(Tristan Geary/Special to The New Pine Plains Herald)
Browsing the shelves of Martha Belardo’s barn studio in Pine Plains, you might spy a small felted sloth dangling lazily from a spidering branch. Open one of the cupboards, and a mischief of fabric dormice wave hello, nesting among skeins of yarn. By the window, soaking up the pale, late-winter sun, a frog plucks a banjo, serenading his fellow felted friend.
These scenes spring from the imagination of Belardo, a fiber artist who makes pastoral, nature-inspired creatures, woven with a thread of magical realism. From 3-foot herons to a fox that fits in the palm of your hand — anthropomorphized with his own knitted overcoat and patterned tie — Belardo’s fanciful characters create scenes that look as if they have sprung from the pages of a children’s book.
Belardo, who grew up in Potsdam, N.Y., has been crocheting, knitting, and sewing since childhood. “I’ve always been interested in sculpture,” she said. Before she got into fiber arts, Belardo had a business weaving and selling baskets, but a painterly desire to work with color was left unfulfilled. “It was tiring and a little boring,” said Belardo of basketweaving. She began to experiment with felting needles, creating small bowls and ornamenting clothing, then added techniques like dyeing and armature to her repertoire.
Gradually, she addressed a key component that she couldn’t find in basketweaving: storytelling. “I like that I can create character,” said Belardo.
For Belardo, fiber art isn’t just a way to exercise her fine motor skills but also a tool for childhood development. “In children, it stimulates the math and spatial concepts skills as well,” said Belardo, who has four sons. Her commitment to fiber arts is more like a philosophy, and is partly why she teaches the craft to children and adults, including a March 22 needle felting workshop at Clover Brooke Farm in Hyde Park, N.Y.
Besides taking commissions and selling her work on her website, she is one of two artisans with a booth at the Rhinebeck Farmers’ Market, which is open from May through December. “There’s people from all over the world who come once a year,” said Belardo, who has sold at the market for seven years. “It’s a destination.”
The market draws between 1,700 and 2,800 shoppers each week. “Our market rules are a bit more strict than some markets,” said the manager, Andrea Bartolomeo. “We’re looking for items to be created from a local agricultural product.”
Belardo’s work ticks that box. More than the instantly lovable characters Belardo creates, customers take home a handful of organic Hudson Valley materials. “I use local wool as much as possible,” said Belardo. “Some characters have little sweaters or hats that are locally grown, processed, dyed, and spun. All of it is from right here in the Northeast.” With a love for all things local, Belardo was instantly at home at the Rhinebeck market. “She has all of these local wool connections and is making these really high quality, beautiful items,” said Bartolomeo.
Belardo is a regular at mills and farms across the Hudson Valley and beyond, such as Clover Brooke Farm, where she’ll buy pounds of alpaca yarn, or Battenkill Fiber Mill in Greenwich, N.Y., where she’ll fill her car with roving — a malleable raw material, typically wool, that is yet to be spun. Roving makes up the foundation of much of Belardo’s work.
A wire armature is often the support for larger sculptures, like a red-and-white spotted mushroom, a gruff looking gnome, or a twisting oak tree. Others are built from the inside out from roving. “It’s like adding clay to a terracotta sculpture,” said Belardo. The nature of the fabric that Belardo works with allows for constant addition and change. “It’s satisfying and forgiving,” she said. “It’s like oil painting, you can move the paint around later.”
Bowen Barn in Stanfordville is a source of knickknacks and trinkets. Fingernail-sized books and tiny teapots, tchotchkes of all kinds give her characters hobbies, interior lives, and most importantly, personalities. In her studio, a frog with a concentrated expression sits on a spool of thread, knitting with his own needles. Nearby, a mouse proudly wields a miniature violin and bow, as if having just delivered the final flourish of a dexterous piece of music. Once completed, the creatures don’t get shoved into a drawer, they make friends. “Next thing you know they’re all living together inside of a pumpkin and it’s turned into a vignette,” said Bartolomeo.
It’s not just Belardo’s materials that are local; her inspiration is, too. Painter and children’s book author and illustrator Jacqueline Rogers lives in Spencertown, N.Y., and is a source of storybook wonder for Belardo. They met when Rogers attended a felting workshop run by Belardo and have since been trading ideas. Belardo will call on Rogers for characters. “She’ll say “Jackie, I need a hedgehog and a fox,” and I’ll do a painting of them, and then she’ll make the character,” said Rogers. The inspiration goes both ways. Rogers has used fiber arts as a way to explore characters in her books. “It seemed perfect for me to try something different and just play,” said Rogers. “I definitely get book ideas.”
Belardo employs local crafters to help with finishing work or large-batch tasks, like creating dozens of rabbit ears. Her husband, John, is a celebrated terracotta and bronze sculptor and a National Sculpture Society Fellow. Although his materials couldn’t be more different from hers, she welcomes a second pair of eyes. “Sometimes you’re looking at something for so long,” said Martha. Third, fourth, fifth, and sixth sets of eyes are available from Martha and John’s sons.
This time of year, Belardo and her team are busy preparing for the farmers’ market season, which includes appearances at Hudson and Pleasantville markets, as well as her homebase in Rhinebeck. But while prepping, she’s also thinking about a much larger sculpture — the booth itself, which she brings to each market. It’s the season-long home for her creatures and critters, so it too needs to tell a story.
“What’s going to draw [people] in? Is it going to be an enormous pileated woodpecker? Maybe a life-size fawn? Maybe the gnomes that have their own clothing?” Belardo said. The booth, entirely reimagined each season, will have its big reveal on May 4 at the first Rhinebeck Farmers’ Market of the year. “When she sets up her booth at an event, it’s just like you’ve walked into a magical forest,” said Rogers. “It’s intoxicating to be around the materials. Just don’t let your cat get its paws on it.”
Belardo’s imagination doesn’t stop where the fibers of her showstopper centerpieces end, but extends to the world she herself inhabits. Whether at her booth or at one of her fiber arts workshops, Belardo invites you to be transported to a whimsical world of nature, magic, and fairytale while remaining tethered to Earth by local thread.