Soft Rocks Series
Cobblestones
Artwork Details
Technique: Needle Felted Sculpture
Dimensions: 24" wide x 48" high
Collection: Soft Rocks Series
Availability: Ready to hang sculpture
A path made of soft stones
Cobblestones began with the same basic idea as River Rocks: needle-felted rocks set into a custom wooden frame. But this time, I wanted to do something very different with them.
Instead of a loose collection of rocks, I wanted the rocks to become a surface.
At 24 × 48 inches, Cobblestones is also considerably larger than the earlier piece. The scale allowed me to create something that feels less like a collection of individual stones and more like a section of an actual cobblestone path.
Creating the Cobblestones
The rocks were made individually, as they were in the other pieces in the series. But their placement was carefully planned.
I arranged them so that they fit together like real cobblestones, with each stone nestling against the ones around it.
Then came the part that gives the piece its distinctive appearance: the mortar.
Rather than leaving space between the rocks, I added extra wool around them and needle-felted it down until it formed a continuous surface. The rocks remain slightly raised above the surrounding wool, creating the impression that they have been set into mortar.
The result is a field of stones that looks solid and substantial, but is actually made from wool.
About the Soft Rocks Series
The Soft Rocks Series began with the idea of making rocks that weren't rocks at all. From there, I became fascinated by the many ways rocks and stones appear in our language and everyday lives.
Each piece starts with that familiar idea and becomes an opportunity to explore it through needle-felted wool, woodworking, and sculpture.
In Cobblestones, the illusion comes from the relationship between the individual stones and the wool surrounding them. The rocks are soft, but together they create the unmistakable appearance of a hard, weathered surface.