Words lack power at times when confronted with daily death tolls.

With a simple image of the ubiquitous rainbow in mind, I emptied my bag of wools on the table and started laying out bands of colour across the whole of the table top.

The intensity of the colours reflected my feelings.

Weirdly, as the water worked its magic, the solemnity was lightened when I noticed that the inner arcs of indigo and violet were entering the realms of Georgia O’Keefe …

The mysteries of the female form were transformed into a fuzzy flower just in time as my husband came into the studio, saying, ‘that’s nice – what’s that supposed to be?’

I started felting and also formed fringes by adding random drafts of wool running off the rainbow ends and finishing with felted balls.

Starting to visualise it as a window hanging, I added the sky overhead and checked for structural weaknesses. Adding the water had made the project very heavy, yet incredibly fragile, before it was even partially felted. The weight of the outer arcs of colour pulled away from the smaller inner arcs in places.

Wet felting is exciting and expressive and I loved the rampant giddy rainbow.

Needless to say, I was delighted that the reverse side looked good too, so I added embellishments by needlefelting silks and symbols on this side and left the wet felted side in its unkempt state.

Above is the embellished side which will be visible in the window from outside the shop.

The outer red arc is self inscribed with corona curves flattened and the orange arc carries two stylised Omega symbols. Each arc radiating outwards from the central violet heart-flower carries a motif in the colour of the preceding arc.

Above is the wet felted side which will face the inside of the shop window. It has been reinforced with fine cane to stretch it and prevent it from folding inwards – owing to the weight of the wool.

In total, it took one woman:-

16 hours, 1.5 kilograms of wool, 20 grammes of silk, 4 litres of warm water, 50 ml of liquid soap and one needle…

to make her response to COVID19.

The final felted piece measures 100cm by 105cms.

I’d love to see what you’re doing and how you’re expressing yourself and your feelings through your crafts.

Live long. Be happy!Kennerleigh Community Stores & Post  Office Sunday 19th April 2020.