Natural viewing stones from the Forest of Ten Thousand Peaks
Mistfell began with the mountains outside my window.
I live in Xingyi, a small city in the karst highlands of Guizhou, southwest China — a landscape so striking it's a UNESCO Global Geopark, and so ancient the stone here still holds marine fossils from around 240 million years ago. At its heart is Wanfenglin, the "Forest of Ten Thousand Peaks": a valley of countless cone-shaped mountains rising out of the mist.
The heart of this shop is natural viewing stones. I search the rivers that carve these peaks for stones that hold a landscape on their own — a ridgeline, a cliff face, a mountain wrapped in mist. These pieces are natural and unaltered, shaped by water and time, each one of a kind, and most rest on a hand-carved wooden stand fitted to the individual stone. Alongside them, I also offer a small line of hand-carved mountain pieces — sculpted stone landscapes inspired by the same peaks. Every listing says clearly whether a piece is a natural stone or hand-carved, so you always know exactly what you're bringing home.
In the Chinese scholar's tradition these are called gongshi, or viewing stones: mountains in miniature, kept on the desk as objects for contemplation. This shop continues that tradition, from the place the mountains themselves call home.
The shop also carries a small line of crystal bracelets under our sister label, Larme de Sirène. Each bracelet is designed by a young woman on our team here in Xingyi and credited to her by name, using natural crystals from the same mineral-rich region of Guizhou. Larme is designed and run entirely by local women — a shared venture based in the same mountain town.
Thank you for visiting. If you'd like more photos or a video of any piece, message me anytime. — Lucy