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Marlies

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Meet Marlies Gelens. An artist and industrial designer who in 1999 migrated from The Netherlands to San Agustinillo, a tiny settlement on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Marlies and her (then) Dutch partner began to sell their homemade European-style bread to neighbors, and eventually set up the beloved restaurant, Apa Pan. Marlies remodeled the existing structure, designed the furniture, and baked the delicious bread that brought lines of grateful customers for years to come.

In 2016 Marlies left the coast and moved to San Sebastian Rio Hondo, a remote village on the Mountains of Oaxaca, to begin her dream of working with textiles. She had been making pillows with ribbon, but now she wanted to use cotton and wool to make ceremonial garments and work with local women. When she shared her vision with me last year, it became clear that she was the perfect person to inherit my mom’s textile raw materials.

As many of you know, my mother was an incredible textile artist. She was a master knitter who dyed her own yarns and designed one a of a kind sweaters. For decades, she worked with dozens of women from the neighboring towns to make fabulous knits that she would export to the United States, and sell in her boutique in the Bazaar Sábado, in Mexico City.

A year ago, as my mother struggled with the later stages of Alzheimer’s, I explained to her that her fabric, yarn, dyes, and tools would soon come into the hands of many women whose lives would be enriched by her gift. She understood, and was so excited that for months she kept asking about the beautiful dream of the women and the textiles.

Since then, Marlies continues to develop the vision and moving parts of her project. Here she is in Durango buying her first batch of merino wool from a local farmer. She will soon wash it and turn it into felted pieces, spun yarn and exquisite fabric.

The Setting Sun Necklace will ground and inspire her as she creates ceremonial attire for life’s most transcendent moments.

This was my mom at work, and some of her finished pieces.

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Rooted

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“Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.”
— Eckhart Tolle

Rooted Necklace.
Handmade with amber, malachite and recycled sterling silver.
Available this Thursday in my online shop.

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Memory

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“If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart. I’ll stay there forever.”
— A. A. Milne

Memory Necklace.
Handmade with malachite and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Holy

“For the poet is a light winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses and the mind is no longer with him. When he has not attained this state he is powerless and unable to utter his oracles.”
— Plato

Holy.
Acrylic and gouache on paper. 7.87” by 10.47” (20 by 26.6 cm).

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Vital

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“Every time you follow your inner guidance, you feel more energy, increased power, a sense of spiritual aliveness.”
— Shakti Gawain

Vital Necklace.
Handmade with malachite and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Distinct

“You have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”
— Louise Hay

Distinct.
Acrylic and gouache on paper. 7.87” by 10.47” (20 by 26.6 cm).

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Solitude

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“It is in solitude that we discover that being is more important than having and that we are worth more than the results of our efforts.
In solitude we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended but a gift to be shared.”
— Henri Nouwen

Lone Necklace.
Handmade with malachite and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

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Setting Sun

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“There is in all visible things... a hidden wholeness.”
— Thomas Merton

Setting Sun Necklace.
Handmade with amber, malachite and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Untamed

“I expect Woman will be the last thing civilized by Man.”
— George Meredith

Untamed.
Acrylic and gouache on paper. 7.87” by 10.47” (20 by 26.6 cm).

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Aligned

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“I am free, and always have been; free to accept my own reality, free to trust my perceptions, free to believe what makes me feel sane even if others call me crazy, free to disagree even if it means great loss, free to seek the way home until I find it.”
— Martha Beck

Aligned Necklace.
Handmade with malachite and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Plucky

“Ultimately, that is the definition of bravery: not being afraid of yourself.”
— Chogyam Trungpa

Plucky.
Acrylic and gouache on paper. 7.87” by 10.47” (20 by 26.6 cm).

Alma

“It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.”
— J. R. R. Tolkien

Alma.
Acrylic and gouache on paper. 7.87” by 10.47” (20 by 26.6 cm).

Awe

“Wisdom begins in wonder.”
— Socrates

Awe.
Acrylic and gouache on paper. 7.87” by 10.47” (20 by 26.6 cm).

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Confluence

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“In a life properly lived, you’re a river.”
— Jim Harrison

Confluence Necklace.
Handmade with labradorite and recycled sterling silver.
Available this Thursday in my online shop.

Lush

“Paradise is where I am.”
— Voltaire

Lush.
Acrylic and gouache on paper.
7.87” by 10.47” (20 by 26.6 cm).

Askew

“If you care too much about what others think then you ultimately become what you think they want you to be.”
— Oliver Jeffers

Askew.
Acrylic and gouache on paper.
7.87” by 10.47” (20 by 26.6 cm).