The first time Debra Harris-Branham walked into the Salvage Sisters Studio, she thought she’d died and gone to heaven.
The Herald / Jennifer Buchanan
The school librarian was at the Lynnwood studio to try a workshop on creating an “altered journal.” That’s what the Salvage Sisters call a composition notebook embellished with snippets of old books, ribbons and stamps.
Harris-Branham found a studio packed with bits of twisted metal, scraps of vintage fabric, rusty door hinges, stray buttons, old sheet music, broken springs and more – all ready to be turned into something new.
And she discovered kindred spirits, women funny and warm and sharp as X-acto knives, who didn’t think it strange she liked making jewelry from salvaged bits.
Harris-Branham left that day with a handmade journal and a head full of ideas. And even though she lives in south Seattle, she signed up for as many classes as she could.
“Taking that class freed up my creative juices,” she said. “This has been so good for me.”
That’s the point of the Salvage Sisters Studio, the business venture of three local women who are good at turning other people’s trash into treasure.
At the studio, the public can try a workshop or buy the Sisters’ one-of-a-kind creations at periodic sales. The Sisters only open the studio doors for sales and workshops.
The sisters are Lisa Hilderbrand, a Lynnwood landscape designer; Amy Duncan, an Everett paper artist with a handmade card business; and Beth Evans-Ramos of Mill Creek, an avid gardener with an eye for color and a consulting business, Garden Graces, helping people pull together their garden decor.
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The Sisters aren’t related by blood, although they joke they might have been separated at birth. Evans-Ramos met Hilderbrand through a gardening club and later picked up Duncan in line waiting to enter an estate sale.
All bring their own talents to the venture but they find they’re united by a love of “good junk,” creativity and similar life philosophies. These are women who shun the mall and Wal-Mart and shrug off rampant consumerism. They would rather mend a button on a shirt than toss it out for something cheap manufactured in a faraway country.
The Sisters are a bit like an eccentric aunt with 50 years of thrift store finds stuffed in the attic and the capable grandma who could cook, clean, can, sew, mend, grow anything and decorate on a dime.
“We are can-do type women,” Duncan said.
Even if you aren’t, that doesn’t mean you can’t be creative, they said. “I hate it when people say, ‘But I’m not creative,’” Duncan said. “Everyone’s creative. They just need the opportunity.”
It’s easy to feel inspired at the Sisters’ studio. The place is no bigger than a couple of walk-in closets but it’s jammed with stuff the Sisters have picked up at thrift stores, “free” piles, estate sales, flea markets and even the trash, and “repurposed” into items with new uses.
The Sisters, for instance, took well-loved wooden cross-country skis, added metal brackets and mounted them on the wall of their studio as shelves. Cool.
There are bins of raw materials like door hinges and rusty screws to create with and neatly packaged vignettes of items that can be made into something else. Old pieces and cards from games like Monopoly, bingo and Scrabble might be sold together in one neat package, for instance.
Duncan, who uses reclaimed paper in her business, Four Corners Design, even reused files a nearby office chucked in the dumpster to package some items.
There are no reproductions, no new things made to look old, they said. And they don’t tear apart usable books or dismantle anything still functional.
There’s nothing like what they do in this region, but they aren’t the first to come up with the idea.
A pair of women in Long Lake, Minn., started the Junk Market, a retail business that transforms stuff no one wants into decor. The annual sale draws thousands (www.junkmarket online.com).
Two East Coast sisters, Kathleen Hackett and Mary Ann Young, also use the name “Salvage Sisters” and published a book this year, “The Salvage Sisters’ Guide to Finding Style in the Street and Inspiration in the Attic.”
The Snohomish County Sisters’ sales have been increasingly successful since Evans-Ramos began selling some of her homemade garden art and decor at outdoor sales. The Sisters moved into the Lynnwood studio and began holding classes in May.
Their sales, held every few months, have become line-winding-out-the-door affairs. The Sisters estimated more than 200 people attended their last sale in September. The next sale is set for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 12 at their studio. (This isn’t just a girl thing; salvage brothers are welcome too.)
A series of fall workshops is set to begin Oct. 1. There are workshops on creating pins, pendants and other baubles with bottle caps; simple books made with paper bags; paperweights made with collage techniques; creative bookbinding; and the altered journal class Harris-Branham raved about.
At one of the Sisters’ most popular workshops, UFO (which stands for unfinished object), participants can bring half-done projects from home. “Come use our studio space, cull through our materials, pick our brains, and you’ll have your project done in no time!” proclaims the fall schedule.
Most of the workshops take place Saturday mornings and last two hours. The class size is limited to a dozen, and the Sisters plan to add more workshops if there is interest. Most cost $22 to $28 and include materials. The Sisters will host private workshops for groups of at least five people.
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.
Oct. 1
Paper Bag Books: Learn how to make a simple book that can be a journal, invitation or keepsake holder. 10 a.m. to noon. Cost: $22.
Oct. 7
Bottle Cap Bonanza: Create magnets, pins, pendants and enhancements to add fun to cards or creations using bottle caps. 10 a.m. to noon. Cost: $22.
Oct. 8
UFO (Unfinished Object): Everyone seems to have those projects that never get finished. Come use the studio and materials and pick our brains. 10 a.m. to noon. Cost: Materials only, priced by item.
Oct. 14
Collage Paperweights: Using collage techniques, learn how to make a unique paperweight. 10 a.m. to noon. Cost: $24.
Oct. 15
Button Flowers: A little wire, a few stray buttons, a twist and, voila, a pretty posy to gladden a gift, bejewel a bag or a bouquet to brighten a table. 10 a.m. to noon. Cost: $22.
Oct. 22
Altered Journals: Tear and glue snippets from old dictionaries, music sheets and atlases to a schoolbook journal. Add buttons, fortunes, stamped images and ribbons as embellishments. Leave with a treasure. 10 a.m. to noon. Cost $22.
Oct. 28
UFO: (Unfinished Object): Everyone seems to have those projects that never get finished. Come use the studio and materials and pick our brains. 10 a.m. to noon. Cost: Materials only, priced by item.
Oct. 29
Creative Bookbinding: Put to discarded books, old game boards and rusty hinges together to produce a journal or album. Lean basic bookbinding construction techniques. Cost: $28.
Workshops are held at the Salvage Sisters Studio, 2125 196th St. SW, No. 113, Lynnwood. Find directions online at www.thesalvagesisters.com
For information or to register, call 425-774-5296.
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