The Wearable Art of Pam Wells

Pam Wells in 1958 in front of her grandparent's Dry Cleaner Shop

Rewind to the mid 50s, and see a 12-year-old Pam Wells standing behind the register at her grandparents' dry cleaning business, ready to help customers. Surrounded by fabric, steam, and seamstresses doing alterations, she attests that sewing and fabric have always been a big part of her life. As the oldest grandchild, she was tapped for the job and enjoyed earning some money that way. Far superior to baby-sitting her three younger sisters!

The "Leaf" costume - 1955

She worked there until she was 17, and graduated from the cash register to pressing men's slacks, shortening pants' hems, and finally – the big deal – pressing silk dresses. Meanwhile, she was surrounded by a mom, a grandmother, and others who sewed, along with an industrical sewing machine at work and a treadle machine at home. “Back then, everybody sewed,” Pam exclaims.

Her mother encouraged her to try new things, too, so she altered patterns early on, and just created her own fairly soon. Her favorite things to make were Halloween costumes and prom dresses! Both allowed for some experimentation, which continued to increase her skill and proficiency.

Some background dye has been
applied to silk.  A stamp is ready to
add its shape and color to the surface.

In the 70s, she took a class in precision dying. “While the precision part didn't stick, the dying part was great fun”, she says. Pam began adding her own dyed fabrics to the mix and continues to this day. Of course she experimented with that, too, and now has a unique dying style that creates a subtle, mottled background for the surface embellishment she applies next.

Pam's large collection of wooden
stamps from India and Indonesia.

Having an avid interest in ethnic fabrics of the world, Pam began collecting wooden stamp blocks from India and Indonesia, used in the batik industry there. For batik, the stamp would be dipped in wax to stamp onto the fabric, preventing dye from seeping into it. Pam, instead, dips the stamp into dye and applies that to her already hand-dyed fabric. She has her own hand-made stamps as well, along with stencils and all manner of things to apply surface design.

Pillows are a nice canvas to show off her skills.
These include unique Korean wovens,
Japanese dyed pieces,
and her own stencil designs.

The combination of her own surface design, along with her love of unusual, handmade fabrics, has made her a collector of them too. Intricately woven silks with the pattern woven in with gold wire (“yes, it's really gold, too”, she points out), or Chinese silk embroidery and applique, or vintage Japanese kimono fabrics, and so much more. “I usually can only afford a tiny piece of these things, so walk out of the place with these little 6” strips of amazing cloth,” she says.

The design process - a little of this, a little of that...

All these fabrics and embellishments, along with her own surface applications, result in one-of-a-kind pieces of wearable art such as scarves, jackets, and now pillows. The design phase is her favorite part of the process, and she takes an intuitive approach. Some background fabric is laid out on a big table. Perhaps it's a solid color, or perhaps it's one of her dyed pieces of silk. Her studio is bursting with all these amazing strips of cloth and ribbons. 

Pam Wells models one
of her unique scarves.

 She'll lay some things on top of the fabric and decide if it works. No? Take one thing away and add something new. “Yes, that's it! But not that other thing... “ And so on, until all the components are gathered. Now, the pure technical phase of sewing everything together, and onto the surface, completes the picture. “That's the boring part,” she says.

Those of us who get to see the end result find each piece anything but boring! Each is unique, and comes with a story, too, of where each precious piece of surface embellishment came from, whether Pam's own hand or some far-off land.

Pam's signature "Dragonfly Wrap",
so named because of its shimmer and
movement, enjoys myriad
incarnations from Pam's imagination.
Here she's used black silk and silver metallic
fabric paint in the shape of dragonflies.

Because of her emphasis on surface design, the Japanese kimono lends itself beautifully. As many of you have come to expect over her years of representation at Manya Vee Selects, she has modified that shape into a very fluid and contemporary jacket that wears well on so many body types.   

Her simple scarves are another excellent canvas for surface design, and when worn over a simple top or dress, turn even a plain T-shirt into wearable art.

A new source of enjoyment takes the form of dying socks made of bamboo fabric. Ultra-soft, with naturally built-in antiseptic and moisture-wicking properties, Pam transforms a utilitarian white sock into something very colorful and fun – and affordable at $15 per pair! Her clever husband engineered her “sock machine” so she could dye a pair at the same time to get a good match.

Dying socks

New socks, wraps, jackets, scarves and pillows arrive on Thursday, August 16, at Manya Vee Selects when Pam is our featured artist. We hope you can join us!

And if you have a story of a special event to which you wore your Pam Wells wearable art, please share it with us! We'd love to hear it – especially Pam!

Artfully Yours,

Manya Vee

It's a Wonderful Mystery: Birgit Moenig's Silk Scarves

Birgit Moenig has been sharing her love of painting on silk for over 25 years. What she loves even more than painting on silk is meeting women who feel happier because they are wearing one of her scarves. And that's what it all comes down to: bringing as much happiness as possible, through the beauty a silk scarf can bring to a person and her world.

A happy customer, wearing her
new Birgit scarf

Hailing from Germany originally, Birgit was exposed to silk painting very early. Many German housewives know how to paint on silk, so it was a common, everyday thing to do. Initially, she just picked up some silk, opened some dye, and put it on the silk as she had seen so many others do so effortlessly. She applied her artist eye to it as well, and got inspiration from other artist friends also applying dye to silk. “It's an on-going learning process even today,” she exclaims. “I still talk to my artist friends, and we are always trying new things to see what works best.”

Before painting on silk, Birgit had tried watercolor on paper, “but it didn't take,” she says. Acrylic on canvas was better, and in fact she painted and sold miniature folk paintings at the Pike Place Market when she and her husband first arrived in the States in 1980. But dyeing silk was what she really loved to do. “Designing something and staying inside the lines isn't very fun,” she says. “So I developed my silk dyeing to avoid that. It's a more abstract approach with colors overlapping and flowing together.”

Using a brush to "paint" the dye
onto the white silk

People are drawn to the beautiful colors Birgit uses on her scarves. At Manya Vee Selects, we love to watch people have their eye drawn to our scarf rack and its colorful array of her scarves. They can't resist walking over and touching them! Birgit finds the color choices and blending to be a constant challenge. “It's a wonderful mystery. When it's all done, that's when you know whether it worked or not.”    

Multi-colored scarf by Birgit

The technique is what causes the challenge. A non-toxic, water-based liquid dye is applied to dry, white silk. Colors are always more intense when they are wet, so controlling the strength of each hue is difficult. In addition, not as many colors are available as before, so that means more blending is required to achieve a full palette with lots of variety. In the end, Birgit confesses that her color choices are very intuitive. Of course, I have a feeling her 25 years of experience helps guide the intuition to get her beautiful results.

Birgit's scarf rack at Manya Vee Selects

Birgit works with her husband, Dieter, closely these days. This teamwork began when he lost all contracts for his own business after 9/11. He had been making high-tech satellites for ships. That left him with a lot of time on his hands. One piece of equipment he used in his business is a water-jet, which can cut cleanly through metals. He designed some 3-D ornaments made out of Boeing surplus aluminum, each one cut with that water jet. They were very successful. More designs followed based on customer requests.

Next, customers began asking for 3-D earrings. This required much smaller pieces, and thus more precision in cutting. His huge machine wasn't made for such detail. Upon discovering it would cost $28,000 to re-tool it, he gave up for a while. But the requests kept coming, so he figured out a way to re-tool it himself, costing only $2,000. He graduated the metal to titanium since aluminum has such a low perceived value, and grew his own customer base with this new product.

Three notKnot styles

A scarf woven into a
notKnot

The next product he invented ties Dieter's and Birgit's respective products together very closely – the notKnot! Based on a concept floating around in Birgit's head, each notKnot is cut out with the water jet using thick stainless steel. It allows a person a great deal of flexibility in how to wear the scarves, by weaving them in and out of the openings, making the scarf a bit more like a piece of jewelry.

Now, in addition to showing her scarves at Manya Vee Selects in Edmonds, they tour the country together doing art fairs and selling their wares together, finding new fans at each new show they do. Birgit loves returning to a place and meeting customers for a second, third and fourth time. It gives her great joy to hear how much the women enjoy wearing her scarves. It is an extra special day when someone sends her a card or email letting her know how much they love wearing her scarves.

Birgit and Dieter at an art show

We're in our 12^th year now at Manya Vee Selects, and Birgit is one of just a few artists whose work we've carried since the beginning.  Her scarves find passionate new wearers almost daily. We love passing along those stories to Birgit from our own customers, who simply can't resist that scarf rack and end up buying one, then two, then another for a gift, and so on. Go ahead and write your story here in the comments about your Birgit scarves, so we can share it with her too.

And of course, make your own pilgrimage to The Scarf Rack, and see for yourself how happy and beautiful a new Birgit scarf can make you feel!

See you soon,

Manya

P.S.  Here are links to previous blogs that show some scarf-tying methods.

http://manyaveeselects.blogspot.com/2011/11/3-scarf-ideas-to-spiff-up-your-wardrobe.html

http://manyaveeselects.blogspot.com/2010/07/from-neophyte-to-expert-in-2-hours.html

April 16, 2012

3 Scarf Ideas to Spiff Up Your Wardrobe

I bet each and every woman reading this post has several scarves stuck way back in a drawer somewhere that she never wears.  We seem particularly challenged in figuring out how to wear the darned things!

Learn this tying
technique by watching the
video below

If any of you have visited Paris, you know that every neck is adorned with a lovely scarf - no outfit is complete without one.


Let's try a few easy tricks with long narrow scarves in particular, and you'll be getting compliments on your new look in a jiffy!


First - stop wearing scarves like everyone else in the Northwest - doubled in half, then put around your neck and both ends through the loop.  It's ubiquitous.  That can translate to "boring."




Instead, try this nifty trick for an entirely new look that starts the same basic way.

Next, here are some simple and inexpensive tools to maximize your scarf potential.

The Grip

THE GRIP is the invention of Everett artist Dieter Moenig.  A simple plastic ring that looks suspiciously like a life saver, this $4 item comes in an array of colors, and totally transforms your scarf.

Wrap the scarf around your shoulders like a shawl.  Grab a little piece from each inside edge, at solar plexus level.  Make little pointy-dudes with the edges (yes, that's the technical jargon), and put them through the center of the grip.  Pull until it's nice and snug.


Wear it right in front, or pull it off to the side for an assymetrical look.

Scarf with Grip

Three notKnots

THE NOT-KNOT is another invention of Deiter's.  These stainless steel pieces are cut with a water jet, leaving the inside super smooth, thus avoiding any edges to catch and tear your scarf.  Available in two sizes and lots of shapes.  Small is $24, large is $28.  The small size works on light-weight, delicate scarves while the larger can handle thicker scarves.

Simply weave the scarf in and then out, and presto!  Your scarf is more like a piece of jewelry!

Those three notKnots in use

So get those scarves out of the drawer and start wearing them!  It's cheaper than a new outfit, and will have compliments coming your way all day long!  They are also an excellent gift idea for your pals who wear scarves frequently.  What a nice surprise for them.

Manya Vee

www.ManyaVeeSelects.com

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Manya Vee Selects

409 Main St

Edmonds, WA  98020

425-776-3778

Hours: Daily 11 - 6, Sunday & Tuesday noon - 4

From neophyte to expert in 2 hours!

Elaine and Nancy were drawn into the store by the scarves in our window display.  They mournfully walked up to our scarf rack and said "We love scarves, but we never know how to wear them."  As you can imagine, that is like a sparkly thing to a crow for this seller of wearable art!

First, I showed them how to do the twist (something I've taught many of you as well!).  Naturally, they had to follow the rule and be able to do it on their own at least twice before they were allowed to leave the store.  They took to it like a fish to water!  Both were experts at it in no time.

Next, I introduced them to the Scarf Toy Shelf.  You know, there's an entire store devoted to car toys.  Well, we have a shelf devoted to Scarf Toys.  These toys include notKnots, Scarf Rings, and magnetic pins.  All create a very different look with the very same scarf, offering a multitude of fun options.

Their minds were spinning out of control with so much scarf potential at their fingertips!  Other customers came in demanding my time, while Elaine and Nancy stayed in the scarf zone playing and playing.  In between customers, I'd pop on over and show them something new.  Then they'd be off and running trying that out, and having a very good time.

Their laughter and fun drew other customers over to watch, and low and behold, they were teaching them how to wear the very scarves they themselves didn't know how to wear mere moments before.  They even demanded be able to do each style at least twice on their own before leaving the store!  It was such a hoot!

After about an hour or so, they were actually inventing their own variations to the few things I showed them.  Proud as punch with their new inventions, they made sure I got to see each one.

Naturally, each one went home with a new scarf and some scarf toys, ready to take on the world with their new-found love of scarves.

Manya Vee
ManyaVeeSelects.com