TAYLOR SALEEM CASTS delicate dogwood blossoms in silver. She saws away at thin sheets of metal, conjuring the forms of birds and botanicals. She strings beads and sets turquoise. Each piece she makes reveals an aspect of her story.
Saleem, who is from Alton, is the owner of Taylor Saleem Jewelry. She grew up in a bi-racial family with a Black father and a white mother. “I [used to] code-switch—I could fit in with this group or that group,” she says of her childhood. “I didn’t recognize that there was anything unique about me and my racial background until college.”
But as a student at Saint Louis University in the early aughts, where she didn’t see many people who looked like her, Saleem experienced an identity crisis: “I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere in the world.”
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Cut from the Same Cloth
“Turkey Tracks” is a 19th-century quiltmaking pattern that has the appearance of little wandering feet. Patterns like the tracks, and their traditions and myths, have been passed down through the generations, from their frontier beginnings to today, where a generation of makers has embraced the material as a means of creating something new. Olivia Jondle is one such designer. Here, she’s taken an early turkey track-pattern quilt, cut it into various shapes, and stitched the pieces together, adding calico and other fabric remnants as needed. The result is a trench coat she calls the Pale Calico Coat. Her designs are for sale at The Rusty Bolt, Jondle’s small-batch fashion company based in St. Louis. —SAMANTHA STEVENSON
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A background in sculpture trained artist Aly Ytterberg to see objects more fully.
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How a little log cabin went from being a home to a guest house
IN GOOD TIME
With the help of interior designer Robert Idol, a Kirkwood couple creates a home that pays homage to the past, yet feels just right for their modern young family.
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"Food Raconteur” Ashok Nageshwaran wants to tell you a story.
The Right Move
New shops and showrooms bring exciting opportunities for local designers, makers, and arts organizations to sell their wares to home enthusiasts here and everywhere.
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Painter and gardener Lauren Knight branches out.
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Chris Mower of White Stable Farms discovered the Japanese style of gardening in Italy. Now, he’s bringing it to St. Louis.
Graphic Mood
Letters, icons, and illustrations that speak in a hand-drawn language
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Audra Noyes, of the Saint Louis Fashion Fund Incubator’s first class, opens an atelier in Ladue.
