Feathers & Folktales is an online shop and website of Diem Dangers, linocut printmaker & blogger inspired by timeless voices from the past that tell of the mythic wild inside us 🪶
Featured Blog Posts
In ancient maritime folklore from around the world, being confronted by a whale serves as a symbol for life’s greatest challenges. Ancient seafaring stories about whales invite us back into a mythical relationship with what overwhelms us, and we discover what the experience is asking of us. In so doing, we discover whales have not just served our physical survival needs throughout the ages, but they have helped us to psychologically grow. Learning the wisdom of whales we enter back into right relationship with the wild, a timeless and enduring shared human value that weaves us back into belonging with the world.
Reindeer folktales can be found in Finland, Russia, Greenland and Canada, and the United States (specifically Alaska) circling the arctic like a wide necklace made of woven strands of interconnected stories and antler bones that tell of a time when humans and reindeer lived together as one family. These folktales transport us back to an ancient magical world where humans lived in fidelity to the migration of reindeer rather than confined to national or political borderlines encouraging us to rethink people, place and belonging.
A linocut print is a kind of relief print, similar to a woodblock print. A design is hand-carved out of artist’s linoleum which is then rolled with ink, paper is hand-pressed on top to reveal the final art print. The effect is an image that is both bold and simple, making a perfect medium for conveying classic, timeless themes and beloved folktale characters.
From its origins in China, during the course of its journey across the world, block printing has undergone many iterations and transformations so the block prints you see today are an embodiment of a combination of innovations, creativity, skills, and knowledges that bring together contributions of people from vastly different cultures and continents.
