Janice Arnold differs from many other artists
working with felt because o f her interest
in organic shapes and floe fiber's natural
tendency to form irregular textures.
Janice Arnold’s
Palace Yurt
of handmade
felt was among the most impressive pieces
in the “Fashioning Felt” exhibition last
year at New York’s Cooper-Hewitt Na-
tional Design Museum; it will also appear
in the San Francisco Museum of Craft +
Design’s remounting of the sliow (Oct.
22,2010-Feb. 20,2011). Featuring felt as
the new “it” design material, the exhibi-
tion included water-jet-cut-felt furniture,
Stacked-induStrial-felt walls for sound-
proofing cinemas and recording Studios,
as well as sculptures, wall coverings and
dresses crafted from handmade felt. This
malleable wool material has been around
for ages and has thousands of indispens-
able applications thanks to its tensile
strength. Among all the functional and
fashionable felts in the show, Arnold’s
yurt was like a shrine to the fabric.
fcb/mario american craft 041
.journal-plaza.net & www.freedowns.net
Detail of the felted drag-
on costume constructed
fey Janice Arnold for
the opera
(Ire n d el
, pro-
duced in 2006 by the
Los Angeles Opera.
