(828) 526-0173 | [email protected] | Copyright 2024 – All Rights Reserved.
Felted and One-Derful | Artist Jane Adams
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2020/11 - November
For artist Jane Adams, the tactile dimension of felting is a beguiling invitation that won’t be ignored.
Jane Adams, fiber artist, finds felting magical, if not spiritual.
She shares a favorite felt origin tale: Two travelers stuffed their sandals with raw wool to protect their feet from blisters (Appalachian Trail trekkers take note). The natural lanolin, wet sweat, and agitation from walking/rubbing fibers together felted the wool by journey’s end, conforming it perfectly to the men’s feet, possibly documenting the world’s first felted-socks … granted, a bit odiferous, but blister-free feet is worth it.
She says, “Today, the process is less primitive. Needles, wool, soap and water, plus hours of creativity equals keepsakes that are created in the eye of this artist.”
Jane’s own felting-origin tale was a bit more circuitous, but magical none-the-less. As a member of a homemakers club in Clayton, Georgia, she began crocheting items, donating a portion of each sale to the club’s college scholarship fund.
Over the years, one thing led to another. Fellow club-members knew she liked yarn and shared news of an alpaca farm which led to other connections, fiber arts shows, and festivals.
Jane was hypnotically-drawn to delicious textures, sinking her fingers into tactile sensations and spinnable fibers from sheep, alpaca, llama,
and more.
At her home-based studio, her passion expanded her crochet-work into spinning, dyeing, needle-felting, knitting, hat-making, weaving (shawls), felted flowers, and cobweb scarves. For the holidays, her needle-felted angels and sheep fly and gallop out the door. Rabbits, pumpkins and fingerless gloves are also in her popular handcrafted line-up.
Black Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, Jane will offer her needle-felted angels, hats, scarves and more at the Civic Center in Clayton for The Festival of Trees show.
“It’s first-come, first-serve,” she advises with a wink.
Contact Jane about that something one-derful. Email: [email protected]. During the 2021 season you might catch her at The Marketplace, Kelsey-Hutchinson Founders Park, Saturdays 8:00 A.M. to noon, May-October.
