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Jorie Johnson


Seductive Felts to Wrap Yourself Up In

Course Description
This class will approach felted fabrics for body wraps, such as scarves and shawls through smaller items, as preliminary study for independent work on a larger scale. Jorie has co-authored an advanced feltmaking publication on scarves (Fabulous Felted Scarves, Lark Books, 11/2007) and will use these published examples as her departure point.

Fabrics applicable to clothing and the differences between fabrics for accessories versus clothing projects will be covered. Participants will explore the qualities of various wool breeds through samples and warm-ups with motif exercises aimed at the pronounced characteristics of hand feltmaking. Jorie's desire has always been to promote the technique by emphasizing the essence of feltmaking. It is important to know how to create and manipulate the matrix of the wool fibers to best suit personal artistic direction and functional advantage. There will be opportunity to dye auxiliary materials to incorporate in the scarves and wraps participants design.

Artist's Biography
Jorie Johnson enjoys designing, producing and wearing her unique handmade woolen felt creations. Introduced to the traditional textile technique in Finland, in 1977, by learning to make Scandinavian felt boots, Jorie was immediately enchanted by the magic and power of felting.

Jorie grew up in the household of a wool and fiber merchant and studied textile design for industry at RISD (USA) and KOTO (Finland). While on a whimsical 3-month tour of Japan in 1987, she decided that twelve weeks simply was not long enough, and she's lived there ever since. It was in Kyoto, Japan, that she re-established her textile studio and trademarked the name Joi Rae.

After studying industrial textile design (weaving and printing) for fashion and interiors Jorie found her compatible expression in fiber through the traditional medium of feltmaking.

Her combination of rich colors and layering techniques, working various materials such as silk, rayon, and mohair into the felt product, results in warm, one-of-a-kind autumn, winter and spring clothing and accessories for the discerning collector.

Jorie has developed her own innovative expression of the 8,000-year-old central-Asian technique of feltmaking--felt being the first textile created by man. Jorie exhibits her contemporary feltworks in galleries, shops, and museums around the world.

Jorie generally takes time off from her studio work during the spring semester to lecture at various institutions. She holds a part-time lecturing post in the Textile Design Department of the Kyoto University of Art and Design. During the summer months, to escape the heat and humidity of Kyoto, she travels on research expeditions to learn more about traditional felting from different cultures. She attends international felt symposiums and gives workshops about contemporary surface- and design-technique developments in feltmaking.

 Johnson 1
Supply List:

Ideally, all students should have a copy of Fabulous Felted Scarves (Lark Books, 2007) and have familiarized themselves with the text so we can start with samples of their choice.

All participants will require minimum standard personal felting equipment for making smaller items. What I usually require as my personal felting tools include:
  • Rolling rod(s) (wood, metal, plastic, or foam) max. 1 in. x 25 in. (various diameters and lengths can be beneficial)
  • Several hand towels for mopping up excess water and to enclose work while rolling (and/or old piece of bed sheet for enclosing the roll)
  • 2 sheets of normal size (small) bubble wrap (size: 2 ft x 6 ft)
  • Several hand-sized plastic bags for rubbing surface of work
  • Plastic net or lace curtain to stabilize the wool while wetting (approx. 2 ft x 2 ft or longer)
  • Small bar of soap
  • Regular felting solution (ex. shampoo, olive soap chips, etc.)
  • Soft plastic bottle (600 ml) with small holes poked in cap to work like a shower/shaker, for applying the felting solution, OR your regular applicator
You should also bring decorative motif elements (in small quantities). Please bring SMALL quantities of items you have been considering incorporating in your felt but haven't had the NERVE or TIME to practice with. Some of these are, for example:
  • Leftover wool yarns, silk threads, or wool/blends, such as mohair novelty yarns (with 70% to 100% wool content)
  • Small amounts of assorted prefelts, needlefelts, and/or remnant fabrics (e.g., loosely woven wool or mohair tweeds, silk organza, organdy, cotton gauze, laces, etc.)
  • Experimental materials to use as inlay design motifs (beads, embroidery threads, lace and silk ribbons, trims, etc.)
  • Experimental glitters fibers or threads (holographic, lurex, etc.)
  • WOOL: Small quantities of rainbow dyed, or natural-color wool suitable for felting (e.g., Merino 64s~, medium to fine wools) that participants may have on hand and would use for sampling; various small bits of colored wool for your palette of colors. The Fleece Lace shawl requires English Leicester (natural colors not dyed, if possible, washed staples (approx. 80-100 grams); Honey Comb Scarf requires pencil roving (approx. 60-80 grams), other mixed color Merino wool for Dip-dye Party Scarf and Woven Muffler or Wedding Shawl
  • Sharp scissors
  • Sewing kit (variety of colored threads, needles, tape measure, etc.)
  • Optional: Inexpensive electric orbital sander (4x7" pad) and a pair of shock absorption gloves like mountain bikers wear.