Today we’d like to introduce you to Monique Weston.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Monique. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in Asia, and the outdoor markets there had a strong impact on me. While Hong Kong was still British-held, the street market by Stanley Beach was colorful, noisy, and exhilarating. In the bustle, you would hear the sharp sound of Cantonese amid the smell of chickens, fried food, guava, smoke, rain on hot pavement, enticing spices, and a cheerfully indifferent approach to sewage.
In narrow stalls, cats were curled up on shelves, among crammed merchandise from ducks to fine paintings to knock-off designer clothing, while from the curtained-off back rooms came the clicking and murmur of mahjong players washing the tiles. Bargaining was a vital skill. The market was the spirit of screaming, dirty commerce, and I loved it.
Seeing people support themselves on a shoestring, thrive, and improve, was my original inspiration. I believed you could make anything out of anything.
As far back as I can remember, I’ve been picking up random objects and making things with them in different media, exploring their beautiful possibilities. I started making jewelry as a teenager, beginning with delicate beaded necklaces to go with prom dresses. Then one day, as I fixed my bike, I thought what great tool pliers were. I found my dad’s soldering iron, went to the library and looked up how to use it.
I started bending the wire into shapes, soldering and experimenting with different materials. Throughout college, I made and sold jewelry in gypsy fashion. Pliers and wire can go anywhere, and so does inspiration. One day in late November, I got on a train from Connecticut to North Carolina, reached into my pocket and found I didn’t have my wallet. The conductor was coming down the train to collect fares. I took a deep breath, pulled out my pliers and called out: “All right, ladies and gentlemen! The holidays are coming and you all need gifts!
Your girlfriends, wives, daughters, the girlfriends your wives don’t know about, and all your friends! Earrings are on special today!” By the time the conductor entered the train-car, I had the fare (phew!). It was immensely comforting to know I could support myself on the move. I made and sold wire jewelry at markets in the US, France and England.
Soon after graduating from college, I was working three jobs and living in a boarding-house. I was also doing outdoor markets, getting up well before dawn – I am not a morning person! – driving long distances, and setting up as the sun rose. I loved being among the vendors; the quiet, purposeful movement, the hot coffee, the companionable voices, the steady progress towards setting up a professional habitat for the day. As the daylight grew, it was like an unveiling of people’s work and talents.
It felt very grounding to be working among artisans on weekends, while during the week I was navigating my way through the environments of a market-research company, a retail store, and the workshop of a professional jewelry designer. Later I worked full-time as a recruiter, then as an intelligence analyst, covering sub-Saharan Africa. After my son was born, I thought I wouldn’t have time to make jewelry, so I tried painting during his naps. I was lucky enough to be invited to join a co-op gallery. I wasn’t a very good painter and felt vaguely guilty about selling alongside much more talented, trained artists.
I began making jewelry again, using found objects such as chainsaw chains, hinges, machine-parts and doorbells. The gallery experience gave me the confidence and environment to sell jewelry again. I felt so fortunate to be accepted to vend at Houston’s First Saturday Arts Market, in the Heights. My friend Kristy Allmon, an outstanding photographer, generously offered to let me share her booth and get into the swing of it. A collegial, friendly and energized community of artists, it’s been a springboard over the past decade. It’s a microcosm of the welcoming art scene in Houston.
Through the market, I met Erik Hagen, a gifted artist who gave me the opportunity to share a studio. We’ve been in Silos Studios #308 at Sawyer Yards for three years now. The Sawyer Yards complex is in Houston’s historic First Ward as part of the Washington Avenue Arts District. With over 350 artists in residence, Sawyer Yards houses the largest concentration of working artists in the country.
With open-studio shows, markets, juried shows in several cities, and a growing online following, I’m always making new work. It’s fulfilling to be creative in these diverse settings while still participating in the setting of an outdoor market – the most ancient and, to me, the most vital form of commerce.
Has it been a smooth road? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Self-confidence! It was a real challenge to build up the belief that my work was good enough to apply for opportunities that I thought might be out of reach. It’s only in the past year I’ve been rejected from a show – because in prior years I wasn’t setting the bar high enough.
Tell us about your business/company. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc.
My work stands out for originality! For years I designed jewelry with traditional materials, but I eventually realized I was trying to express that beauty is independent of its pedigree, or its material components.
So I began working with materials that have no intrinsic value – all of the value resides in the design itself, and the story behind each part of a completed piece. My designs still celebrate the classic forms, and now the focal elements are hardware, instruments and timepieces, collected from their original settings and imbued with new life and style. Now my clientele’s response can be summed up as: “Wow, that’s beautiful!… Wait a minute – is that a hinge?”
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Over the past 30 years, the basic methods and materials for jewelry-making have become universally accessible, and designs worldwide are visible to everyone online. So the bar is raised: everyone has access to the wherewithal to make jewelry or to copy designs. The challenge now is to work with greater imagination and search farther afield for inspiring materials.
For example, one artist I worked with designed sterling-silver pieces with fossilized dinosaur bone marrow; another makes gorgeous, sleek, simple pieces with a meteorite. Artists like these are riding the crest of the information wave. Their work is ultimately precious for their innovation; the artist takes a tiny slice of our planetary record and transforms it into a small object that can accompany a person through everyday life.
Materials like this are so groundbreaking that they become the new heirlooms, especially as they have no prior historical associations. They are a new beginning in an ancient art, and it’s exciting to think that’s where this industry is headed.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1502 Sawyer St. Houston, TX 77008
- Website: www.moniqueweston.com
- Phone: 713-444-4955
- Email: monique@moniqueweston.com
- Instagram: @moniquewestonart
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoniqueWestonArtJewelry
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