Photo by Jennifer Clark.

Judy Wolff-Mills

Fiber artist Judy Wolff-Mills is the creative spirit behind JWMfibers. Her prairie studio overlooks Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. There she hand dyes, hand weaves, and tailors couture garments using alpaca and llama yarns. Her herd of twenty much-loved llamas contributes to the yarns she uses in her artistry. Her garments honor these extraordinary animals and celebrate the people who wear them.

Artist's Statement

Judy Wolff-Mills
January 2009
From the Front Range of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains

Welcome to JWMfibers

Another day has dawned on the prairie, clear and brisk and full of promise. My partner Stan Wolff-Mills and I spent the pre-dawn moments together in the barn with our herd of twenty much-loved llamas. Our feeding, watering, and “bean” cleaning were rewarded with an occasional llama kiss – a blessing for the new day.

JWMfibers – from fleece to fabulous

Among the llamas’ daily activities is one essential to JWMfibers: they continue to grow dense, silky fleeces. In spring when those fleeces are no longer needed for their comfort, I will hand shear them and ship them with other fleeces that I purchase to the mill in Kansas where caring hands and well-kept machines turn them into the yarns I specify. These are the raw materials of dreams.

One Artist’s Journey

Born and raised in Eastern Connecticut, my love affair with fiber is a story of genetics, rearing, and environment. My frugal family remains a testimony to green living: “waste not, want not” and “anything worth doing is worth doing well” were the basic tenets of our family. My Grandfather and Great Grandfather earned their livings in the woolen mills of Rhode Island, and the women of the family, very notably my mother, were adept and talented needlewomen who clothed their families using the skill of their hands.

Knitting and sewing were early skills learned from my exacting mother. Over the decades I have added tailoring, handweaving, hand spinning, and dyeing to my repertoire. Falling in love with llamas and building our ranch around our herd in 2002 provided the spirit and vision for my fiber work. JWMfibers was born!

JWMfibers Collection

Thank you for visiting our website, designed by Aly Wolff-Mills, our next generation artist. Enjoy browsing the portfolio of garments that celebrate the people who wear them and honor the animals that provided the fiber to create them. My clients, these animals, and the breathtaking prairie and Rocky Mountains that stretch beyond my studio windows continually inspire my work.

Garments from the collection are all available for you. In addition, I invite you to contact me for a design consultation to create a custom project just for you.