Valerie Williams - Try Handmade

A Stitch to Wear

March 25, 2020 by Valerie Williams 1 Comment

Allison Taylor’s story as a crafter begins in a familiar way: she first learned to crochet at her grandmother’s knee at the tender age of six.

Despite her grandmother’s considerable skill as a fiber artist, not to mention her infinite patience, crocheting didn’t quite stick with Allison that first time around. Six year olds aren’t famous for their attention spans, so it’s not really that surprising!

It wasn’t until much later when Allison was a college student that she picked up crochet hooks and some yarn again. Although she had never gotten into the knitting, crocheting, sewing, and other fiber arts that her grandmother had mastered, Allison had always admired her grandmother’s talent and skill with needles, yarn, and fabric.

When her grandmother became ill and was no longer physically able to craft, due to side effects of a stroke, Allison was inspired once again to take up the craft she had not been able to master as a little girl.

She made her grandmother a blanket, to show her how much she appreciated her, and how impressed she had always been with her fiber skills. Blankets are still Allison’s favorite thing to make, and friends and family can count on one for a gift whenever there’s a wedding or baby on the way.

Allison was “hooked” on crochet from then on, and turned her hobby into a side business with her Etsy shop that opened in 2008. Although she has a day job unrelated to crafting, it in no way diminishes her fierce love for making.

The best part for Allison is having strangers own something she made with her own hands: “It’s a way of sharing something tangible with people across long spaces, which is so rare,” she says. “It’s really exciting and touching, and I never get over it.”

She also feels a connection to her grandmother every time she picks up her crochet hook, another feeling many crafters can relate to. The emotional connection associated with creating and sharing handmade goods is probably one of the big reasons handmade is so popular these days.

The most popular item in Allison’s shop is the best friends beanie, which also happens to be her favorite thing to make for the shop! Customers also respond well to her continuum scarves and continuum collars, with their unusual shape.

Like most of her creations, Allison let the continuum scarf emerge on its own, without too much planning ahead from her. Her general technique is to pick up her crochet hook and yarn, and experiment with different stitches until something she loves emerges.

You can find Allison’s crocheted gems in her online shop. If you see something you like but are fixated on a certain color, don’t worry because Allison loves to do custom work!

Yellin’ Moon

March 3, 2020 by Valerie Williams 3 Comments

Steph Dempsey and I were neighbors at a craft show this summer, so for three days I got to do one of my favorite things: look at pretty fabric all day long. Steph makes lovely handmade dresses for little girls under the label Yellin’ Moon, and has a wonderful eye for combining fabrics in unexpected ways.

Even though none of the dresses were big enough for me, I had great fun looking through them all, just to see Steph’s pretty and unusual blends of pattern and color.

The mixing and matching makes Yellin’ Moon dresses just as appealing to parents as they are to the young ladies they are intended for. . .I heard enthusiastic squeals of “oooh, lookit the dresses!” from women and girls of all ages that weekend!

Steph loves fabric and color, and you can tell by looking at her creations. She says she is “not a snooty shopper” when it comes to fabric, and finds new goodies for her stash wherever she goes: fashion fabric shops, quilting shops, goodwill and thrift stores, and occasionally her husband’s closet.

The vast variety of her sources, and the fact that she buys in small quantities, means that her fabric stash is ever changing, and with it the inspiration for her dresses. Every single dress is one-of-a-kind, and is created from a happy accident of on-the-spot inspiration from the fabrics themselves, and sometimes input from her daughter, who has her own sharp eye for pattern and color.

Steph’s love for quilting and the attention to detail in vintage clothes comes out in the dresses she makes. “It seems like when you only have one small piece of something, it becomes so much more precious,” she says. Combining small bits of fabric not only makes each dress she makes unique, but also adds complexity to her otherwise uncomplicated designs. Steph keeps the silhouettes of her dresses simple on purpose, to make sure they stay easy to wear and care for.

Steph has been sewing all her life, and started saving up for her first sewing machine at age eleven. She’s always made quilts and clothes for herself, but didn’t think to turn her hobby into a business until after her children were born. The first Yellin’ Moon dress (although she didn’t know it at the time) was a sundress for her first daughter, refashioned from an old muumuu. Her daughter loved wearing it, and soon friends started to ask her to make their children dresses.

Eventually, with encouragement from an entrepreneurial friend, Yellin’ Moon was born. In addition to dresses in a handful of styles for little girls, Steph also makes winter hats and mittens, party hats, pants, skirts, shirts, and bibs. She has plans to expand to little boys’ clothes and perhaps even some items for adults.

Steph sells her pretty clothes at local art and craft shows, and you can find her show schedule on her blog. She is also planning on restocking her online shop this fall, so keep a sharp eye out, because everything is one of a kind!

A Show of Hands

February 14, 2020 by Valerie Williams Leave a Comment

The neighborhood of Del Ray in Alexandria, Virginia has a great little motto: “Where Main Street Still Exists.” And it is absolutely true. Del Ray’s main street, Mount Vernon Avenue, is lined with adorable shops and independent restaurants. It is the kind of place that encourages residents to hang around close to home, rather than wander into the city, and also lures in people from neighboring towns who are looking for something different.

One of those adorable shops is called A Show of Hands, and it is my favorite kind of place: a store completely devoted to selling the works of local artists and crafters.

Currently more than 300 artists have their work on display there, and more are added all the time. Nearly every artist featured is from Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC or West Virginia, with just a few sprinkled in from other areas.

A Show of Hands will celebrate its fifth anniversary this November, and over the years has served as the launching pad for several northern-Virginia area artists and crafters.

Store owner Pat Miller, who is also chairman of the Alexandria Commission for the Arts, says that was her intention all along. While the store accepts work in all mediums from artists of all levels of expertise and experience, the focus tends to be on emerging artists. Those who maybe still have their day jobs, and can’t yet focus completely on their artwork.

Having their goods for sale at a store like A Show of Hands is often the first step to working on their art full time.

The inventory at A Show of Hands is purposefully diverse. Paintings, photography, pottery, fiber work, soaps, jewelry, wooden toys, and homemade jam all have a place there, in addition to nearly anything else a local artist could dream up. The store even sells work from local musicians and poets, and occasionally sells tickets to events starring resident recording artists.

Pat and co-owner Maria Wasowski plan trunk shows and demonstrations at the store that feature resident artists, and are also planning to host performances at the shop sometime in the future.

The most popular items in the store are jewelry and baby goods, as the shop is a very popular destination for locals looking for that unique and special gift. After all, nobody wants to show up at a baby shower with the fifth Baby Gap sweater.

The store’s unique and ever-changing stock has made it a favorite destination for locals as well as tourists visiting Alexandria. Many of the handcrafted goods in the store cannot be found anywhere else!

A Show of Hands is located at 2301 Mount Vernon Avenue in Alexandria, VA. Drop by Tuesday through Fridays 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, Saturdays 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, and Sundays noon to 5:00 pm.

JZ Bags

January 7, 2020 by Valerie Williams 4 Comments

Please welcome another columnist with ambitious column plans. The second in the ‘In My Town’ series, Valerie Williams is focusing on the Washington DC Metro area. A former lobbyist and crafter – check out her handbags – she has jumped right in with zeal and enthusiasm! If you know the area she’s writing about, please let her know in the comments if you have any tips about places for her to visit.

::
Erika

Jean Zakotnik is a woman after my own heart. She loves handbags, bright colors, and the soothing power of making things with your hands. She is also the owner, designer, and head knitter of JZ Bags, the home of a colorful and playful line of hand knit and felted wool handbags. I had a chance to visit her Potomac, Maryland studio to talk with her about what inspires her, and to learn more about the process of making her one-of-a-kind handbags.

I love the look and feel of felted wool, but it’s not a craft I have ever tried, so I was excited to catch Jean while she was literally in the middle of felting a batch of small bags in a lovely dark charcoal gray. I knew the general principle of felting: hot water, along with a little soap and agitation, causes the fibers to bond together to form a thick, dense fabric. What I didn’t know was that creating a three dimensional, functional object like a handbag takes much more than just a toss into the washing machine.

Constant vigilance is required to prevent the knitted bags from becoming mangled and unusable during the felting process. While we chatted, Jean repeatedly removed the bags from the hot, soapy water and manipulated the wool by hand, deciding on the fly how each bag should look in shape and texture.

I knew that hand knitted wool would shrink significantly when felted, but I had no idea by how much! I was amazed to see the before and after of two of Jean’s most popular styles, the flagship “Bag JZ” which is a large hobo style, and a smaller shoulder bag with a flap.

An incredible amount of hand labor goes into the creation of each handbag. Jean knits her handbags by hand, without a pattern. Although she has developed a few favorite shapes and styles over the years, there is no set “line” of JZ Bags. Each one starts out with just her size 15 knitting needles and inspiration, and she decides as she goes what colors to use and what shapes to make.

Jean calls each of her handbags a “felix culpa,” or happy mistake, because there is no way of knowing how each will turn out, and she makes no effort to predict the end result. Each handbag is its own novel experience and creative adventure.

Even after the bags are completely felted and dry, there are still design decisions to make. Jean has lovely collection of vintage and handmade buttons (made for her by her father), and has also recently experimented with needle felting and fringe embellishments.

What I loved most about Jean’s story was that when she first had the idea to make what would become the first JZ Bag, she had absolutely no idea how to felt! She was already an experienced knitter, but had grown weary of churning out scarves and sweaters. It was the time of the “It” bag, but the styles on sale at the mall with four-digit price tags left her cold. She had a vision of a big, soft bag that was all about color and texture, something that hundreds of other women in the DC area wouldn’t have. She knew she could make this unique bag, and simply started knitting and felting and hoped that what came out would match the picture in her head.

Although she calls her first attempt “a disaster,” the failure did not deter her, and only led her to embrace the “felix culpa” approach to making her handbags.

Just as each handbag is its own surprise, Jean is constantly surprising herself as she lives the adventure of knitting, felting, and running a handcrafted business. “You learn so much about yourself during this process,” she says, referring not only to running the business but also the specific tasks of creating something by hand.

Jean has discovered she has an eye for color. Her favorite part of handbag production is looking through her yarn stash and creating unexpected color combinations.

She’s discovered she can still challenge herself. After many years in the information technology business, not much about that world was difficult or trying anymore. She would give presentations in front of thousands of stockholders without breaking a sweat. Her first craft show, however? “I was a nervous wreck,” she says. “I was so personally invested in every single bag…how people reacted to them mattered more than I thought it would.”

Finally, what she calls a “very cool and unexpected bonus” is that JZ Bags offers her the opportunity to employ local women who might have few other options. Whether it’s help with the knitting or filing legal paperwork, Jean has had a chance to offer temporary employment to women who are homebound by illness or with children.

Her handbag business may have started out as a way to relax and create the perfect fashion accessory, but it has turned into so much more. You can find Jean’s bags at www.jzbags.com, and at juried fine art and craft shows in the DC area.

Jewelry that Pops from Poppi

January 1, 2020 by Valerie Williams 2 Comments

Jewelry artist Dawn Benedetto calls her colorful line of jewelry her “fun and clever alter ego.” The petal ring, the signature Poppi product, is made from glass and sterling silver, and is literally a burst of color that refuses to be ignored. Poppi rings are sure to turn any wallflower into the belle of the ball.

In addition to the explosive petal rings, Dawn uses the same technique to create bracelets, earrings, and necklaces. Whether you choose the rounded, “roe” beads or the sharper, “flake” beads that make the petal rings, your Poppi jewelry is definitely going to pop.

Dawn began her life as a jewelry artist at the tender age of fourteen. Although she ironically does not wear much jewelry, it has been the focal point of her creative endeavors. Her portfolio that got her into college was mostly jewelry. Even though she also studied ceramics, sculpture, crafts, art history, and a host of other topics that intrigued her, most of her time in school was spent on jewelry. Her first job out of school was teaching other people how to make jewelry…you might say she’s an expert!

Although the brightly colored glass rings are now her most popular items, Dawn still works with her first love, silver and gold metal work. She began her career as a metalsmith, and still creates one-of-a-kind rings in gold and silver, as well as teaches metalworking classes.

The splashy and colorful Poppi line was born in 2000, when Dawn came up with the design for the petal ring, which instantly became a hit. Customers love them not only because of the enticing color and eye-catching design, but also because they miraculously fit pretty much anybody.

The Poppi line has since expanded to include vintage lucite jewelry, which is just as colorful and fun as the original petal rings, but with a slightly more retro feel to them. These are perfect for collectors, since production on this type of lucite was halted in the 1980s.

Dawn has been making jewelry for most of her life, and she still loves every bit of the process. From the design stage down to each minute phase of production, she’s unable to choose a favorite part, because she loves all of it!

Although her business has expanded to the point of needing several staff members to help with production and business management, you can still find Dawn in her studio making pretty things nearly every day.

Visit Dawn in her Torpedo Factory studio to see her at work, or find her jewelry in a number of local and national retail locations. Her colorful glass and lucite work is also available online at www.poppishop.com.