The Dreams of the Mothers

Merino wool, silk fabrics, cotton fabrics, cotton thread. Handfelted work with handmade silk and cotton partial felts; handstitching.The design uses felt collage techniques. As an adopted person, the search for identity can be a lifelong journey. For much of my life, I did not know where I came from or the stories that shaped my beginnings. Then, later in life, I made a remarkable discovery: my birth family were fourth-generation wool farmers, and I found my ancestral roots and met a new tribe of “extra” siblings and relatives. As a feltmaker, I was astonished by the connection. For decades I had been working with wool, drawn instinctively to the material that had sustained generations of my birth family. Without knowing it, I had been living my heritage. The medium that became my passion and creative voice was already woven into my family history and into my being and identity. This artwork explores the intertwined themes of identity and belonging. It reflects the experience of searching for one’s origins, piecing together fragments of personal history, and finding unexpected connections to place, family, and self. Like felt itself, identity is formed through many layers—memories, relationships, experiences, and inherited stories—slowly coming together to create a stronger whole. I decided to create the piece in a naive style as a kind of fairy tale-as that is what it has felt like- quite a surreal story. The discovery of my birth family did not change who I was; rather, it helped me understand who I had always been. Through wool, I found a tangible link to my ancestry and a deeper sense of belonging. This work celebrates that connection and acknowledges the profound human need to know where we come from, to understand our place in the world and to know the very truth of ones being.