Landscape art? Well, not quite. Not yet. But yesterday, Diana Gray (who does a lot of fiber art other than rag rugs, which is how we first met) sent me some photos of the felted landscape art she has been creating. I've never felted, mostly because I haven't been terribly fond of the felted wearables I've seen, which are knitted or crocheted first, then felted in the washing machine. In fact, I had a bad experience with a pair of felted slippers. Not worth the work, I thought.
But this is something else altogether. I studied Diana's photos and the instruction sheet she sent me (thanks, Diana!), and surfed around the web looking for other ideas. Then I got my stuff out and began to play.
This photo is my first effort, crafted as a study piece so I can see the way the fibers behave. I loved the process, and am intrigued by the product. What's more, it will give me a chance to use some of the fiber I've been hoarding, and prompt me to get back into dyeing again. I've more or less stopped dyeing, because I made some lovely colorways, and then spun them into lovely yarn, and haven't yet found the right knitting project for them. So much yarn, so little time to knit!
But this kind of felting will allow me to go directly from the dyed fiber (I can even see how I can use my carding machine to create the layers of fiber color!) to the felted piece. It even fits into my increasingly passionate preoccupation with landscape. I'm anxious to do more of this work.
If you'd like to try this kind of felting, here's an online tutorial, posted by Rebecca Hillman, a felter who lives in County Leitrim, Ireland (don't you just love the Web?). Rebecca is creating other felted art, but her photos and text will give you an idea of the way this kind of felt is created. If you have other links to share, please do!
And just to let you know that I'm not neglecting my needles, I'm into Fair Isle tams, like these. I did one in solid blue as a test piece, to get a feel for the shape, and have started on another, in shades of brown, ivory, orange, red.
And Briar Bank has stopped sputtering and is now moving right along. Peggy and I have finished the new Cottage Tales website. Go have a look and tell me what you think.
Reading note, from Animal Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver, which I finished last night. In one chapter, Kingsolver is writing about the fad diets "convulsing our bookstores and bellies":
What the fad diets don't offer, though, is any sense of national and biological integrity. A food culture is not something that gets sold to people. It arises out of a place, a soil, a climate, a history, a temperament, a collective sense of belonging." [In other words, food and landscape are integrally related. And although modern technology and transportation have given us the ability to separate them--to eat food out of season, imported from distant places--this is not always a good thing.]