April 12th 2024 : The shop is now closed for a few weeks. I am still completing and dispatching orders as quickly as I can. If you would like an update on the progress of your order, please email me at carol@fellviewfibres.co.uk
UK shipping will be sent via Royal Mail (either first class or tracked 48) and all international orders will be sent using a tracked method. Once your item is shipped I will send you an email with your tracking information. Please note - for some of the dispatch messages that I have sent from the shop email address have been delivered to spam/junk folders - so please check these folders to check for replies and tracking information.
This colourway is the first instalment of the Ancient Artists Rolag Club. The colourway is based on the colours in an ancient Wari Quipu. A quipu, or knot-record, was a method used by Wari and other ancient Andean cultures (they are especially linked to the Inca) to keep records and communicate information. Using a wide variety of colours, strings, and sometimes several hundred knots all tied in various ways at various heights, quipu could record dates, statistics, accounts, and even represent, in abstract form, key episodes from traditional folk stories and poetry.
A typical quipu consists of a horizontal string or even wooden bar, from which hang any number of knotted and coloured strings made from either cotton or wool. Some of the larger quipu have as many as 1500 strings, and these could also be woven in different ways suggesting this, too, had a meaning. The various colour shades, ply’s and knot styles used could also carry a specific meaning.
Sadly, the Conquistadors actively destroyed quipus, as they were seen as a part of the non-Christian indigenous religion. Now there are only a few hundred remaining.
These wonderful artifacts may not have been necessarily designed as a work of art, but personally I find them beautiful and intriguing.
These quipu inspired rolags are made from superfine merino, merino, and luxurious red eri silk.
