MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Stone carvings by Blacksburg artist Darcy Meeker lie in her dining room studio. Most of the work is put on hold when it's cold, Meeker said. "It's just too hard to carve in winter."

With the seemingly never-ending winter weather, creativity might seem hard to come by.

But for a few local artists, the snow, ice and freezing temperatures have been an inspiration.

Musician Scott Perry wrote a song called "Winter Haiku Blues." Fabric artist Marie Woolum is making both functional winter clothing and winter-inspired landscapes. And artist Darcy Meeker is learning to carve stone and work copper in the cold.

Here, the three talk about their winter work.

Embracing the blues

Perry, an acoustic blues musician, guitar teacher and member of Americana band Front Porch Swing from Floyd, wrote a song called "Winter Haiku Blues," inspired by the cold.

Perry sometimes uses haiku -- a form of Japanese verse consisting of three lines of five, seven and five syllables -- as a quick way to practice his writing. He often posts them on his Facebook page, inviting feedback from friends.

So when a friend made a comment about the poems becoming like short songs, Perry decided to record a very short song -- about one minute and 13 seconds-- composed of his haiku, he said.

"There was a comment on one of my haikus about being a blues man and being able to turn those into songs," Perry said. "So I took that as a challenge."

So he wrote the song and recorded it, with help from his wife, Lisa Van Meter Perry. He posted the recording on Facebook and YouTube.

"It was written, arranged and recorded in about 20 minutes," Scott Perry said. "It was very off the cuff."

In the video, Perry is bundled up in winter garb both as a theatrical touch and to combat the drafts in "the frozen tundra of Floyd, Virginia," he explains in the video.

"And I will be not a lazy grasshopper. I'll chop so much wood next year. I'll be sure to be illogically toasty, roasty warm," he sang.

Working through the cold

Meeker, a Blacksburg stone carver and copper artist, said the cold weather has been both an inspiration and a burden.

One of her most recent pieces, created by taking a hard lead pencil and drawing on copper, has a few winter images, including a ski cap, sunglasses and snow in the background.

"I realized the shadow of the moon could be a little hat and put some snow on it," she said.

During warmer months, Meeker also carves large stones, such as alabaster and soapstone, with metal tools and often works outdoors.

Most of the work is put on hold when it's cold, Meeker said.

"It's just too hard to carve in winter," she said.

These days, Meeker is carving some small stones in her basement with an electric carving tool similar to a dentist's drill. The tool, which uses water to cool the stone, keeps the dust from flying.

"Because of the water, it's not going to trash the finished artwork in the house," she said.

Old fabric, new purpose

Woolum, a Floyd fiber artist, uses repurposed fabric to make clothes, hats, bags and other items. This is Woolum's first winter in Floyd. She moved here in March after falling in love with the area -- and later found out her great-grandfather had lived here as a child.

This winter's cold has inspired Woolum to transform a thick, mohair fabric into scarves and hats. She's even working to make ear covers for a friend's bassett hound.

"It's more than it's cold; my brain thinks, 'This is what somebody can use,' " Woolum said. "Right now, it would be impossible to think of functional items for summer."

The cold weather has also inspired her to expand into decorative fabric wall hangings, including abstracts and landscapes.

Snow covered by ice, trees against a gray winter sky and tracks made by cattle on snowy hills are cold-weather inspirations, she said.

"I was driving down the road and I had to stop because there were all these different colors in the hills," Woolum said. "I thought, would make a really cool abstract wall art."