Center for Craft

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| Craft is for everyone

Building a future for craft.

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Center for Craft

Center

| Building a future for craft

Building a future for craft.

Mabel Johnson

Windgate-Lamar Fellowship

2026

Bio of the Artist

Mabel Johnson’s work revolves around garment construction, building upon techniques such as hand pleating, embroidery, and piecing. She is drawn to exploring the ways that clothing becomes a living language. Often incorporating repurposed materials, each garment carries traces of the past into the living rhythm of the present. Working from the fabric outward, she observes how it drapes and folds in her hands. Weight and movement guide each silhouette, as color and composition emerge in response—allowing each step of the process to inform the next.

Mabel started her own clothing line (mabelmade) at the age of 15 and has sold over 250 garments across the United States and internationally, along with a number of custom commissions. In 2025 she collaborated with the brand Ace & Jig to create a capsule collection of garments made from their hand-woven material. Mabel is a recipient of the Karen Gould Award, the Barbara L. Kuhlman Foundation Scholarship, and the Susan Lordi Marker Award of Excellence in Fiber. She has also received the Lead Emerging Artist Prize (LEAP Award), and was a design finalist in the National YoungArts Foundation (2021).