Felted Wool Mobile Escapes the Nursery

Felted Wool Mobile
Originally uploaded by amyshaw.

Greenjeans is full of unusual things, but one of the objects that most inspires wonder is this felted wool mobile by Ohio-based artists Chris Rom and Geoff Buddie. Visitors sometimes get caught up gazing at its red cones, gold balls, and white clouds twisting and drifting around one another from delicate filaments tied to hand-tooled metal bars. This one has a sister toward the back of the shop of greens, grays, and light blue. We think they would look smashing over the dining room table or at the top of the stairs. No need to relegate mobiles to the nursery!

Rom and Buddie are a husband-and-wife team working together to create sculptures reflecting their shared aesthetic for what I would call the "surreal-yet-friendly." They met in high school art class in Cleveland, went on together to art school, and then set out to make a career as potters. However they soon tired of the repetition of pottery production and turned to dying, felting, and sculpting wool. Their sculptures do still sometimes include clay elements, as in “Smokestack” and the “Ballerinas” we have at the shop (images forthcoming). I don’t know of any other artists working in a combination of clay and wool, but it is a surprisingly appealing pairing.

Their uniqueness and skill aren’t going unnoticed. This past spring the couple was honored with the Artists' Choice Award from a field of 175 entrants at the CraftBoston show. And they have shown in many juried shows including the prestigious American Craft Council fair. As they gain more recognition and continue to develop their wonderful work, we hope to help spark a keen following for the singularly playful and mysterious sculpture by the couple we fondly refer to in-house as “BuddieRom.”