staying close to nature... |
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life cycle textiles
We are two feltmakers who design new products that make best use of wool’s special properties of warmth, strength and flexibility. A love of landscape and the natural world influences our choice of materials and designs. We make genuinely useful things that stay close to nature and can eventually return to the earth.
Everything is hand-made with ingenuity, skill and careful attention to detail.
Our design for a leafshroud makes imaginative use of natural materials and adds another option for anyone organising an environmentally friendly funeral
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We also make... yoga mats & meditation pillows oven gloves & hot water bottle covers |
baby rugs & footfelts tea & coffee cosies |
bags & scarves cushions & tuffets |
Bellacouche
The word Bellacouche comes from the traditional name of our barn workshop, and means ‘beautiful resting place’
in clerks’ Latin. The old stone barn is close to the church and coffins were once kept there before burial.
We view our work as part of a long tradition, making use of past knowledge but taking it forward into the 21st Century
natural funerals
Many funeral rituals lack relevance to contemporary life, but with a growing awareness of environmental issues new ceremonies are beginning to evolve. By making the felt leafshroud available to a wider public we hope to divert people away from the polluting effects of cremation.
Taking the Cycle of Life as our abiding principle we aim for a minimal carbon footprint by using natural materials that are sourced and processed locally: integrity at every stage of design and production is important
felt leafshroud
The felt shroud is in the shape of a leaf, an image which evokes the changing seasons of life and an appropriate choice for a natural funeral. It is used instead of a coffin, in either a woodland burial ground or traditional churchyard
thinking outside the box
Because shroud burial is relatively unusual in British culture, it may be helpful to think of the leafshroud as a felt coffin. The many enfolding layers literally shroud the body from view, the inbuilt base takes all the weight and so the whole leafshroud is buried. It is an altogether gentler alternative to the hard-edged box coffin which is often made or lined or adorned with unsympathetic, as well as synthetic, materials.
This is a new and gentler approach - an alternative to the Victorian funeral coffin - reflecting awareness of the environment, staying close to nature, intrinsically soft and comforting
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