Shared Time Made Tangible

The Other Voice: You have said that you cannot remain still—you always need to keep learning, developing, and creating. What does creation give you?

Gelme: I cannot be still. I have to keep developing and creating myself. Creativity makes me think, keeps me occupied, and keeps me going.

There were periods in my life when I was not creating. I graduated in Economic Systems Analysis and worked as an accountant for more than fifteen years. The work made me think a lot, but I could not see the results of what I had done.

Creating is different. I begin with something in my mind. I think about it, make it, and eventually see something that has never existed before.

It feels like magic. Something intangible begins in the mind and becomes tangible through my hands.

The Other Voice: Perhaps that transformation is what fascinates you—not only making something beautiful, but bringing something into existence.

An idea becomes an object. Fiber becomes fabric. The object eventually becomes part of another person’s life.

When someone puts on one of your scarves, shawls, or berets, how do you hope she feels in that exact moment? Not how she looks or what other people think. How do you want her to feel inside?

Gelme: I want her to feel that she owns something carrying part of my soul.

It is not simply a piece of my life, because time itself is part of life. When you spend that time creating something that came from your own mind, you are sharing it with another person.

I want her to recognize its value not only as a piece of clothing, but as shared time.

The Other Voice: That may be the deepest expression of handmade value: the finished object carries time that can never be reclaimed or repeated.

The wool has material value, but the creation carries something more—your thoughts, skill, attention, patience, and hours of your life. An invisible idea becomes tangible, and your time becomes something another person can touch and wear.

Shared time made tangible.

When you are creating, do you imagine the woman who will eventually wear the piece? Do you see her personality, her life, or the way she carries herself?

Gelme: Actually, no. Usually, I make each piece as though I were making it for myself. The best pieces I have ever made were always the ones I created for myself.

Only after a piece is finished do I begin imagining who might wear it and what kind of outfit she could create with it.

When I describe a scene for one of my scarves or shawls, that is when I create the person who wears it—and you help me discover her.

The Other Voice: That is different from how many artists and designers describe their process. You do not begin with a target customer and design something to please her. You begin with an idea that excites you and create something you genuinely believe in.

The artwork comes first. The woman and her story appear afterward.

That also explains why finding the right person and setting for your product photographs has required so much thought. We were not inventing one imaginary customer for Gelme’s Designs. We were discovering the particular woman each piece had been waiting for.

One piece may belong in a quiet café, another on a city street, and another beside the sea at sunset. The setting grows from the character of the finished work.

If you could create only one final piece in your life, knowing it would be your last, what would you want it to be?

Gelme: I would make a coat with a matching hat.

I have made only three coats in my life—two for myself and one that I sold. They are extremely difficult to make because they take such a long time, but all of them turn heads wherever I go.

I remember wearing one of my coats at an art show. Another artist looked at it and said, “It is the most fascinating coat I have ever seen in my life.”

I also love hats. I think a hat is such an amazing accessory, and I always wonder why hats fell out of fashion.

The Other Voice: A coat with a matching hat brings together everything that has appeared throughout your story: craftsmanship, individuality, femininity, transformation, and the desire to create something unforgettable.

Perhaps your mission is larger than making beautiful felted accessories. Perhaps it is to bring elegance back into everyday life—not as a display of wealth or status, but through craftsmanship, beauty, and presence.

You once expressed it in a single sentence:

I want to bring back women’s strength through elegance.

That leads naturally to the next conversation:

What is elegance?