Meet Arabella Tattershall

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Arabella Tattershall.

Hi Arabella, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Michigan, one of 4 and only girls. Surrounded by extreme talent from both of my parents and my grandmother on my mother’s side.

Her name was Marie Funk, and she owned the Colony shop at the Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island in northern Michigan. I only knew her as a single woman. I deeply admired her professional prowess in running a shop and selling black tie attire to the conventioneers who stayed in the Grand Hotel. Her selection of clothing was extraordinary, every thread for both men and women. I wanted to be like her, self-employed. She was my role model.

After working many jobs from the age of 16, I knew deep down that one day, I, too, would follow in her footsteps, paving my own way to doing something I truly love. In 1980, I lost one of my three brothers to suicide. He was the youngest, and his absence was profound. It was then that I knew it was time to follow my heart, leap into a new beginning, and launch out on my own. I started in fiber, a medium I was very familiar with after watching and learning from my mother the skills of making garments and anything else I could think of. It was natural, all of it.

During those first years, I started out creating soft sculptures. Not the nylon faces stuffed into jars, but items like giant Nike running shoes & elaborate costumes. When I moved to Colorado in 1984, I was employed by my brother in his photo studio to be a Photo Stylist. Preparing sets for photo shoots and providing props appropriate for the photographs. Word got out in the photography world that I could create props that could not be purchased, and my workload exploded.

One of my jobs was fitting a three-piece suit to fit a giant short-haired Saint Bernard for a corporate report for Quaker Oats. Many jobs and funny stories later, I left that career to pursue banner-making with another artist. We produced a number of banners for the 16th Street Mall in Denver, Arlington Heights Horserace Track, Cleo Wallace in Denver, and Children’s Hospital. Never far from the sewing machine, my career in soft sculpture continued along with banners.

Marriage and children in 1991 lead me down yet another road. Still sewing, I created a line of Fleece outerwear for babies and young children named AB Seas Funwear. My husband and I spent time on the road selling these creations for the next nine years. It was when my children were both settled into school that I made another big career shift to welding.

Years of creating with fabric left me wanting more from a material, something that could be placed outside for years to come. It was metal. The challenge of all was a material I knew nothing about.

I enrolled in Emily Griffith in Denver and spent the next two years immersed in this new, challenging, exciting material, working under the instruction of Sam Jameson, teacher/master welder. The year he retired, I left the school and set out on my own, setting up shop in my home with the addition of a welding studio.

Twenty-four years later, I am still creating one-of-a-kind sculptures for the home and gardens. I have so much passion and respect for metal and its possibilities. I have also explored clay over the past eight years, including it in my metal work.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe you can tell us more about your work next?
My career has taken many twists and turns. I started with fiber years ago and am now working full-time with both metal and clay. In 2020, after a couple of years under the guidance of a wonderful welding teacher at Emily Griffith Opportunity Trade School in Denver, I launched my own business as a welder.

The creations I am known for are my nonwearable metal couture dresses and life-size designs for gardens and interiors. These dresses are one of a kind created primarily of steel leaves I have collected over the years in my travels. Torsos and shoes also appear in my collections.

What sets my work apart from others is the attention to detail, the movement I am able to achieve with these dresses, and the finish being a big part of my signature. After 23 years of creating these dresses, there is an immediate connection to my work and me. For all the years of creating with a sewing machine, the transition was almost natural, moving into metal and creating couture.

What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
I have learned to create from the heart. What pops into my head, I make. Trust. Being humble, I am. I am eternally grateful for the gift I have been blessed with and take no day for granted.

I am not attached to my work, only to the process. Once the piece is completed, it sells, gets installed and I forget about the outcome. I do not forget the process or the journey of creating it. That is the gift!

Contact Info:

• Email: arabella@arabellasmetal.com
• Instagram: @arabella232323

Image Credits
Jim DeLutes Photography