Bangor library sews up fiber arts 29 to exhibit work at second annual event on Saturday, Feb. 24

BANGOR – The symbiosis of wool and silk is what holds it all together at One Lupine Fiber Arts, 170 Park St. At the studio owned by fiber artist and designer Jodi Clayton, un-spun fleece and lengths of silk fabric dazzle the eye with brilliant hues.

The walls are hung with rows of finished garments in a palette of colors ranging from delicate peach to bold blue – and all the other colors of the rainbow. The tools of the trade, two washing machines and a dryer, line one wall, and a long stainless steel table where wool roving is placed in spiral and other designs on long lengths of silk chiffon stands nearby.

Visitors are greeted by Tide, the black Labrador retriever; Tiger Lily, the mixed-breed brindle-color pup; and Dennis, the fluffy gray Angora rabbit.

Clayton will be among the 29 fiber artists to exhibit and demonstrate work at the second annual Fiber Art Exhibition 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24, at Bangor Public Library.

Jackets, tunics, blouses, halter tops, boleros, T-tops, capes, ponchos and opera jackets – a line of clothing added just this past fall – are the latest stars in Clayton’s felting repertoire.

“I love working with silk,” she said. “It’s the most versatile and elegant of fibers. It takes the dye the same way as wool and responds the same way. Silk and wool have an ancient relationship.” She creates her line through a felting technique that fuses the wool roving to the silk fabric using water, soap and friction. Felting as a way to create fabric, she said, has been around for 4,000 years.

“Felting is a lot like watercolor,” she said. “There’s always an element of surprise.” She finds inspiration for her work in her garden and in the raku pottery her husband Dennis Harrington creates.

Clayton started her business in her Orono home and worked there for four years producing felting kits and decorative pieces such as wall hangings and rugs. She moved the business to Bangor last May.

“The move has given me back a chunk of my house,” she said. It also has allowed for expansion. Adding a clothing line “pushed the business forward.”

Clayton wholesales her products to regional and national galleries and other venues, and sells directly at several craft shows each year.

Clayton praised the city of Bangor and its various departments for their support while she was renovating space for her studio.

“The city has been supportive every step of the way,” she said. “They made what I had to do clear, and it was affordable. I was impressed with that.”

Clayton learned to knit when she was so young she can’t remember exactly how old she was. She has always worked with natural fibers. But instead of studying art in college, she got a degree in political science and studied holistic nutrition. She also ran a custom knitting business for a few years. Ten years ago she learned to spin.

Then, six years ago she attended a felting workshop at the University of Maine’s Page Farm and Home Museum.

“A light went on,” she said, and she knew felting was what she wanted to do forever. Her stepmother, also interested in felting, asked Clayton to make a felting kit. “And that’s how I started my business.” The kits, designed for children, were sold in craft and yarn shops.

“I didn’t know I could make art until I was 35,” Clayton said. “It didn’t enter my consciousness [until after learning how to do felting.]”

Clayton buys wool from Maine, New England or Canadian producers. She uses dyes from W.C. Cushing Co. in Kennebunkport.

“I use as much Maine-raised fiber as possible,” she said. The silk comes from China.

Clayton called the idea of a “creative economy” a “great idea, a perfect and logical fit with the state [of Maine.] But there’s not enough buzz, it needs to be promoted more and made more public.”

Artists Rachel Jones and Nancy Hall work at the studio and are involved in many aspects of the business, including the felting process – laying the roving design on the silk, wetting it and rolling it up between layers of plastic.

Seamstress Janice Boyinton, owner of Sojourn Quilts, stitches the clothing and Jessi Sader, owner of FX Dzine, is the clothing line’s designer. Clayton also designs clothing items.

Each piece in Clayton’s clothing line is hand done – from felting to sewing – and each is unique. Women age 20 to 80 find it appealing, she said. “I’d also like to think that someday Jennifer Aniston would wear it,” she said.

At the library’s Fiber Art Exhibit, Clayton will show examples of her work and offer a felting activity that will appeal to young and old.

One Lupine Fiber Arts is open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 299-6716.