Torpedo Factory Archives

Fiber Jewelry by Susan Sanders

January 22, 2018 by Valerie Williams 2 Comments

Susan Sanders has always been an artist. Ever since she was old enough to think about such things, she knew that one day her job would be to make things, with her own hands, and sell them. She was right. Susan Sanders is now the experienced and accomplished designer of three distinctive jewelry lines: one in gold and precious stones, one in stone inlay, and one in fabric. Being a sewer and a hoarder of fabric, I couldn’t help but be drawn to her fiber work.

I visited with Susan in her Torpedo Factory studio while she was in the middle of creating one of her “silkworm” necklaces. She starts out with narrow strips of hand-painted silk that she sews into tubes, and fills with a certain kind of cording. Then, depending on the look of the final necklace, she gathers the silken cords together unadorned, or first embellishes them with ribbon, yarn, or anything pretty and colorful from her stash of notions.

Her collection includes all kinds of fabric trims from fiber artist friends of hers, shiny and textured bits she finds at local fabric stores, and a treasury of unique velvet and satin trims she found during a trip to Korea.

The result is a soft, lightweight, textured piece that can be worn a number of ways. The cords can be twisted or worn flat. The necklace can be left long, wrapped double around the neck like a choker, or tied into a knot. Susan also makes the unique magnetic clasps out of cast resin, and paints them to match each necklace individually. Every single necklace is one-of-a-kind; it would be impossible to replicate any of them exactly.

Susan’s fiber jewelry is an evolving line among her jewelry collections. The latest incarnation utilizes hand-cut ultrasuede in rich, saturated color. The unusual texture and three demensional quality of these necklaces speak for themselves! When I asked if she planned on adding embellishment to the ultrasuede necklaces as well, Susan merely shrugged and said: “Who knows?” Considering the idea for her fiber necklaces came to her in a dream, who can say what she will dream up next?

As the daughter of an accomplished seamstress and a graphic designer, Susan has been making things her whole life. Her mother passed on her sewing skills to her at a young age, and her father gave her an appreciation and an eye for architectural lines. She ended up studying architectural design in college, knowing she wanted to end up making something three demensional with her hands, but not knowing exactly what that would be. Upon graduation, she was offered a job designing refrigeration components in a remote town in Kentucky. At the same time, the Torpedo Factory was just opening in Alexandria, Virginia as a newly renovated haven for artists, complete with studio and gallery space. Susan was faced with an interesting (if not difficult…) choice: move to the middle of nowhere and make refrigerator parts, or move to Washington, DC and make jewelry?

Her fellow graduates had found jobs that utilized their design skills very well, but hardly engaged their imaginations: diagramming linoleum floors; constructing the weave of plastic chairs; designing tire tread. Nobody was terribly excited about entering the professional world, except for Susan. She knew she was lucky to have found the Torpedo Factory, and jumped at the chance! She has maintained her studio there since the Art Center opened in September 1974.

You can find all of Susan’s jewelry (not just her fiber work) at her Torpedo Factory studio, at local galleries, and at juried craft shows in the DC area.

The Devil Made Me Do It Clothing

May 1, 2017 by Valerie Williams 3 Comments

Tamara Embrey has been making up-cycled, recycled, and refashioned clothing since she was a teenager, long before it was the latest and the coolest to do so. At sixteen, she would create her own interesting and unique items to wear, having been inspired by both a trip to Goodwill and the latest issue of Vogue.

Tamara was not interested in anything that could be found at the mall, and was happy to apply her sewing skills (courtesy of her mother and her aunt) to update and personalize her thrift store finds.

She loved making clothes so much, she even contemplated attending fashion school. The male-dominated industry and the emphasis on boundless consumerism did not appeal to her, however. Still, all throughout her schooling she never gave up making things, and never stopped making new, fantastic clothes out of old, forgotten ones.

Tamara’s creativity has never been just about making clothes – she is also a writer and a painter, but she never put down her sewing, even while pursuing advanced degrees in other subjects. Upon finishing her MFA in writing, a friend of hers encouraged her to sell her upcycled clothing at a local market in the small town where she attended graduate school.

With a ten dollar table fee, it was hard to say no…and The Devil Made Me Do It clothing was born!

She found she really enjoyed both the creative and business side of making and selling her clothes, and the thrill of seeing her creations on other stylish people never got old. By the time Tamara moved to the DC area in 2008 and planned to apply to the Torpedo Factory as a resident artist, The Devil Made Me Do It was well established and already enjoying success!

All of Tamara’s clothes are made from high quality, upcycled wool and cashmere sweaters. Her creative process begins by looking through her considerable stash of thrifted sweaters for inspiration. An unusual color or pattern might catch her eye, and call out to her to be made into a ruffle hem or a collar detail, and soon a garment is under construction in her head.

She uses her own sense of style, her “jagged-edge sensibilities,” and her considerable skill with a serger (gained from a little instruction plus years of experience) to piece together sweater remnants into new, fabulous clothes.

Each item in the Devil Made Me Do It collection is therefore one-of-a-kind. Although Tamara will sometimes repeat a certain style, the nature of her found-object materials means that no two garments will ever be exactly alike, even those that started life as parts of the same sweater!

You can find The Devil Made Me Do It clothing in Tamara’s Etsy shop, and in the Fiberworks Studio at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA, as well as at the occasional local arts and crafts market. Tamara is always looking for gorgeous sweaters to cut up, so if you have any that need a new life, let her know!

The Torpedo Factory Art Center

March 25, 2010 by Valerie Williams 2 Comments

As anybody who has ever planned a visit to Old Town, Alexandria, VA, US knows, the Torpedo Factory is a must-see attraction. Even though it is a priority destination for the area’s thousands of tourists annually, somehow there are still people locally who have no idea about the treasure trove of original art available to them a mere metro stop away.

If you unknowingly came upon the building while wandering around Old Town’s charming restaurants and shops, you might not realize what you had found. It’s pale stone exterior doesn’t begin to hint at the variety of artistry and creativity at work inside its walls on a daily basis.

Believe it or not, the Torpedo Factory Art Center actually began it’s life as…a torpedo factory. Beginning in 1918, it was a critical component of the American war machine, including furious production of torpedoes of various types throughout World War II. After the war ended, the cavernous space was used merely as storage by the federal government, until the City of Alexandria purchased it in 1969.

Situated on the Potomac River waterfront, the building was huge and well-placed for a significant community improvement project, but no development took place until May 1974. By September of that year, the Torpedo Factory was open to the public as a newly renovated gallery and studio space for artists. Most of the studios had already been reserved from a long list of juried artists. Resident artists have always been enthusiastic about the space. Many suffered through the lack of decent heating or air conditioning in the seventies and early eighties, until a major renovation turned the art center into the modern space it is today.

The Art Center is now home to 165 artists in 82 studios, along with six galleries, two workshops, the Art League School, and the Alexandria Archeology Museum. My favorite feature of the Torpedo Factory, and the reason I love to visit, is that you can actually meet and talk to the artists. All resident artists hold open studio hours, during which you can visit with them, see them at work, chat with them about their creative process, as well as purchase original art. Visitors are actually encouraged to ask questions and to watch the artists at work. (Below, painter Caroline Emmet Heald prepares to start work.)

The Torpedo Factory is always looking for new artists! The annual jury process is about to begin, and all artists working in fine art and fine crafts are encouraged to apply, including work in fiber, jewelry, ceramics, glass, film, and more. The jury changes annually and is comprised of individuals not affiliated with the Torpedo Factory. The jurors are given absolutely no guidance or suggestions about what kind of art or artist to accept. They are themselves working artists, curators, professors, and gallery owners, and their decisions are final. Sometimes all applicants are accepted, sometimes none. Sometimes accepted artists all work in the same medium; sometimes they are all different. It is a major priority of the Torpedo Factory to keep the jury process completely fair and unbiased.

The Torpedo Factory is much more than just gallery and studio space for its resident artists. The Art League School (a separate organization that is housed within the Art Center building) offers a wide variety of art classes in multiple disciplines that serve more than 2,000 students per term. The independent galleries incorporate the works of hundreds of national and international artists, with an extensive schedule of juried and curated exhibits.

Finally, the Torpedo Factory hosts numerous events and collaborates with several community organizations and businesses to increase awareness and vitality of the arts in Alexandria. A new initiative in the works is called “Handcrafted Alexandria,” in which the Art Center is collaborating with several Alexandria area business that focus on handcrafted goods. Watch this space for details when that enterprise is launched!

The Torpedo Factory Art Center is open daily from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, and is open late on Thursdays. Artists’ studio hours vary. (105 N Union St, Alexandria VA)