Irina Belova

Irina is a fiber artist.

Irina's Instagram

Born near the Black Sea in Crimea, Ukraine, Irina now proudly calls Portland, Oregon, home. Her felted wool creations are inspired by nature, memory, and movement—rooted in the places she has loved, from her childhood shores to the wild beauty of the Pacific Northwest.

She works with sheep and alpaca wool using both wet-felting and needle-felting techniques, often blending in natural fibers such as silk, hemp, flax, and bamboo. These materials allow her to create soft, tactile forms that invite exploration and spark curiosity.

Much of her inspiration comes from the natural world, especially the textures, colors, and rhythms of the Pacific Coast where she spends much of her time. The forms she creates—pods, orbs, barnacles, ridges, and abstract shapes—emerge from close observation of nature’s patterns. At the same time, they often become metaphors for human experience: vessels of protection, echoes of memory, or fragments of stories carried in fiber.
Her practice is both material and conceptual. Many of her pieces are made in series or as installations, encouraging viewers to come closer, linger, and find meaning in small shifts of texture and light.

At the heart of her work is a search for balance: between strength and fragility, silence and voice, permanence and impermanence. Felt, with its ability to both bind and fray, becomes the perfect medium through which she explores these tensions and invites connection.