Rosalind Stoddart Northamptonshire, United Kingdom
Rosalind Stoddart uses her own alpaca fleece and natural dyes from her garden to create art textiles.
Rosalind Stoddart - From Field to Studio Rosalind uses her own alpaca fleece as the starting point of her work. All her alpacas are white, which gives her the wonderful opportunity to dye the fleece using natural dyes, largely from her land using plants that she specially grows for this purpose, as well as using wild plants. The combination of beautiful colours and tactile textures are a strong feature of her work. She makes wall pieces using tapestry techniques – smaller ones in frames while the larger ones hang directly on the wall. Artist Sonia Delaunay is one of her inspirations, not only because of her joyous sense of colour, but also because of their shared path from painting to textiles. Rosalind also makes sumptuously soft cushions. Each one incorporates felting, weaving and hand-stitching, using the weaving like a canvas, as a painter would. Even the insides of the cushions are handmade and filled with her alpaca fleece. Working with material ‘from field to studio’, Rosalind says, ‘it connects me more deeply to my immediate environment and helps give my practice a sustainable approach’. Her designs are usually refined down to what might appear at first glance simple, but come from a deep process of observing, questioning and engaging in things that fascinate her – the natural world and certain man-made things such as the bold sculptural and simple shapes of Romanesque architecture and work by artists such as Ben Nicholson. It is also her way of finding calm and meaning in this complex world – which she hopes is reflected in her work. Each piece is unique, whether it’s a wall hanging, cushion, rug or some new creation. It takes a long time to make due to so many processes to work through – shearing and looking after the alpacas, processing and dyeing the fleece, growing and harvesting plant material, weaving, felting, stitching, sewing and, of course, coming up with the creative ideas. This way of working and living – slowly, caring for and having a deep connection with, where she lives - is a conscious decision. She aims to have as small an impact as possible on the environment.
