I met Michelle Francl-Donnay, writer of Quantum Theology, in 2008, when she came to one of our craft shows. She was my first “from blog to real life” encounter. Michelle found Stratoz’s blog, because she too was going to Wernersville Jesuit Center for a silent retreat, and they began commenting on each other’s blogs. She wanted to meet us, and ended up smitten with my Spiral Mandala, and purchased it for her prayer space. Thanks to Michelle, Stratoz’s work has traveled to Japan and Rome. She is a delightful combination of Ignatian spirituality, thoughtful writing, and Professor of Chemistry. Be sure to check her out at Quantum Theology!
I dig levels in mosaic. The pieces of many heights catch the light and enliven the surface, and I love that. I also dig them literally, since grouting buries the lower pieces and I go on an archaeological dig to find them. People are often surprised by the levels, and intrigued. Once a young woman came into my booth at a craft show, accompanied by a friend who guided her by the elbow. She had a patch over her one eye. She spent a moment investigating the surface of a mosaic with her fingers, and I was all the more glad that there were levels for her to enjoy.
There are moments when something I’ve made becomes something made for someone. A man named Kevin McAleese came into my booth, and was drawn to the small crosses with mother of pearl, and as he ran his fingers over them, he told me he liked touching them because it reminded him of how God has touched him. Then he began to tell me his story, of retiring as a Colonel in the Army after 20 years of service, having been in Bosnia, Iraq and Germany, and then being diagnosed with brain tumors. His oncologist told him how impressed she was with his ability to be positive, and he attributed it to his connection with God, that in spite of all he’s been through, he’s here, and living his life, being present.
Then Kevin McAleese saw the Celtic Cross, and that mosaic became made for him, as he chose to buy it for his bedroom, where he could see it often, and told me it would help him in his healing. He said he hoped I didn’t mind that he had shared his story with me. I told him I was honored that he had shared it.
I am still amazed when people trust their stories with me, and when my work moves them, as if it couldn’t be possible. But love is what fuels my desire to create, love and peace that I sense when I’m working, and the hope of being to share that love, and I am grateful that I can be part of someone’s experience of healing.
Nutmeg Designs in Habitat. Photo by Allison Puketza.
We are Nutmeg Designs: Margaret Almon and
Wayne Stratz.
Catching the eye; delighting the soul.
We speak to the heart with our glass art from a
one-bedroom-two-studio-rowhouse.
Our clients say we create work that is joyful, spirited, and full of hope.
We incarnate gifts that brings beauty, color and meaning
for gifts which bear the imprint of our clients heart and distinctive relationship.
We enliven those who want to feed their spirit,
and bring that which is both useful and beautiful into their homes.
Our Story
People ask if we met in Art School.
We didn’t go to Art School.
We met in a community college library in eastern Pennsylvania.
Wayne digging biology and Margaret smitten with philosophy.
That was 1986, and we have been living our unfolding lives together ever since.
Margaret took the beautiful path of an MFA in Poetry, and then the useful
path of Library School. In a process of realizing that what she loved
was relevant to her life, she began making mosaics in 2005.
When her employer closed the library in 2010, she took the leap
and made art her work.
Wayne, who has doodled since the beginning of time,
turned to glass as a medium to bring light into his designs.
He is the resident renaissance man, teacher
of special ed, science, and horticulture.
Our studios are adjacent, and creativity is constantly exchanged through
the open doorway, as we collaborate favored words in glass on slate,
house numbers healing mandalas, improvised works
while listening to jazz, and inspired by our
clients’ dreams, totems and hopes.
We have furnished our home with love and healing and craft,
and love how this has spilled over into our work, and our relationships
with clients, as they entrust us with their hunger for beauty.
**Awesome Photo taken by Allison Puketza of 4A Photography, Lansdale, PA
2011 brought the delightful Suzi Beber who is the founder of Smiling Blue Skies Cancer Fund for curing canine cancer, into our world here at Nutmeg Designs. As she writes eloquently in the Story of Blues, Blues was a canine guardian angel as Suzi recovered from brain injury, a companion who could look into her eyes and make her feel everything was going to be ok. Sadly, in 2001, at age 6, Blues lost his battle with lymphoma and Suzi was inspired to start the Smiling Blue Skies Cancer Fund.
Susan Beber and Riley, CD Title and High in Class. Photo courtesy Susan Beber.
In Fall of 2011, Suzi and Riley, another handsome companion, finished their CD (Companion Dog Obedience Title) with a High in Class.
Riley. Photo courtesy Susan Beber.
Every year, Suzi has an auction to raise money for Smiling Blue Skies, and out of her passion for craft and artists(being an artist herself), purchases artwork herself for the auction, which is very unusual, when many foundations ask only for donations from artists. Suzi ordered several items from our Nutmeg Designs etsy shop, and then commissioned us to make pieces for both her and for friends. Stratoz and I loved being part of Suzi’s vision of compassion, and her thoughtful gifts for friends going through difficult times. Our creativity soared in conjunction with her faith in us and trust in our art.
Blue Skies Hope Mosaic for Suzi by Nutmeg Designs. Lettering by Wayne Stratz and mosaicing by Margaret Almon.
Blue Mandala #1 by Wayne Stratz. Photo by Margaret Almon.Blue Mandala #2 by Wayne Stratz. Photo by Margaret Almon.Blue Skies Spiral Mandala by Margaret Almon.Helix Nebula Mandala by Margaret Almon.Nutmeg Designs. Lettering by Wayne Stratz, mosaicing by Margaret Almon.
The Festival of Christmas: A Book of Days by Mary Hinderlie and Edna Hong. Illustrated by Floy Dalton. 1954.
When I was 7 or 8, our next door neighbor, Mrs. Firth, gave me a booklet called The Festival of Christmas: A Book of Days, written by Mary Hinderlie and Edna Hong and illustrated by Floy Dalton in 1954. Every year I would get it out at the beginning of advent to follow day by day, with activities and drawings. I was intrigued by the illustration of The Ecclesiastical Year, with the liturgical colors arranged in a wheel. I went to a Moravian church, and didn’t recall seeing such a wheel before; Mrs. Firth went to an Anglican church, which likely had more in the way of liturgy and symbolism.
In my usual librarian way, I wanted to know more about the authors, and was surprised by what I found. Mary Hinderlie( 1914-2003) was a Lutheran lay theologian and missionary who spent 3 years in a Japanese POW camp during WWII, with her husband and baby daughter. Mary and her husband Carroll organized theological and political discussions among their fellow inmates to keep spirits up. Edna Hong, was also Lutheran, and she and her husband Howard Hong, were passionate about the works of Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard(someone who I was also drawn to), and became the foremost translators of his work into English. Floy Ann Dalton is a cipher though, with only a reference to her as an “Illustrator for Hire” which sounds much too utilitarian for someone who did these lively drawings.
The Festival of Christmas: A Book of Days. Illustrations by Floy Dalton. The Ecclesiastical Year
I enjoyed the illustrations with their quick lines, and the pages in pale green and the type in dark green or red. It’s where I first heard of Little Christmas Eve. The writers explain that on this night in Norway, you invite your oldest friends to sample the baking and see the “shining house of Christmas” but ask also if there is a stranger at the gates, who needs the heart warmth of the coffee and the candlelight of friendship, and being at home in the family of God. So let us look for those who need light in the darkness of winter and of a season that can bring a deluge of loneliness and grief for those missing someone they love.
Little Christmas Eve, December 23rd. From The Festival of Christmas: A Book of Days by Mary Hinderlie and Edna Hong. Illustrated by Floy Dalton. 1954.
Glass Cutter’s Jacket made of Kevlar, invented by Stephanie Kwolek. Photo by Wayne Stratz.
October 7th is Ada Lovelace Day, and the Finding Ada Project. Ada Lovelace worked with Charles Babbage on an Analytical Engine in 1842, and Lovelace wrote something akin to the first programs for this forerunner of the modern computer. Ada Lovelace Day was founded in 2009 by Suw Charman-Anderson, a social technologist, journalist and writer who was tired of the tech industry’s excuses regarding the lack of women speakers at conferences.
Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths by encouraging people around the world to talk about the women whose work they admire. This international day of celebration helps people learn about the achievements of women in STEM, inspiring others and creating new role models for young and old alike. The inspiration for Ada Lovelace Day came from psychologist Penelope Lockwood, who carried out a study which found that women need to see female role models more than men need to see male role models.
I knew I wanted to use this photo from my and Stratoz’s visit to the Smithsonian, of a glass-cutter’s jacket made of Kevlar, which was invented by Stephanie Kwolek, as part of her work at DuPont, in 1965. Being glass artists, we were both drawn to this jacket! The holes, though counter-intuitive, are to ventilate the Kevlar, which is heavy and hot. The image of a bullet proof vest since it came to the market in 1975 has become part of our culture, but the fact that a woman invented the fiber has not. Stephanie Kwolek was born in 1927, in New Kensington, PA(a Pennsylvanian!), and loved to draw, and wanted to be a fashion designer. Then she considered medical school, and took chemistry in preparation and loved it. There were opportunities for her because of WWII and the need for women to work in the sciences, while men were at war. She was hired by DuPont, and tenaciously stayed after the war was over, and in fact until she retired.
Kwolek worked with polymers, and was experimenting with ways to reinforce tires, and found a polymer that wouldn’t melt, and when she added a solvent, it didn’t have the usual consistency of molasses, but more like water. Intrigued, she took it to the man in charge of the spineret, who was not interested in spinning something that flowed like water, but she persisted, and finally he consented, and it spun beautifully. I love the evolution of her dream of designing to fashion, to spinning polymers that eventually became the substance five times stronger than steel, and can stop a bullet, and has saved over 3000 lives.
Stephanie Kwolek, chemist and inventor of Kevlar, the material of bullet proof vests
Teal Patchwork Mosaic by Margaret Almon for Ovarian Cancer Awareness
September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and I wanted to make a special mosaic in honor of my sister-in-law Gail and my friend Lynn Lunger, who are both Ovarian Cancer Survivors. Teal is the color of Ovarian Cancer Awareness, and it is an apt color, since it changes from blue to green depending on the shade, and can be elusive to pin down, as can be the symptoms of Ovarian Cancer, which can be vague like abdominal pain and bloating. I get overwhelmed by awareness months sometimes, but what I take from this particular one is the sharing of a larger pattern and persistence of symptoms, which in relation to each other might mean something different, and particularly important for a form of cancer that does not have an early screening test or method of detection.
Turn The Towns Teal® was was founded by Gail MacNeil of Chatham, NJ, who was inspired by her own experiences. . . She wanted to spare others what she and her family endured. Gail was fastidious about her health and went to her gynecologist on three separate occasions complaining of classic symptoms; however, her doctor dismissed these symptoms as merely the onset of middle age. On December 23, 1997 Gail was diagnosed with Stage IIIC ovarian cancer. There is NO early detection test for ovarian cancer which is why this campaign is so very, very critical in fighting the disease.
Team Etsy Project Embrace was started in honor of Laura Slocum, Etsy crafter, who was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer, as a way to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. I am a member of this team, and 50% of the proceeds of the Teal Patchwork Mosaic Trivet will go to the American Cancer Society. [I am pleased to say that the teal mosaic sold!]
Ochre Round Mosaic Mirror by Margaret Almon, Best Design at Crafted, Studio B, Boyertown, PA
I attended the opening for an exhibit of fine craft, which featured three of my large mosaic mirrors. My Ochre Round Mosaic Mirror was awarded Best Design by juror Nick Mohler of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, and here are some words Nick wrote about it:
I am hypnotized by this piece. My eye flutters between the various heights and depths of the glass, the contrast between the grout line and glass shards. I get stuck wondering how each piece of glass was cracked. The yellows and oranges around the mirror pull my eye around. No matter where I look I eventually have my gaze return to that sunburst design around the inner edge of the mirror.
I asked to keep the little slip of paper with these words. There is a special pleasure in winning an award for something I enjoyed making. In jr. high, I won the Adele Swenson Award for excellence in Home Economics, but sewing sent me into a state of frustration. In my late 20’s I won a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for my poetry, and although my poems were incredibly important to me, I couldn’t say I enjoyed the process of writing them.
In the past, an opening would’ve filled me with dread. I was shy and often felt like a scared rabbit at social events. So it was also a pleasure to enjoy the opening, and meet some of the other artists, including Wendy Edsall-Kerwin, known online, but now in person. I suspect Wendy feels the same way about metal that I feel about glass, and one of her wall pieces, Gust, won Best Style. She kept her slip of paper as well. My mirrors are placed next to a fabulous piece of rag rug furniture by Cathy Hetznecker, and we both agreed that they look like they were meant to be together.
Other artists included, Debbie Burkert of Boyertown, basketweaving; Lyn Camella of Boyertown; Carrie J. Keplinger of Boyertown, fiber craft; Maxine Rhoads of Sinking Spring; Heidi M. Schweitzer of Shillington; Brad Smith of Worcester, woodworking; Bonnie L. Watton of Schwenksville; and Bonnie Wren of Boyertown.
Crafted: The Fine Art of Craft was at Studio B in Boyertown on September 16th-October 15th, 2011, part of the celebration of American Craft Week, October 7-16, 2011.
