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Design Blog Design Blog » Fashioning Felt » Janice Arnold Sketches

Janice Arnold Sketches

  • By: Susan Brown
  • | Thursday February 26, 2009
  • | 25 Comment(s)

During a visit to Cooper-Hewitt about a year and a half ago, West-coast felt-maker Janice Arnold was intrigued by the form of the museum’s conservatory. Its domed roof and iron mullions resemble the radiating struts of the framework of a yurt—the circular tent dwelling of the nomadic tribes who first created felt. Next week, Arnold will begin installing Palace Yurt, an installation created especially for the Museum’s exhibition Fashioning Felt.

The traditional yurt is a trellis-frame tent covered with thick, humble felts made from raw sheep’s wool. The largest, most elaborately decorated tent is the place of celebration, songs and epic poems. Arnold’s design is a fantasia on the yurt form, which is still the preferred environment for events of spiritual significance, even as nomadic peoples become more urbanized.

Arnold will create a total environment from her luxurious handmade felts, which combine Merino wool with silk and metallic fibers and sheer fabrics. Her technique allows for the creation of richly textured areas in combination with gossamer sheer ones. The wall panels will use that sheerness to maintain the light-filled feeling of the Conservatory, while the leaded glass pattern of the ceiling inspired a mosaic of sheer and opaque areas. The window seat will be covered with a thick, dense, hand-beveled felt, to enable visitors to experience felt’s tactility and contemplate both its history and versatility.

The fabric panels composing the walls and ceiling are so large that they have to be felted outdoors at Arnold’s studio in Centralia, Washington. Nomads felt in the spring and fall, but Arnold’s team has been working through the winter to complete the installation. Unseasonably cold temperatures coupled with record snowfall have made it challenging work indeed. But the Palace Yurt, both traditionally and in this contemporary interpretation, is the place to gather for celebration when the felting is done.

Janice Arnold Sketches
The traditional Palace Yurt form has a domed roof and canopied entrance.

Janice Arnold Sketches
The iron framework of the Conservatory’s roof resembles the struts of a yurt’s trellis frame.

Janice Arnold Sketches
Janice Arnold’s felt fabrics combine dense and translucent areas in a myriad of patterns.

Janice Arnold Sketches
A double arch with a Mongolian blessing will frame the entrance.

Janice Arnold Sketches
Arnold’s felts for the installation will be made on a base of silk gauze, with wool, silk, soy, and metallic fibers felted in.

Janice Arnold Sketches
The thick felt cushion for the window seat will have a hand-beveled edge, revealing layers of color.

Design Miami Fair
Sacred symbols protect both the yurt owners and their welcome guests.

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Comments

  1. Can’t wait to see this!! Looks facinating.

    Sally Dillon | Feb 27, 05:19 PM

  2. It is exciting to see the sketches and samples of Janice’s beautiful installation come to fruition. Thanks to the Cooper-Hewitt for supporting contemporary feltwork. I can’t wait to see it in person.

    Robin Blakney-Carlson | Feb 28, 06:57 PM

  3. Congratulation on this very exciting show. The Yurt is such a magical place! I loved volunteering for Janice here in Olympia and hope to get to NYC to see it in its proper location.

    Sheri Wertheimer | Mar 2, 03:48 AM

  4. The exhibition is great! Congratulations. I have a question, tho: in one of the videos in the show, you have people trampling on the felt with water and soap/detergent. Doesn’t soap dissolve the lanolin in the wool and make it less durable and waterproof afterwards?

    paul | Mar 9, 06:14 PM

  5. Wow ! This looks like a wonderful exhibit. Will it travel to other cities? Houston?

    DeeDee Woodbury | Mar 15, 01:49 PM

  6. As I understand it, lanolin is a naturally occurring waterproofing wax that sheep have evolved which helps them shed water from their coats in their natural environment. The amount of lanolin varies greatly between breeds. What makes felt durable and waterproof is not the lanolin, but 2 things combined: 1) the strength of the particular wool fiber (which also varies between breeds) and 2) how well the felt has been felted and “fulled” (shrunk) . In other words the more entangled the wool fibers become the more resistant they are to water and wear. When water is poured onto a well felted and fulled piece of upholstery felt it will bead up on the surface. Yet as is evident in this exhibition, the wool fiber is infinitely versatile. It can be made to be industrial strength or supple and soft enough to wear. However bear in mind that you cannot take the fine wool from a Merino sheep and expect it to be waterproof or very durable. Each breed has specific characteristics that make their wool good for some things and inappropriate for others.

    Janice Arnold / JA FELT | Mar 16, 11:11 AM

  7. beautiful sketches; project
    looks great. Know of any workshops in upstate ny? I’m a
    fiberart teacher and want to learn more.

    gina tavelli | Mar 18, 07:12 PM

  8. I really enjoyed Janice Arnold’s installations. They are very beautiful and I love how they are integrated into the space.
    This post on process is wonderful. It is so interesting to see the thought and planning that went in to making the pieces.

    Marn | Mar 23, 11:33 AM

  9. I am hoping this exhibit will travel to the midwest. (Exploration Place; Wichita, KS) Check out www.kansasweavers.com.
    There are many in the midwest who would love to see this exhibit!

    Mary Martin | Mar 25, 11:41 AM

  10. Beautiful! saw it on Marthastewart show, incredible artisry & patience! Hope to get in from PA. to see felt show.

    Judy | Mar 25, 12:50 PM

  11. This is a great exhibition, and it deserves to seen in all parts of the country. I know the hope from the museum is that it will travel for a couple years. Contact the art museum in your area and express your interest, they can contact the Cooper- Hewitt for details. You might also enjoy seeing the process videos that the museum has posted on to YouTube

    Janice Arnold / JA FELT | Mar 25, 10:57 PM

  12. Congrats on the Martha Stewart appearance!!! Hope it brings many folks to the show.
    Yay for Yurts!!

    Sheri Wertheimer | Mar 26, 05:48 AM

  13. This is the best use of Cooper Hewitt’s Conservatory space ever! It is so dreamy. Not to be missed. Thanks JA Felt for making my day extra special.

    Margaret Van Sicklen | Mar 29, 01:48 PM

  14. Janice – What happens to your wonderful panels and room once the show is over? It would be wonderful for this to take on new life elsewhere. What one can’t see from any photos is the remarkable combination of voluptuousness and comfort, the contrast of light and opacity.

    Lisa Bayne | Apr 6, 01:26 AM

  15. Hi Janeci Arnold. I’m Maira. I was guide your mongolian trip last summer. I so happy your design work amasing. Congrulation you. Welcome again Mongolia Maira.Danyei@nur-altai.com

    Maira Danyei | Apr 13, 02:17 AM

  16. Lisa, Thanks for your comments. You are right, the Palace Yurt will be a totally different kind of installation when it is hanging independent of the Conservatory. This was actually part of my ultimate design consideration. When it hangs in a venue without the glass walls of the Conservatory, you will be able walk around the perimeter and see the detail on both sides of the wall and ceiling Felts. Hopefully the exhibition will travel and visitors can experience it this way as well.

    Janice Arnold / JA FELT | Apr 13, 07:54 PM

  17. Maira, Wonderful to hear from you! Thank you for your comments. Your help in Mongolia last summer was instrumental in bringing my ideas for the Palace Yurt into clarity. Hopefully I can visit Mongolia again soon.

    Janice Arnold / JA FELT | Apr 13, 08:40 PM

  18. Stunning! Love the blog

    stacydieter | Apr 14, 05:33 PM

  19. Beautiful! Truly a work of art. thank-you for sharing. I hope the exhibit comes to the West coast so we can all learn and see the versatility and beauty of felt.

    Dorothy Brancato | May 4, 02:11 AM

  20. Truly stunning exhibit – the conservatory was beautifully displayed – also do hope that this exhibit comes to the West Coast – Canada.

    Maureen Carefoot | May 6, 05:06 PM

  21. Even though I work in the fabric industry, I had no idea of the myriad applications for felt. This was a fascinating read.

    philljando | Jun 22, 07:41 AM

  22. LOVED the installation in NYC. Are there any images of it available? I was disappointed that it wasn’t in the show catalogue.

    Susannah | Jun 23, 07:37 AM

  23. Happily there are now six images of the installation on the Fashioning Felt website

    Susan Brown | Jun 23, 05:07 PM

  24. today as I viewed the heavenly yurt my heart leaped, now, hours later the feeling persists. Truly, Janice your work has sprung from the head of Zeus!

    marguerite tarjan | Aug 2, 10:49 PM

  25. Marguerite, Thank you for your comments. One of my design goals was to create an interactive piece of art that elegantly enveloped the observer and showed the diversity of my work, while creating a place of reflection, contemplation and celebration of Felt. It is such a pleasure to know that the Palace Yurt effect lingers…

    Janice Arnold / JA FELT | Aug 21, 07:30 PM

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