Felting and Fiber Studio

I have wanted to make a felted Inukshuk for a couple of years now. I really want to make a life sized one but I have not been able to do that yet. So for the 4th Quarter Challenge Land Art, I decided to make a small model instead. If you are a forum member, you will remember that Lyn made a diorama with felted stones and she had a wonderful background for photography. I was planning on stealing that idea but didn’t get it done. So you’ll just have to imagine my Inukshuk in the wild.

Wikipedia defines an Inukshuk as “a stone landmark or cairn built by humans, used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America. The inukshuk may have been used for navigation, as a point of reference, a marker for travel routes, fishing places, camps, hunting grounds, places of veneration, drift fences used in hunting or to mark a food cache. The word inuksuk means ‘something which acts for or performs the function of a person’.”

I started with blocks of blue insulation foam that you can buy at home improvement stores here in the US. I carved the pieces with a bread knife. I trimmed all the edges off so that they wouldn’t be square and would look more rock like.

I hadn’t finished carving all the edges when I took this photo.

I then covered all of my “stones” with grey/brown wool that a friend gave me. I added a few more details with other wool colors. I started the felting in a stocking in the washing machine and then finished felting them all by hand. I was planning on using wire to hold my Inukshuk together but then I started playing with the stones and decided I would keep them as “building blocks”. It’s just fun to play with them and balance them in different formations. I think I might even make some more. I just need to get more foam.

I just noticed a few blue spots that were not covered completely with wool in the photos. Guess I need to do a little needle felting for complete coverage. Thanks for this fun challenge Zed!