Silent Roar

When I started brainstorming the idea of the sound of silence, I listed, among other things, cats and snow. Then I found a quote that said something along the lines of "Silence is the name people give to the sound a mountain lion makes as it walks around the outside of your house". Mountain lions didn't click, but snow leopards did, as I had recently seen a BBC series made about monitoring snow leopards in a reserve in the bleakest part of Russia.

The more I researched, the more appropriate it became: snow leopards are headed for extinction, the ultimate silence. There are only about 5000 in the wild and all in war-torn or poacher-filled countries like Afghanistan, China, Tibet, Pakistan and India. Habitat loss and prey loss is also a big factor. For example, as fewer native blue sheep are around, because of larger shepherded flocks of domestic sheep, so leopards are killed for taking domestic sheep.

Silent roar is a phrase used of snow leopards because they are not vocally equipped to roar. They can only purr or yowl. They are unique in this among big cats.

There are some fabulous photos online of snow leopards, but this one jumped off the page demanding attention. I will credit the photographer if the quilts ever make it to the public eye.

Snow leopards have extra long and fat tails to use for balance, and small rounded ears, to minimise frost damage.

Techniques: leopard spots drawn with inktense pencils, leopard trapuntoed, shadow covered with black tulle and black Mistyfuse. Angelina highlights on the snow.