oregon, to name a few. She then takes that inspiration, and turns it into beautiful and unique art.
"My process of creating a needle felted character usually starts with a rough sketch if it’s a character I haven’t created before," she explained. "Next I needle felt a base for the body out of Poly-fil. Felting works by taking loose fibre and poking it with a needle to sculpt the fiber into a shape. It takes a long time and you have to be careful not to poke yourself! My next step is to take the color of fibre I’m using and felt it onto the base. Next, I make smaller parts like arms and legs and attach them. If I’m making a doll that has wings like a moth I use felt fabric and add iron-on appliqués that I cut with my Cricut machine. I then hand sew the wings and attach them to the body. Lastly, the fun part! I add details like eyes, ribbon, and felt shapes. I also put a lot of care into packaging my dolls and always wrap them and add a special tag."
While she has created art of many different characters, Morgan's favourite thing to make are her swamp monster dolls. "I love how each one has a different personality and it’s fun to experiment with different colour combinations and details," she said. "I’ve been having fun creating seasonal swamp monsters that have festive Christmas hats and ribbons. I love making things for people who love a spooky twist all year round."
Mystical Morg is pretty cool as is, but Morgan is hoping to do even more with it in the future. "One of my goals for the future of Mystical Morg is to sell locally at stores in my town," she told me. "I also want to start making felting tutorials and kits for people who want to try needle felting themselves. I’m also interested in offering more products such as stickers and pins. I have so many ideas I hope to fulfill in the future, but above all I am excited to keep making what I love and bring joy to those who take home my art."
It makes sense that Mystical Morg would evolve and grow as Morgan evolves and grows as an artist. "Over the years my focus as an artist has changed and grown," she said. "I majored in illustration at Laguna College of Art and Design and focused on Entertainment Illustration such as designing characters, props, and environments for animation. I am very passionate about stop motion animation and I have a background making models, puppets and sets. In my senior year, I built a stop motion puppet and set based on an idea I had for an animated film. After that, one of my first art related jobs was designing and making miniature sets for a film and I loved learning about the entertainment industry. Even though that work had a different purpose from the art I make for my shop, it still shared the same spooky and whimsical themes I use now. I would still love to work in the stop motion industry one day, but I also love having my own business and getting to create what inspires me. You can check out more of my concept art portfolio on my website, morganshapen.com."
