Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion


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Text by Joseph M. Schuster • Artwork Photography by Dean Powell

As a girl, Jennifer Maestre loved pencils. “I never wanted to throw one away. I’d keep sharpening it until it was just the tiniest nub. I thought they were cute.” Ten years ago, she found a new way to express her appreciation for the simplest of writing implements. Inspired by a poster that featured a sea urchin, she began experimenting with materials to reproduce the urchin’s spines. After rejecting nails and glass, it struck her that she could create the effect by sawing pencils into 1-inch segments, sharpening each segment, and stitching them together with heavy beading thread.

(a) When a gallery asked Jennifer to create a teapot, it took her a year to figure out how to stitch the one here. The effort was worthwhile. “It opened up my vocabulary as an artist. Making the spout taught me I could build an arm extending from a surface.” That allowed her to move past simpler pieces, like the ones (b) and (c), to more complex sculptures, like “Tiamat,” (d), named for an ancient Sumerian goddess.

Jennifer grew up in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, as her father’s work tracking satellites for the Smithsonian took the family around the globe. She majored in art and economics at Wellesley; more than a decade later, she went back for a second bachelor’s in art from Massachusetts College of Art.

Today, she’s settled into tiny, quaint Concord, Massachusetts, where she lives in a snug Cape Cod with a beautiful flower garden in the front and a lush vegetable garden in back. “My favorite thing is to make fresh salsa with ingredients picked from the garden. It’s so delicious.”
Her studio in nearby Maynard is in a former middle school that houses 70 artists. “It’s in the basement and has only a tiny window, but it used to be the art room, so it has a nice vibe.” To make one of her sculptures, she buys pencils several gross at a time. “I used to sharpen each tiny piece with a small hand sharpener. After years of blisters, I realized I could plug each piece into the chuck of an electric drill, insert the free end into the hand sharpener, and let the drill do the turning.” She listens to high-energy music while she works. “I like rockabilly or punk for sharpening. When I’m sewing the sculptures, I listen to something more low key.”

(e) With “Pelt,” Jennifer wanted to make a flexible sculpture that mimicked an animal skin. “You can rearrange any way you wish and play with it.” (f) When Jennifer stitched the last pencil piece in place, the top reminded her of an owl’s face, so she named it “Owl.” (g)Sculptures like “Luna,” which Jennifer made for a basket show, can use 4,000 pencil stubs or more.

(h) To reduce the static electricity that causes shavings to cling to her hand when she sharpens pencils, Jennifer lays a baby wipe in the tray where she catches the shavings. The results—intriguing, colorful accidental art she hangs above her workbench. (i) Modeled after the figurines Egyptians put in their tombs to keep the dead company, “Shabti” is another piece inspired by Jennifer’s interest in ancient cultures.

Jewelry box

Jennifer began making pencil jewelry as a fun way to defray the costs of the food and drink she set out for visitors on open studio days. To create the pieces, she glues blocks of pencils together, slices them at varying angles, and then laminates them. “People coming to an open studio aren’t likely to pay several thousand dollars for a sculpture, but the jewelry has done very well.”

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