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Show Wednesday, January 12, 2005 01 Expressions Basin Life Community Calendar Making y Sharon Schamber began her designing design-ing career with haute couture wedding wed-ding gowns, produced in her own factory. Fabric artist develops new techniques By Maureen Spencer Express Writer ;i It has been said that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Such could be the motto for one Jensen woman whose life has received more than one fjump start" with challenging Circumstances. .; Sharon Schamber says she has always sewed. "That's just what I did. It was my choice of mediums." She says she wanted to be an artist and fabric turned out to be the most handy "art supply" she had available to her as a child. By her high school years she had begun making clothes for people at 12, she made a formal for-mal for her mother. Fascinated by the work of Coco Chanel, Sharon bought clothes from Goodwill and Salvation Army outlets. She would tear the garments apart, wash them, turn them inside out and sew them back together togeth-er again. By repeating this process, pro-cess, the teenager would begin to understand the techniques used to turn fabric into a magnificent mag-nificent item of clothing. Velvets and satins were among her favorite "finds." Within very short years Sharon's unique talents were aimed at bridal couture. Now out of high school and only 20 years old, Sharon opened her own bridal gown factory in Provo, producing lavish, lav-ish, sophisticated bridal wear. It is hard to comprehend that this much talent and understanding under-standing of beauty and line had come at such an early age. In the 1990s her portrait appeared on the cover of "Money Magazine" and the story of Sharon's incredible success appeared inside. At its peak, Sharon's factory employed 120 and was relocated to Arizona. Two younger brothers broth-ers helped manage her business one overseeing the cutting department and one managing the production floor. Creatively, this artist was following the direction of a unique muse. But challenge was on its way. ; "Your heart has to be whole," Sharon recalls of the Sitting Bull, a quilted portrait in texture and hand painted detail, has received many national awards. N ..-.: - TU'. " " T tSn 'J t v 1 fc -7 w 1 1 1 . -, , Sharon Schamber, a Jensen artist who enjoys the rural isolation, has developed a steady stream of stunning machine quilted quilts. time following the conclusion of her first marriage and moving mov-ing to New York as a clothing designer with Bloomingdales. Her short time in New York extracted a cost on her life. "The hour and a half drive to work is insane," she acknowledges. acknowl-edges. Added to the physical demands of her high profile pro-file job with the fashionable Bloomingdales was her realization realiza-tion that the profession of clothing cloth-ing designer no longer existed. "The creative process is not there. Merchandisers take the pattern and creative process overseas. The work is done in third world countries." Sharon's highly developed ability to formulate her own patterns, seam by seam, stitch by stitch was replaced by formula for-mula patterns which varied only by the shape of a collar or number of buttons. "This was just not good for a creative person," she says. In motion again, she headed to Las Vegas to do costuming. The drive brought her through Vernal, an area in which a grandfather had been a founding found-ing father. She stopped to visit with a cousin and while there met Gene Schamber. "I looked in his home. There was no recliner." It was obvious obvi-ous he did not vegetate in front of the television, a strong drawing draw-ing point to this woman with a long history of hard work herself. her-self. "And, he was baking an apple pie," she adds with emphasis. After a moment she grins. "Then there was that wink!" Married shortly thereafter, thereaf-ter, Gene and Sharon's Jensen home proved to be what her creative blood required. "The top of the list of things that I must do is to make quilts," Sharon says simply. It would be quilts that now commanded Sharon's daytime mind and dreams at night, becoming works of art Following their marriage, her wise husband provided f V- i ). - . W t quilts tops I I Yt'.tKCV' Textile artist and quilter, Sharon Native American series. Sharon with a massive, top of the line long-arm quilting machine. Originally, Sharon's nationally recognized and museum-quality quilted artwork art-work had been done on a regular regu-lar sewing machine. Gene got rid of his pool table, converted a gun cabinet into a fabric cabinet, custom built tables for her large pieces and totally rewired downstairs rooms to hold all of her sewing equipment. Sharon grins at her husband and says, "I knew if I had that machine I would stick around." Gene is a superintendent at Simplot Phosphates and says he is short of retiring. "Retirement" is a euphemis-, tic reference to Gene's time. He manages his wife's quilt competition com-petition entries, edits, manages and works with the contracts that she has for her burgeoning home-based quilt design and technique business. Her list of national quilt show awards since 1999 is several sev-eral pages long. The largest quilt show in the world, the International Quilt Association, recognized her in November as a finalist with her "India Feathered Star" quilt At the same show, "Windblown Acanthus'' took third place merit in Machine Quilting. "Sacagawea," Sharon's portrait por-trait of the noted guide for Lewis and Clark's expedition to the Pacific, was awarded first place by the American Quilt Society (AQS) in Nashville, Tenn., taking first place in the Lewis and Clark Exhibit It was then displayed at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah. The tribute to Sacagawea was published in American Quilter Winter 2003 and in a new book being published by the A f Schamber, depends upon historical research by her husband Gene for her innovative-pieced professional profes-sional division in April 2003. In Oct. 2003 the IQA Houston International awarded this work an honorable mention. The Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza followed in the fall of 2004, naming "Our Children of Freedom" best of show. The Paducah exhibit is the second largest quilt show in the world. She is a regularly featured artist at the Road to California shows, the third largest shows in the nation and has been featured fea-tured on the HGTV program, Simply Quilts. Sharon has become one of the first quilt artists to produce her own instructional CD's and developed a technique called piecelique. She characterizes piecelique as "an absolutely incredible technique that allows people to sew curved seams with absolute accuracy." She has authored four books on continuous quilting patterns pat-terns in graduated difficulty. She has produced four videos (topics covering machine applique, appli-que, piecelique, no-marking machine quilting and hand painting faces). She has published pub-lished 15 pantograph patterns. Her unique techniques are a constant draw at her trunk shows given throughout the country. Sharon doesn't sell her quilts. "They're my babies," she admits each having a name. The intensely quilted pieces are used, instead, to punctuate her trunk shows. Although much of her work involves finely pieced fabrics, the startling discovery is to realize that she hand paints portraits and other realistic details on the fabric, using list Schamber's quilted colors and patterns pat-terns capture a wide audience. Sharon Schamber's portraits of children, chil-dren, "Our Children of Freedom," has been highly recognized in competitions. competi-tions. Schamber's series of gowned women is readily recognized. collection of pieced, hand painted and techniques she has developed using Japanese inks. Rayon embroidery threads and special yarns are used to embellish, as are minute beads and heat set Austrian crystals. crys-tals. Finite lines of machine stitching contour faces, hands, bodies and hair into realistic dimension. Sharon finds a particular affinity for Native American historical figures. Gene again is a major figure in her work, researching as Sharon develops the artistic design. She developed a particular bond to Sitting Bull, the chief whose quilted image adorns one of her well-known pieces. "He haunted me. He would come to me in my dreams." She anticipates designing a piece around the noted northwestern north-western Native American leader, lead-er, Chief Joseph. She is already receiving impressions. "The Native American is a story that needs to be told. It's a real passion of mine." She says she feels her quilts are a way to tell it A shipping fire tragedy in Denver destroyed two of her major quilts in 2001. Again, an upsetting challenge became something to overcome. Within weeks she had re-designed one of the lost quilts. It won Best of Show in the 2002 Road to California competition. She experiments with fabric, texture and color to accomplish an objective. She "usually" uses wool batting. ; . Gene smiles and points out "In Sharon's world there are no rules." - Well, maybe there is one rule. If circumstance makes something some-thing hard, she will overcome. January 13 Last day of Uintah High School SEOP, 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the school. Uintah Mountain Club to meet. Dr. Steven Romney to speak on mosquito control and West Nile Virus. 7 p.m., Golden Age Center, no admis sion fee, public invited. PAT (Parents as Teachers) training, 1-3 p.m. at Uintah School District Office conference confer-ence room, second floor. Ways to help parents at home be a child's first teacher. Register, 790-7678, 781-1000 ext. 2940 or 751-4699. January 14 Community dance at the Golden Age Center, 155 South 100 West, 8-10 p.m. every Friday night. Kay's Band provides pro-vides the music. January 15 Saturday Night Pizza and Pool Party, 9:30 to 12 p.m. at Vernal Indoor Pool. $4 fee, must be 13 or older. 789-5775. January 17 Human Rights Day-Banks, schools and post office will be closed in observance. January 19 Cattleman's Day Seminar at Western Park. Veterinarians, toxicologist, rep's from Pfizer Animal Health and Cargil Feed. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Lunch and two breaks. No charge to cattle producers. Pre-regis-ter at 789-6697 if planning to attend. Uintah County Library Story Time 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Music, crafts, stories. Roosevelt Workforce Services Ser-vices Office, "Language of Work" workshop, 9 a.m. DWS Conference Room. 140 West 425 South 330-13. Information, 722-6500. Story Hour for pre school children.. 11:15 ajn.Duchesne County Library, 70 East Lagoon, 722-4441. January 20 Social Security at Crossroads Senior and Community Center in Roosevelt. 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. January 21 Community dance at the Golden Age Center, 155 South 100 West, 8-10 p.m. every Friday night. Kay's Band provides pro-vides the music. Motheread Workshop presented pre-sented by Shanna Wheeler, Certified Motheread Instructor. Instruc-tor. 10:30 a.m. Use children's literature to explore child and family development themes. At Prime Time 4 Kids, 1360 W. Hwy. 40. January 26 Uintah County Library Story Time 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Music, crafts, stories. Roosevelt Workforce Services Ser-vices Office, "Balancing Work and Home", 9 a.m. DWS Conference Room. 140 West 425 South 330-13. Information, 722-6500. Story Hour for pre-school children. 11:15 a.m. Duchesne County Library, 70 East Lagoon, 722-4441. January 28 Community dance at the Golden Age Center, 155 South 100 West, 8-10 p.m. every Friday night. Kay's Band provides pro-vides the music. January 31 Uintah County Library honors children's authors and illustrators. Materials provided during day of Jan. 31 for children to come to library and create a book. Sharing of books begins at 6 p.m. Popcorn provided. Blood Drive at Uintah Basin Medical Center in Roosevelt Must bring photo identification. identifica-tion. 2 to 8 p.m. February 2 Laptime at Uintah County Library. presented by PrimeTime 4 Kids. 10:30 a.m. i To place items of public interest on the Community Calendar, mail to the Vernal Express, P.O. Box 1000, E-mail, E-mail, editorvernal.com, or call the Vernal Express at 789-3511. |