Center for Design and Material Culture

Feel the Beat: Felted Textiles

Feel the beat - PosterFelt is considered to be the oldest constructed textile, predating weaving, knitting and knotted fabric structures. It is created through a process of rolling, agitation, and beating which causes the wool fibers to mat together forming a solid piece of cloth. This process has led to felt being called a percussion textile because they are often communally made and pounding the cloth in an almost rhythmic manner is essential to their creation. Visitors are invited to explore the history and tactile qualities of felt through Janice Arnold’s Woolen Clouds in the Link as well as her research in the first part of the gallery. Utilizing felt pieces from the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, along with new works from two communities of felt makers, the Association of Craft Producers (ACP) in Kathmandu, Nepal and those of Unay Muchiku in Iluman, Ecuador, this exhibition highlights the history of an ancient textile, and demonstrates its multiple uses today as a symbol of cultural identity, creative expression, and sustainable eco-friendly material used in buildings and industry.

Makers from both the ACP and Unay Muchiku were introduced to each other virtually to engage in a cultural exchange which consisted of sharing products each group made and the technical knowledge through demonstrations. They were then asked to create new work inspired by their colleagues on another continent.  Despite barriers of language these women have found common ground and delight in an exchange through making.

Feel the Beat: Felted Textiles was curated with support from students in the UW–Madison DS 527 – Global Artisans course: Madelyn Aaronson, Desiree Alu, Patrick Craker, Rea Gaxha, Marlee Halbach, Gabriela Hertel, Anna Lazin, Pa Ying Lee, Anise Mamary, Eamonn O’Day, Archi Patel, Paytra Payette, Trey Prater, Raquel Rothstein, Claire Sickinger, Eli Song, Lucy Weber, and Elizabeth Weisbecker.

The development of this exhibition was made possible with generous support from the 4W Initiative and Nancy and David Borghesi through the Global Artisans Initiative Fund. This exhibition is co-sponsored by the International Projects Office in the International Division; the Center for South Asia; and the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program. Additional support for this exhibition comes from the Anonymous Fund.

This exhibition was on view in the Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery from September 4-December 1, 2024.

Woolen Clouds

Draped felt crosses the image from left to right and overlaps. The felt is slightly translucent and is mostly white with pale blue spread throughout.

Woolen Clouds by textile artist Janice Arnold will float and flow through the central lobby of the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, trickling into halls and stairwells like an icy breeze. This two-story immersive installation with video elements will offer a surprising contrast to conventional perceptions of Felt. In conversation with the exhibition Feel the Beat, Woolen Clouds invites us to consider what wool makes possible.

It took Arnold a year to craft the nearly 4000 sq feet of diaphanous Felt that comprises the installation. She created this work following her 3.5-year experience as primary caregiver for her elderly parents in her childhood home. Hand-felted with intention and reverence for nomadic traditions and philosophies, these pieces are subtly embedded with universal symbologies of spirals, turbulence, and transformation.

Woolen Clouds poetically combines art, history, and science to tell tales of pain, growth, beauty, and enlightenment. It brings to physical form the tension between strength and fragility in the cycle of life and death.

This installation has been co-sponsored by the International Projects Office in the International Division. Additional support for this installation comes from the Anonymous Fund.

This exhibition was on view in the Nancy Nicholas Hall from July 29, 2024-January 5, 2025.

Photo of a lobby with large glass windows and large sheets of white fabric draping down from the ceiling

She’s Got Her Hands In The Clouds

Janice Arnold created a four-thousand-foot hanging felt sculpture called Woolen Clouds, currently hanging in the central lobby of Nancy Nicolas Hall on the UW-Madison campus. The work is the result of the 3.5 years Arnold spent as caregiver for her parents. Each square foot represents a day in their lives as she cared for them during their transition. In this episode of Radio Chipstone, Arnold shares how her relationship with felt-making helped her create something beautiful out of heartache.

Listen

In the News:

Large, translucent textile art installation suspended from a ceiling, illuminated from above, with a visible balcony and building interior in the background.

Related Programs :

Textile displays in cases, including hats, vessels, and wall hangings.

Breaking the Boundaries of Felt

Janice Arnold has been redefining the boundaries of handmade Felt for over 25 years. Her work is a confluence of ancient and modern methods using traditional and unexpected materials. In this presentation, she will share peeks into inspirations and processes for Woolen Clouds, Homage to the Forests, and other large-scale works.

This lecture is a part of the Phyllis Huffman Fresh Ideas Visiting Scholar Series in Design and is co-sponsored by the Department of Design Studies.

About Janice Arnold:

For over 25 years Janice Arnold has been creating textile art, immersive installations and community participatory events centered around her handmade textiles. Born in Vancouver WA, Arnold received her BA from the Evergreen State College, and learned felt making by studying and working with nomadic artisans of Central Asia and Mongolia.

Arnold exhibits and lectures nationally and internationally about her art and the deep history of indigenous nomadic felt making.  She recently founded The FELT Road (thefeltroad.org), a non-profit with a mission to build a global community around wool-based textiles and foster intercultural understanding and respect through traditional nomadic felting processes.

Her work is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and public and private collections worldwide. She was the only American artist commissioned for the Smithsonian’s Fashioning Felt  Exhibition where she created the installation, Palace Yurt, the acclaimed centerpiece. She has received numerous grants and awards and was nominated and received an American Craft Council Rare Craft Fellowship Finalist Grant.