Janet Stapelman attended Catholic University in D.C. and State University of New York in Oswego where she learned technical theater skills. After graduation, she designed sets in New York City and took classes at the Art Students’ League. She painted sets for over 250 Broadway productions. She also co-founded a vocational school for aspiring scenic artists. A diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis caused her to move to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, away from northern winters. Unable to paint as she used to, she began working with leftover threads from her needlepoint work. Soon she was amassing skeins of thread in all different colors, designing larger images, committing to the meditative process and making it her own.