Janice Arnold leads the nomadic life of the 21st-century artist, moving around the country and the globe, from museum exhibition to master class, from corporate installation to community event. Since she made her first felt, in 1999, she has been devoted to the study of wool fiber and the felting process. In travels through Mongolia, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Turkey, among other places, she has studied or taught—learning about the historic, cultural and spiritual significance of the material in those countries, or sharing new felting techniques developed in her studio and lab, housed in a former schoolhouse near Centralia, Washington.
For thousands of years, felt was essential for nomadic societies in Central Asia. It may also be the original sustainable, high-performance fabric: Naturally flame-retardant and water-resistant, it embodies the circularity…
