42 | Steel Notes Magazine steelnotesmagazine . com | July 2014
wouldn ’ t fit on a cross or they just did not work on anything else , now they ’ re working and it ’ s kind of exciting . I was telling my daughter this morning , when I started making crosses I got a tremendous amount of stuff and have spent much more money than I should have . I didn ’ t realize they had to be flat-backed and said , my God , I just blew $ 30 on something I can never use . Well , of course I saved the stuff and now I can sink those into the resin , and I can pull all that stuff out after a year and a half of them gathering dust . So it ’ s a lot of fun .
Alexxis : Sure , absolutely ! So I saw that you take a lot of things and restore them , like what you did with the antique Victorian oil heater .
Marie : Yes , That was a long , long , time ago that it sold . It was back then out of my desperation to make money after my hand surgery , and I was really working that left hand of mine . That was the very beginning of my career , as far as this becoming a career .
When I was making my crosses , the one piece that means so much to me was for a gal named Karen Kincaid . She had sent me her mother ’ s ashes , and I searched high and low for a silver satchel , covered in jewels , that
Cross with red jewels a woman would wear around her neck , and she had sent me a vial full of her mother ’ s ashes . That is my favorite piece ever that I ever made . It was unbelievably stunning , so I began taking a lot of heirlooms , whether it ’ d be a cross , or mother ’ s ashes , and her father had carved four itsy - bitsy little hearts , and I incorporated that along with the mama ’ s ashes . Her brother was also passed and he had collected seashells for her , which I put on too . Those are the ones I have had the most fun with . As far as the most enjoyable and the pieces that send me looking are those that sometimes take weeks and months to find something . That is probably the most intense piece that I have ever done . It ’ s called Family Love . It may not be the most beautiful piece I ’ ve made , but to me it is .
Alexxis : I saw another thing you did under your Gothic pictures with the iron candle holder . Marie : Yes , I sold that . Cherie helped me with that . Alexxis : I saw a picture of her working on it .
Marie : Cherie is actually a woodcarver and is working on something for Kristen Stewart for the next two weeks .
Alexxis : The talent runs in the family !
Marie : Well , you know , we have always been artistic , and my mom , God bless her , has been an amazing artist , as far as drawing goes , and all of that stuff . Like I said , I ’ ve just sold my 200 th piece , so I guess , yeah , there is
42 | Steel Notes Magazine steelnotesmagazine . com | July 2014