Shared Time Made Tangible

The Other Voice: Your stories aren't really about wool.

They're about transformation.

An idea becomes an object. Fiber becomes fabric. Something that existed only in your mind becomes something another person can touch and wear.

When someone puts on one of your scarves, shawls, or berets, how do you hope she feels?

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

It is not a piece of my life, because time is part of life which you share with others creating something that came from your mind.

I want her to see value not as a clothing piece she wears, but the value of shared time.

The Other Voice: That changes the meaning of handmade value.

The material has value, but the finished piece carries something else: thought, skill, attention, imagination, and finite human time.

An invisible idea becomes tangible, and part of 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?

Gelme: Actually, no.

Usually I make a piece like for myself. And the best pieces I ever made always were for myself.

But when I have the piece made, then I imagine who can maybe wear it. What outfit someone can make with it.

So when I describe to you a scene to put my scarf or shawl in, just then I create the person who wears it, and you help me with it.

The Other Voice: Then you don't begin with a target customer and design something to please her.

The work comes first.

The woman and her story appear afterward.

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 and matching hat.

I made three coats in all my life, two for me and one I sold.

It is extremely hard to make because it takes a long time, but all of them turn heads everywhere I go.

The Other Voice: A coat and matching hat bring together so much of what has already appeared in your story: craftsmanship, individuality, femininity, transformation, and presence.

And that brings us naturally to the next question:

What is elegance?