Ideas are weird. Sometimes they come to you in the middle of the night, and they just won’t let go. About six weeks ago now, I decided it was time to take these colorways I love so much and the medium of fiber I relish in and turn them into something you can hang on the wall.

The only trouble was (and still is) that I do not think of myself as an artist, so I’ve been dealing with a bit of angst as a result. Nonetheless, I started making them, using vintage frames to put them in. I am grateful to my husband, Robert, who took many hours out of his own busy schedule to to frame these.

I screwed up my courage and introduced them at a recent craft fair, and, well, people liked them. They kept coming back over to look at them. Some thought they were photographs. Some thought they were abstract paintings. Some thought they were sand art. Everyone was surprised and came to look more closely when I told them I had “painted” them using wool and silk and alpaca and mohair locks, and quite a few went to new homes that day.

At the time, I didn’t even have a name for them. I had scoured the internet, assuming someone else must be making these same sort of things. I find a few things that are sort of similar, but nothing quite like what I’m making, so I had to figure out a name. I eventually settled on fiber paintings.

I made them in all different sizes from very small like this one…

…to very large like this one:

You can see the whole collection here. I hope you like them! Let me know if you have a favorite.