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Cover Story
By Terri Benson The Grand Valley is home to a talented population of artists including sculptors, painters, photographers, poets and writers, but there is one artist here who stands out in the crowd. Jeannie Martin, a.k.a. The Fabric Chef, creates lifelike food from fabric. Jeannie gets her artistic bent from her genes – many of her family are also artists. She’s been involved in art for most of her 60 years, winning her first award in a Catholic high school art contest for a painting of a Roman urn. Her mother taught her to sew, but Jeannie had no idea what use she would be putting her sewing machine to in the future. She has shown her soft sculpture art in many different venues, and won several awards over the years. Her life has taken her across the country, from Florida to Missouri, and from Denver to Montrose to Ridgway, before she settled down in the Grand Valley. As the youngest retail grocery store manager in Denver with the Seven-Eleven chain, she built elaborate displays to highlight products, including a giant potato chip bag. A giant Slurpee Cup won her an award from the company and a write-up in their newsletter. Jeannie lost a daughter to cancer in 1995 and as often happens after such a traumatic event, floundered a bit. Then one day in 1997, she came up with an idea that she thought her daughter would have loved. She designed and constructed ten fabric pretzels and took them to a high-end gift store in Ouray. The owner bought them all and asked for more. And so began Jeannie’s unique fabric food “sculpture” business. Marketing was by word of mouth and she sold to local businesses and friends. What little spare time she had while raising three children as a single parent, she spent creating more sculptures. Her business was growing almost faster than she could handle. Then came a debilitating back injury that sidelined Jeannie and the business. In 2009 with her back injury, a painful memory, Jeannie re-embarked on her career, and took it to the next level. With a blog, a Tweet, YouTube, two websites (thefabric-chef.com and magicinthefabric.com), and a how-to book with 17 “recipes” for making her realistic food, Jeannie created her business, which she named, Soft Sculptures & Beyond. Ever an optimist, she’s already geared up with newly trained seamstresses. She taught them the basics, but for now Jeannie is the only artist capable of turning out the perfectly “baked” goodies. Jeannie loves it when people want to touch her creations. “They’re so realistic, people can’t believe they’re made of fabric.” She had one customer who asked for a plate of cheese and crackers, saying he planned to put them on his bar to see how many people tried to eat them. Each soft sculpture piece is painstakingly shaped, sewn, painted and embellished to become almost indistinguishable from the real thing. From bread to pastries to salami, cheese and tarts, eggs and bacon and even fried chicken, Jeannie hasn’t found a food she can’t recreate in fabric. She uses leather, glass beads, felt, cabochons and other embellishments to decorate her artwork, which end up looking like they just came out of the oven. She specializes in ethnic breads and her baskets which contain twists, braids, big rounds, skinny sticks, pull-apart style and flatbreads. Her pastries are mouthwatering, with gooey “fillings” dripping out and lines of “icing” drizzled across the top. Jeannie says it’s taken her years to perfect her technique, and the results lend a comfy, warm look to a room. Her secret inspiration is Julia Child’s cookbook. On her web site, Jeannie markets a specific set of “stock” arrangements, adding more and more as she creates new patterns. The items are artistically placed together in baskets themed for the market she is selling to, be they a bakery, deli, or candy store, or as a décor item to enhance a furniture store, hotel, restaurant, or home. She recently came out with a line of gift baskets suitable for special occasions like weddings or showers that include faux fruit, silk flowers, and gifts such as salt and pepper shakers, candles, wine and glasses. Special orders are available for oversize items. She fabricated a six-foot tall ice cream cone and giant size candy taffies for a sweet shop, and never knows what she’ll be asked to make next. Jeannie admits she really likes fabricating “the big stuff” because it’s such a challenge to make them look real. Requests come from all over the country – and even outside the country – for something special like a no-calorie fabric birthday cake or a plate of fried chicken with biscuits. The very latest of Jeannie’s designs is “smellable” fabric foods. Fruit-flavored tarts are just the first in what promises to be a large product line. Jeannie has spent a lot of time researching her competition, and demonstrates their failings by trying to stack the shiny, hard, foam rolls and croissants. They slide off each other and land with a plastic clatter, or wobble awkwardly. In contrast, the fabric food nestles realistically in the baskets and has a depth of color and texture that blows the other fakes out of the water. The fabric food is also surprisingly easy to clean – a quick shake or light vacuuming does the trick, keeping the “food” fresh for years. Now that she’s geared up for bigger and better production, Jeannie is looking for more space and hopes to move into a warehouse at the Business Incubator after she completes her business plan. It’s been so long since she saw her dining room table, she’s not sure what it looks like anymore. Jeannie says she expects to become a more seasoned marketer and looks forward to meeting the challenges ahead. She is learning a great deal about the business and marketing, as well as, what the market is looking for. The future looks bright (and tasty) for The Fabric Chef. |
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