Lexington artist uses fiber from Kentucky animals

By TED SLOAN, Kentucky Agricultural News

Jan Durham creates works of art, function and even whimsy out of animal fibers and dyes. In just a few years, she has earned widespread acclaim for her works, many of which were made with fiber from Kentucky animals.

 “I love working with wool. It’s just wonderful to work with,” Durham said. “It’s moldable. It does what you want it to do. … It feels good when I’m knitting. It’s real soft, like petting an animal. If I want to knit it into something, it knits. If I want to felt it into something, it felts. It’s almost like clay.”

Durham creates handbags, scarves, “pottery” and wall hangings. She uses acid dyes of white vinegar or citric acid to give her creations deep, rich colors. Some of her wall hangings evoke Impressionism with her use of vivid colors to depict ordinary, everyday scenes; others are three-dimensional works using fibers from different breeds or even different animals to create special effects.

“Wool just picks up colors amazingly,” Durham said. “I don’t believe even paint is as colorful as wool fiber when you dye it. It’s like looking in a stained-glass window.”

Durham uses wool from a Lincoln-Dorset cross grown by Brooke Alexander of Four Mountains Farm near Hillsboro in Fleming County. They met two years ago when Durham served as a driver for her son’s class field trip to the farm. “[The Lincoln-Dorset wool] has a lot of curl to it, and the sheen is real high. It makes the color shine once it gets into the fiber,” Durham said. “Once I got the raw fleece and started working with it for my felted pieces, I was hooked on it.”

She also hand paints a yarn called Surino, which consists of alpaca fiber and merino wool, from Flaggy Meadow Fiber Works near Springfield . She said alpaca fiber doesn’t contain lanolin as sheep’s wool does, it’s very soft, and it has a high sheen.

“I try to use things that are local,” she said. “I’m from Kentucky. I’ve lived here all my life. I like promoting my state.”

As a child in Harlan County, Durham learned to crochet from her grandmothers, both of whom lived within walking distance of her home, and was exposed to various handicrafts through her grandmothers and her mother. “My Mam-maw Durham lived to be 98 and never stopped with her needlework,” she said. Jan Durham started knitting again when she was expecting her son, Kevin, now 11, and started felting about three years ago.

Largely self-taught, she constantly looks for information on working with fiber and experiments with different fibers. Recently she made 13 swatches with wool from 13 breeds of sheep. She has found that wool from different breeds has different characteristics.

Durham said her interest in working with wool has coincided with an increased interest in wool in the United States and a growing number of sources and processors. “It’s really taken off, and I have picked up on it because it’s so great to work with,” she said.

Durham has made friends with fellow fiber artists in Holland and New Zealand via the Internet. She plans to join the Second International Day of Felt, a global exhibition of felt arts and crafts scheduled for Oct. 2. The exhibition is coordinated by FeltUnited (www.feltunited.com), a non-profit organization of felt artists around the world.

Durham has demonstrated her craft in schools and with children at Cardinal Hill Hospital. She is a member of the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen.

Some of her works are on display in an exhibit called “Kentucky Wool: A Renewable Resource” at the Central Library Branch of the Lexington Public Library through April 6. The display was made possible by an eco-art grant from Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. Durham is scheduled to teach classes at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival in May in Lexington.

Durham’s works are available at the Kentucky Proud Market in the Lexington Center, the Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea and Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill.

To see a few of Jan Durham’s fiber works, go to www.visionsinwool.com.

Above left: Jan Durham with a few of her works, including a fiber map of Kentucky, that are on display at the Central Library Branch of the Lexington Public Library. (Photo by Ted Sloan)

Above right: Jan Durham points to a figure of an astronaut in her space-themed piece "The Universe Hanging By a Thread." (Photo by Ted Sloan)