Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion


	FREE E-Newsletter Sign Up			Subscribe			Give a Gift			Customer Service

Home

Subscribe and get more from our magazine!

Text by Joseph M. Schuster • Artwork Photography by Dean Powell

As a girl, Jennifer Maestre loved pencils. “I never wanted to throw one away. I’d keep sharpening it until it was just the tiniest nub. I thought they were cute.” Ten years ago, she found a new way to express her appreciation for the simplest of writing implements. Inspired by a poster that featured a sea urchin, she began experimenting with materials to reproduce the urchin’s spines. After rejecting nails and glass, it struck her that she could create the effect by sawing pencils into 1-inch segments, sharpening each segment, and stitching them together with heavy beading thread.

(a) When a gallery asked Jennifer to create a teapot, it took her a year to figure out how to stitch the one here. The effort was worthwhile. “It opened up my vocabulary as an artist. Making the spout taught me I could build an arm extending from a surface.” That allowed her to move past simpler pieces, like the ones (b) and (c), to more complex sculptures, like “Tiamat,” (d), named for an ancient Sumerian goddess.

Making Her Point page 1 | 2
Stumble It!
archive »

There’s Junk in the Trunk
Matthew Imperiale has junk in his trunk. Luckily, he can use it in his work| read more »

Men In Hats
Hats off to Ignatius Creegan and Rod Givens, who are reviving the lost art of hat making| read more »

homegrown
Beth Mueller’s hand-painted ceramics spring from her small-town roots| read more »

Inner Landscapes
Magda Trzaski translates dreams into whimsical characters and scenes| read more »