Icelandic Inspiration

Part 2 - Landscape

As well as the quality of the light in Iceland, I’ve also been a bit obsessed with the colour palette from the landscape. Whether it’s the pale blues of the lagoons, lakes and glaciers or the olive greens of the mosses, I can’t get enough.

I’ve never been in such a dynamic landscape which is constantly changing, not only because of the quality of the light, but also because of the dynamic nature of the forces at play. As we flew into Keflavik we could see the huge Solheimajokull glacier on the south coast, which gave us the first sense of the drama of this incredible landscape.

The Blue Lagoon and the Strokkur Geyser gave us a flavour of the geothermal activity which influences both life and landscape in Iceland. The particular blue tone of the lagoon has particularly stayed with me and it was echoed in the stunning Gulfoss waterfall. I took loads of photos for inspiration and there will be tapestries, paintings and stitches to follow. I combined some merino tops to create a batt for spinning and developed the idea further with this little embroidered applique hoop.

The basalt columns with their hexagonal form really appealed to me and I’m looking forward to working with more hexagons at the patchwork workshop this coming weekend. We didn’t see any active volcanoes but visiting Thingveller National Park where the European and North American tectonic plates meet was quite magnificent. It’s easy to see why some geologists believe that Iceland used to be joined on to the west coast of Ireland and Great Britain where the basalt columns are also evident at the Giant’s Causeway and on Staffa.

Given that I’m a huge fan of hexagons, it was definitely the perfect place for me. I loved seeing how these natural features have been reflected in the design of one of the most characterful buildings I’ve ever seen, but that’s a post for another day.