Sheena Stewart

Owner of

BeholderFashions

Livermore, CA

355

0 Following 355 Followers

From the beginning, art has always been a focus and gift in my life. I found I had a natural ability in many different forms of art and media including drawing, photography, jewelry making, charcoal, painting, graphic design, and glass etching. It wasn't until I had to choose an elective that I would discover one of my strongest skills in art, sculpture. I took the class with a "why not" attitude. I needed the credits and thought it could be fun, like an adult playdoh. It was indeed fun, and very much like playdoh, except that it was, fragile, unforgiving, demanding, and as I found with one piece, explosive! I loved it. It was during the end of the class and through the second level class that I found my passion for portraits. I had a talent for faces and busts, I could sense the contours, and feel with my hands the uneven symmetry where flesh was missing.

I had many other loves; a love of science, love of architecture and interior design. But my heart always went back to sculpture. For my three years of junior college, I went back and forth. It was a risk, sculpture was not a field that opened very many jobs to me. But I had to decide, I had received my AA in Liberal arts and I was about to transfer to a University. It didn't matter, I knew what I loved, and I knew what I was exceptional at, and that was sculpting. In 2010 I received my BA in Spatial Arts. I also didn't have a clue, what I was going to do with it. A few things were in my mind: teaching, Pixar character rendering, set and theme park design.

During this time, a friend of mine who was into Gothic Lolita, was complaining about how expensive the bonnets were! I had an idea. Let's make one! I hadn't worked very much with textiles, but why not try? The idea eventually fizzled out in both of our busyness, but for Christmas, I decided to give it a go for her. Although my friend loved it, my first bonnet was painstaking, frustrating, I swore I'd never make another! Oh how wrong I was. While teaching a hair bow making class for a local craft store, I realized, "Hey, I could make these to sell." I was good at them, they were fun to create, and they were slightly unconventional, which I felt people would appreciate. This thought eventually led to me having the same conclusion about bonnets. It wasn't exactly a common craft. I sold a bonnet in my first week. Excited, I made more! Inspiration for hats soon followed. The ideas flooded my brain and I could hardly escape from a store, fair, even a movie theater without new pieces building itself inside my head! To this day, I still have a dozen ideas for pieces deep in its recesses.

One thing I have learned in this business is make what you love. I've made pieces I wasn't sure would sell, but they did. I learned there are people out there who appreciate and share your esthetic no matter how odd, how obscure, or non-traditional it may be. That was the one of the greatest things I've experienced in my business, to create something in passion and people have a connection with you because they "get it". Their passions relate.

I've been growing my business for over two years now. My skills in sculpting have helped me through every step, from design and making all of my own patterns, to patience and problem solving. Utilizing my degree and almost every art skill I possess in a business where I can play with what I see in my mind and what I love in life, is the greatest gift I can imagine. This is an unexpected road in my life, but it perfectly represents me in its entirety.