 For this week's Northwoods Adventure, Clayton Castle takes us inside the Franklin Arts Center, where woodland creatures are being created using a unique form of art. The snow is melting and the grass is getting greener, but a group of people spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon at the Franklin Arts Center in Brainerd, creating outdoor woodland creatures by felting. Well felting is causing wool fibers to tangle together. So what we're doing today is we're using especially barbed needle that grabs individual fibers and causes them to tangle to their neighbor. So we can create sculptural pieces or flat pieces. Today we're using them to create sculpture. Instructor Lisa Jordan has been felting since 2006 and is the director of the Cross Arts Alliance whose mission is to promote and enhance arts opportunities in the Central Lakes area through facilities, partnering and programming, programming like this, a class that allows people of all ages to explore the creative world of needle felting. The point of my classes is that they're coming in and getting the fun finished bunny, but what they're learning to do is build shapes, build flat shapes, build round shapes, connect them, blend colors, work over an armature so that they can take those skills and apply them to a future project. This class spent the afternoon learning how to felt and create a bunny for a finished product using a barbed needle that causes the fibers to come together. It's a complex art form, but one that is enjoyable to many. Now for people like Lisa, felting is more than just creating woodland creatures. It's also about expressing creativity through art. What does art mean to me? Art is life to me. I think it's, you know, we hear often that people consider art to be something you do when you have extra. You have extra time. You have extra money. And for me, it's a way of expression. It's really integral to who we are as human beings. So you know, I would venture to say that sometimes felting can be more crafty than artsy, but it's still a means of communication and it's just really soothing and fun. Reporting in Brainerd for this week's Northwoods Adventure, Clayton Castle, Lakeland News. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.