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

From Tin Foil to Sterling Silver

A smiling 8-year-old sits at her kitchen table, turning pieces of tin foil into shiny silver rings. When they're ready, she proudly shows them off to everyone in the vicinity! These days, Emily Hickman creates timeless hammered sterling silver jewelry in her Shoreline, Washington, studio that is sold in galleries and boutiques across the country.

A selection of Emily Hickman's sterling silver jewelry

Every artist's path is unique, and Hickman's was certainly circuitous. As a child, she was encouraged to try every creative thing she could, from drawing and watercolor, to pottery, papier mache, beaded jewelry and more. Her mother was an artist, drawing the illustrations for department store newspaper ads in the pre-digital age, so she witnessed art as a career early in life.

The ever-popular rectangle pendant and earrings

The childhood ring-making experience shows an early love of jewelry, too. While her mother didn't wear much, and encouraged Hickman “not to wear it all at once,” her grandmother had a huge collection of costume jewelry. Hickman inherited some of those pieces, and recalls having fun enjoying them as a kid.

In High School, she got her first taste of metalsmithing from a talented and encouraging teacher. But after that, she pursued the more traveled road of entering the work force, going through a series of boring, and physically demanding, jobs. She didn't get back into jewelry making until her 40s, when she got into bead work again. Soon it became too limiting, so she signed up for metalsmithing classes at North Seattle Community College.

Emily Hickman in her colorful studio in Shoreline, Washington

She knew almost immediately she wanted to do jewelry professionally. She was told she'd never make a living that way, so don't bother. “But I'm stubborn,” Hickman proudly announced, and moved forward anyway. By this time, those physically demanding jobs had taken a toll on her body, requiring foot surgery. She was determined to find a new career before her body gave out entirely.

Teardrop pendant
with Moonstone

As seems all too common, other events conspired to appear to steer her away from this dream, but that stubborn streak still won out. She got her business license on her birthday, April 11^th of 2006. In June that same year, right as she was setting up her tent for her first retail show, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. But rather than give it up, the metalsmithing is just what kept her sane throughout that year of treatment. Happily, she got a clean bill of health a year later.

She continued to take metalsmithing courses for about three years altogether, acquiring bits and pieces of equipment along the way to supply her own studio. A fair amount of experimentation goes on during this phase of an artist's career. Within the field of metalsmithing, there are many possible roads an artist can choose to master: stone-setting, casting, enamels, forging, lathe-turning, to name a few. A student learns them all to find out what makes her heart sing. In that process, some dead ends are inevitable.

More tools on the desk

Storage chest full of tools

Such was the case for Hickman, who had three distinctly different lines at first. It seemed a good idea at the time, because the potential market would be broad. Surely most people would like at least one of those lines, the thinking goes. Some art business classes helped her realize it's unwise to try to be all things to all people. Choose one to focus on, and let the others go. She chose the hammered silver line.

Wall of hammers for various purposes

The first iteration of this line features geometric shapes in gently-concave form with a hammered surface in either a shiny or brushed finish. This collection still makes up the foundation of her entire business. Hickman's goal was to create jewelry with both an ancient and contemporary feel, that “you could wear with either your blue jeans, or that little black dress,” she says. To achieve that timeless feel, she emphasized using tools that have been available since people first began working with metal: silver sheet, silver wire, a saw, a hammer, a drill, and a polishing method.

The Go-Go Necklace

Another piece of Hickman's jewelry philosophy is remaining neutral. Everything in her line is silver, white, black or clear. No colored stones are ever used, because “that would limit the clothing you could wear it with,” Hickman says. “If I use a garnet, you'll only wear that necklace with your red outfits.” Thus if a stone is added, it will be moonstone or white pearls only. She emphasizes that her pieces are intended to be interchangeable, too. You can have an exactly matched set if you want, but you could also pair a particular pendant shape with a differently shaped earring. Avoiding “trendy”, Hickman wants her jewelry never to go out of style.

Hickman focused on the geometric collection for the first two years of building her wholesale production jewelry business, which began a little over two years ago after some years of finding local consignment opportunities. By focusing so carefully, she has been able to build her business gradually, so that now her jewelry can be found in 17 states across the country.

Floribunda pendant and earrings with black pearl

With that foundation under her belt, she allowed herself some leeway to experiment. In March of this year, she introduced the Floribunda collection into the line, to great success. Orders from her existing customers flooded in, and new accounts were opened. While floral in shape, all other components remain the same: sterling silver with a hammered surface.

Encouraged by Floribunda's success, Hickman is now experimenting with a new collection. Inspirations for this come from mid-19th-century jewelry artists such as Alexander Calder and others who often worked in copper. Elements of Pacific Islander culture come into play as well. These pieces are mostly flat rather than domed, but maintain her line's consistency being made of sterling silver with a hammered surface. None of these are currently available in any shops, but we get a sneak peek at them here, and some will make appearances at her trunk show at Manya Vee Selects on July 19^th.

Potential future collection 

What does Hickman's future hold? “I saw a video a few years back about a 90-year old woman who was still happily making jewelry. I want to be like that!” she says with a huge smile. Her goal is to expand her wholesale business into all 50 states, “without getting so big that I can't make it all myself.” Sounds to me that we can rest assured that we'll be able to enjoy Hickman's jewelry, in all its as-yet-unseen interations, for many years to come.

Enjoy the pictures below, which provide an insight into some of the details that make up the world of a production jeweler, as she shows us how she provides consistency for quality control in the Floribunda collection.

Computerized flower patterns. Glue pattern to silver to saw out by hand.  Sheet with flowers cut out, balls for centers.

To give shape to the flat flower, it is placed in a dapping block, and a wooden dapper is tapped with a hammer.

If you can't join us for our Emily Hickman trunk show on Thursday evening, July 19, from 5 - 8 pm, stop by later to see what new treasures from Emily we have in the store.  Some of her Floribunda collection is available in our online shop, too!

Manya Vee

ManyaVeeSelects.com

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

Emily Hickman's Timeless Hammered Silver Jewelry

Sometimes, an inclination toward something takes hold very early in life.  For Emily Hickman, jewelry was just such a thing.  Picture it if you will: little Emily, forming rings out of aluminum foil, and trying to figure out how to make them even shinier by adding rhinestones!  I bet you can just see a cute little blonde girl walking around, proudly holding out her hand for all to see her gorgeous "diamond" ring!

"Moondrops" bracelet from
new 2011 summer collection

Emily was lucky enough to have a metals program in her high school, where she took classes and got her first taste of using a torch and working with metals a little more precious than aluminum foil.

But as happens with so many, she believed the starving artist myth and felt she had to pursue a career with a stable paycheck.  Many dreary years later, and now in her 50s, she returned to her first love by taking jewelry-making classes at North Seattle Community College, and Danaca Designs in the U District.  As she describes it, "I had too many design ideas floating around in my head."  Apparently, they wouldn't be ignored!

Emily Hickman Designs

Emily took as many classes as possible, while maintaining a full-time job.  She wanted to get her skills down quickly so she could focus on making those designs floating around in her head become a reality.

And thus, Emily Hickman Designs was born!  Emily is inspired by her love of the water, as well as ancient hand-forged jewelry.  Simple yet classic shapes are the hallmark of her sterling silver jewelry.  What sets her work apart from the crowd is her use of various hammer tips to create different textures on the surface of the silver.

Earrings from 2011 collection

She also likes to use two different finishes.  One is a highly polished surface that glistens and dances in the light.  The other is a brushed finish that is very subtle and contemporary.  She created the tool she uses to make that brushed surface texture, so it is unlike others out there.  Whatever your personal style, Emily's classic designs is likely to have some choices for you.

Emily can't imagine leaving the house without some jewelry on.  She wanted her own jewelry to be the kind that a woman could wear with jeans, or feel confident wearing to a special event as well.  Her classic shapes with their wonderful textures achieve that goal brilliantly!

Very long necklace can be worn singly, doubly,
or even tripled

Please join us Thursday, July 21 from 5 - 8 pm when Emily will introduce her newest collection, which features open circles and coin-shaped silver elements in a variety of combinations, as seen in the pictures here.  You'll be the first to ever see them!  Wearing them is sure to elicit comments from your friends, and even complete strangers, giving you yet another opportunity to share a moment of beauty with the world.

Manya Vee
www.ManyaVeeSelects.com

Celebrating 10 Years

It's hard to believe we opened our doors 10 whole years ago.  Where has the time gone?  And I know for sure I personally haven't aged that much.  These rites of passage seem to lend themselves to some strolls down memory lane, so here we go.

Before opening our gallery, I was busy making jewelry and selling it at every opportunity possible - at craft fairs, farmer's markets, trade shows, through sales reps, and online.  It is rather exhausting work, but it definitely had its rewards.  But I was getting weary of lugging a tent around every weekend, only to be at the whim of the weather.  And we all know, we NEVER get rain here in Seattle....

But in the meantime, I had made many new artist friends.  Friends who made all kinds of beautiful things like pottery, glass, silk scarves, candles, and other kinds of jewelry.  I realized it was time to open up my own permanent art show!  Besides, I was fully devoted to helping others surround themselves with beauty and creativity.  What better way to do so?

Arizona artist Scott Johnson

And thus began the journey.  We started out representing only artists from Washington State.  But there are so many lovely things made in other states, that eventually I couldn't resist.  We now have works by over 100 artists.  About half are from Washington, and the other half come from other states, as well as two from Canada.

Manya in clothes from Bellingham

We have also expanded our wearable art selections, especially lately.  If you know me at all, you know I loves clothes.  I suppose it was inevitable that I'd find it irresistable to expand in that way.  We've had scarves, jackets, shawls and wraps for quite a few years now.  But this year, I got to add two new lines of my favorite type of clothing to wear - comfortable, attractive, drapey, and washable.  Just doesn't get any better than that!  One line from Bellingham enjoys eco-friendly fabrics.  Her T-shirts are a blend of organic cotton and a soy protein fiber - also known as the cashmere of the vegetable world.  They are the softest T-shirts in my closet.  And so pretty, too!  Her "posh pants" are organic cotton and hemp, and are very good looking and extremely comfortable.  I have to force myself to wear something else from time to time!

So here's to another 10 years!  Who knows how we'll grow and develop in that time frame.  It certainly is remarkable to think that when we opened in 2000, the economy was so rosy.  Then 9/11 happened, and the market for art shriveled up so much.  It sort of leveled out, but has never been as easy as we've heard other gallery-owners describe in the pre-9/11 years.  Now we're struggling through a recession, and doing our best to offer affordable, colorful, unique items in a very wide price range.  In fact, over the past 18 months we've increased the number of things under $40 quite a bit.  You should see our choices under $20!

Well, I'm sure I'll have more musings along these lines over the next few days, so stay tuned...

Manya

November 2010

ManyaVeeSelects.com

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

A Magic Moment - customer, gallery, and artist connect!

It happened last Saturday.  A semi-regular customer came into the gallery.  M.R. was checking out the latest wearable art offerings rather leisurely when her hand rested upon a chrome and black peluche wrap by Laura Lawrence.  M.R. has the most amazing head of silver, straight, thick, wonderful hair.  The wrap would look amazing on her.

Laura's wraps come to life when worn on the body.  The hanger just doesn't cut it.  So, I took it off the hanger and wrapped it around my own body to show M.R. the variety of ways it can be worn, and to show her how beautifully it moves on the body.  She was intrigued and mesmerized by its beauty.


Off comes her coat.  Her purse gets absent-mindedly placed on the floor.  And she wraps herself in the soft and gentle beauty and takes a look in the mirror.  Yep.  It looked like it had been made especially with her in mind.  She has fun playing with all the ways it can be worn.  Open in the front with lapels.  One side draped across the front.  Both ends captured across the shoulders.  And so on.


As you can now imagine, it went home with her.  She was so very pleased with it that a thank you needed to be delivered to the artist.  Here's a bit of what she said: "Yesterday I purchased one of your beautiful Double Peluche Capes in Edmonds, WA from Manya Vee Selects.  The moment I saw it I "bonded" and knew that I had created an intention at some previous moment in time to have a "made for me" work of wearable art. My cape is chrome and black and compliments and enhances my long silver [chrome?] hair- a big consideration when buying clothing! The other part of this story is that I had JUST picked up a custom ring which I had spent weeks/months designing and refining with the jewelers. Some how this all fits together- maybe a sign about how very important our creative contributions are to the world. Thank you so very much for your generous, lovely art. I LOVE my new cape and will think of the love that helped create it as I wear it with the memories already created!"


Laura was totally blown away by receiving such heart-felt gratitude about something she had created with her own hands.  She responded thusly:  "What a lovely surprise to receive your email--thank you so much for writing! As someone who has gone "natural" with my hair color, I certainly can relate to what you said regarding the silver [chrome]. I must say how pleased I have been with the silver with black accents. I hope you enjoy many hours of feeling hugged in it.  Thank you again for taking the time to write me."


And now, the shared moments of beauty will happen with M.R. as she wears her lovely wearable art!  She will be one of those bringing a smile and a sense of awe about the amazing beauty of creativity and excellent craftsmanship each time she wears it.  How cool is that?!?!?!?


Manya
manyaveeselects.com