The Inspiration of Landscape Forming Processes

Many years ago, I found inspiration in volcanic activity which resulted in two quilts with design lines reflecting the ballooning and layering of molten lava emerging under the sea, and both  carrying the title ‘Pahoehoe’  as this particular resulting landform is known by earth scientists.  (with apologies for the quality of 20-year old  technology photos)

Pahoehoe

Pahoehoe  #1,   1995,  80cm H x 70cm W  is irregular shaped and photographed against a black background.

Pahoehoe 2

Pahoehoe #2  1997  is 12cmH x 13cm W and hangs against a sand coloured wall in our home in Australia.  I do need to photoshop this pic and remove the blue-ish background, because those patches of blue in the middle of the quilt are actually faced holes, openings.  I should have named it ‘Tricky’, perhaps.

Browsing around Pinterest,  as one is want to do with saturday morning coffee, I was thrilled to find this beautiful silk wall hanging on the artist Petra Voegle’s blog site   It was interesting to see that we’d found inspiration in the same natural force process.

Pele by Petra Vogle  blog

Titled “Pele” (from her Hawaiian Symbols series)  48″ x 17″  (c) Petra Voegtle.    She writes about the significance of Pele, the god, not the soccer playing legend – so click the link and go visit this lovely site. (which has lain dormant for some time, however)  There are some intriguing detail shots if you follow the link below the pic on her page.  She calls her process ‘silk carving’  but from her description, for my quilter readers she’s talking about a whole cloth quilt.  It’s stunning, perfectly capturing the drag and flow of the lava’s movement out across the landscape.

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