I would imagine people usually think of jewelry as a known entity — something common and predictable. We see and imagine bracelets, necklaces, pins, and earrings made of gold, silver, beads… Mary Tangora, however, has invented new and unusual jewelry and other gift and décor items which she and her husband Larry Steinbauer display in their own unique store, Wind Water & Light, in the Historic Lincoln Square Mall in Urbana. Upon entering this inviting space, you will see the eclectic items they show for sale, many of them artworks made out of recycled items. One trip to their gallery/studio will uncover “up-cycling at its best”—things such as earrings made from plastic and wood, or glass bottle pieces wire-wrapped in either 14/20 gold-filled wire or sterling silver. You’ll also find hunter’s arrows, knitting needles, clock gears, and discarded paper products which now are a delight and surprise to see in their artistic second life.
Tangora sells her beautiful creations at Wind Water & Light as well as other galleries in the United States. She and Steinbauer are the only sales people in their shop every day, so Mary works on her creations in the store while customers browse and buy artwork created by her, her husband, and over 200 artists from around the country whom they represent. he mostly sits at a large table near the back of the store, where her work space is covered in the materials she uses—plastic pieces she has scalded to unique shapes, variously colored hunter’s arrows, many small clock cogs, and her signature “cultured beach glass” parts. There, she makes extraordinary pins, earrings, wind-chimes, and other original works of art.
Although Mary Tangora began her art career over twenty years ago with a Communication and Fine Arts degree in Photography at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, she quickly moved on to other mediums—and began inventing new ones — shortly after her graduation. A presentations class taught her about making handmade paper items, similar to papier maché; however, this medium was very fragile to sell with a limited lifespan — an idea before its time. Other paper items Mary has made use items such as old Illinois maps she found; her creative work with them was a foray into the new use of an evolving medium. You can still find Mary using handmade paper in her works today. For example, last Christmas her Illinois State Representative contracted Mary to make 12 unique boxes clad in Illinois maps with the Representative’s license plates for lids. These boxes were given to the Representative’s grandchildren as a memento of her service to Illinois.
The Illinois maps had come to Mary through serendipity, like many of her found, unusual, and recyclable objects. When Mary and Larry first rented their shop space in Lincoln Square Mall, the blueprint plans for the large front and back spaces of showed that there should be one more room than the eye could see. Over time, Mary and Larry looked and looked for the additional space they were supposed to have rented until, one day, Larry took a drill to a wall which he thought might have hollow space behind it. He hit the jackpot his first try, because, indeed, the little peephole showed that there was quite some space behind the wall. They knocked down the wall so they could use the extra room they expected to find there.
However, once the first wall was down, there was only a narrow passageway of space before another wall. Disappointed, Larry drilled another hole in the next wall, and lo, it too, was hollow. Finally, after knocking out the second wall, Larry discovered the mystery room. It had been completely walled in with nothing much in it. Nothing, that is, except an old shelf in the corner, on which Mary found a box of old, Illinois maps. It was her treasure. The secret room in Wind Water & Light was a source for many new items to create.
Yes, Mary is always thinking of new things to make. “I have to make things,” she told me. “I am not happy if I am not creating.”
Her true “eureka moment” came to her a little over twenty years ago when as she was walking along a beach in south Florida where chards of old of bottles washed up on shore. “Beach glass” and “mermaids’ tears” are some of the terms used to describe what she saw. She picked up the broken glass bits, which had their rough edges softened by the moving surf, and wondered, “How can I make this material for my art back in Illinois?” She thought a rock tumbler would probably be helpful, so, once she got back to Illinois she borrowed a rock tumbler to churn and soften her broken bottle pieces into “cultured beach glass” for wind-chimes and jewelry. And a business was born.
Besides using glass for her wind-chimes in this unique way, Mary had the innovative idea to use old hunters’ arrows for the chimes hanging down from the bottle pieces. She found the sound of the arrows to be appealing, and using them struck a chord with hear appeal to recycle. While shopping for something to make a chime noise, she found a small shop named Hunters’ Haven/Slot N Wings Hobbies, in Champaign. There Mary was introduced to discarded aluminum pipes left over from the process of making an arrows. They were all different lengths because every hunter’s arm is a different size. Mary noticed the various colors of the arrows which—reddish, orange, and traditional green and gold camouflage colors. The process for this decorative coloring on the tubes is called anodizing, which involves chemical baths, electricity, and dyes to make the aluminum stronger after the process. In her characteristic, offbeat style, Mary noted that it was the human beings who saw the colors, probably not the animals; thus the colors were for humans to enjoy when fashioned into her art.
After a while, Mary got frustrated with the limited color palette offered by the arrows and added brightly colored knitting needles to be used as the chimes and jewelry. The needles and arrows came in many diameters, lengths, and colors; this of course created the different tones for the chimes. Mary could then cut the arrows further with a pipe cutter and drill the tubes for a perfect fit for her creations.
Similarly, Mary thought of new ways to use other odd materials that came her way. She found some antique clocks, broken beyond repair, made between the late 1800s and 1920s. Finding them beautiful, Mary took them apart and thought, “Somebody who was in love with clock-making made these long ago.” She said she thinks the clock makers “would turn over in their graves if they thought someone was taking apart their clocks and not restoring them.”
Still, Mary found the various cogs and parts beautiful, and noted that some have finely made edges which are rare, and other cogs have more traditional, fatter spikes for their edgings. So many unique shapes and pieces were found that Mary imagines the clock makers’ hand-crafted the gears themselves with great pride and love for the work. This line of artwork she calls “Mary’s Gears.” Other names for the various lines of Mary’s invented gifts are: “Wooden Wonders,” “Queen of Arrows,” and “Tangora Designs.”
Mary’s decorative inventions sell well around the country. After over twenty years on the art show circuit, you can find her work for sale online at Etsy.com (click on the “shops” tab and type in “TANGORADESIGNS” and shop away! Also check: www.windwaterlight.com or visit them at their gallery. In the last couple of months she was juried into a competitive show in Texas, where she just returned from displaying and selling her work at Eighteen Hands Gallery in Houston Heights.
Mary Tangora’s spirit is all positive. Her fine dreams and creations resonate out goodness to the community and the world. The arrows in her wind-chimes, no longer pierce, but instead bring to fruition things wonderful and exciting for the human senses to enjoy. Besides decorating our world with beautiful, recycled artwork, Mary helps mankind on an individual and personal level. A percentage of their items are donated to charities in the community Mary also works with a local business called “Community Choices” that helps disabled people learn crafts to help them become independent. In addition, Mary makes decorative angels of all kinds out of her materials; each month she finds a needy individual in the community and hands out one of her hand-made angels.
Mary’s philosophy is that “one thing leads to another,” for her ideas which come from everywhere at any time. By using plastic bottles and other landfill-bound materials (“waste,” one might call them) in her work, she wants to make the world a better place. She also believes that things of beauty make the world a more enjoyable place in which to be. Indeed, with such a positive and creative attitude, Mary does contribute new, useful, decorative, and environment-saving art to make the world better, and to satisfy her own artistic soul.
Mary’s work will be on display Saturday, March 15th, along with work from 30 or so other artists, as part of the Hatch exhibit. The work can be viewed at the Savoy Recreation Center from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
All photos by Jessica Lewis Watson.