Our Story

During a time that once was, is now gone forever and may well come back again soon, right in the middle of a wonderfully steamy, relaxing, cleansing shower, Inspiration floated innocently into Teresa Dane Marcel’s mind, whispered into her ear, and struck right at her heart. Perhaps it was Rhiannon, the Celtic Divine Queen of the fairies. Perhaps it was one of the Greek Muses, or Athena, goddess of handcraft. It is hard to say which.

Inspiration said: “You love handcrafting, you delight in the texture of yarn, the feel of fine fabric, the luster of beads...and we all know how you can go on and on looking at the deeper symbolism embedded in myths and stories. So, why not combine these two fascinations? You could create new designs and projects inspired by Divine Women of myth and story, and while you are at it, invite other creative women to do the same and form a circle of women cooperatively helping each other!”

Oh, yes, indeed, those words did go right to Teresa’s heart! After all, creating handmade items has been a continual, grounding thread in her life – sewing, crocheting, knitting. At some point, she discovered beading. The connection between working with her hands and her inner state of being, however, only became obvious to her when she decided, some years ago, to remodel her newly acquired ‘flat’ in London, England. She bought new ‘toys’ – power tools, crow bars, hammers, saws and paint brushes – with which she replaced floorboards, tiled the bathroom, installed kitchen cabinets and painted walls. And then she noticed something amazing: the inner upheaval which had brought her to London in the first place found resonance and outward expression in that very physical work. The work was both healing and creative – for herself and the spaces being renovated.

This experience inspired her to train as a psychotherapeutic counselor, which, in turn, crystallized yet another passion for Teresa: consciously experiencing, sharing, studying, and teaching the nuances of soul, emotion and human communication as a means of reaching depth, truth and meaning within ourselves and in our relationships. This is also when she rekindled her childhood fascination with mythology and began to understand its archetypal relevance to our individual psyches and lives.

“So,” thought Teresa, as Inspiration suggested, “why would there not be a similar relationship and expressiveness between ourselves and most anything we make with our hands?” and she set out to create a class – which she called ‘Skillful Hands, Connected Souls’ – in which handwork and self-exploration were combined, using the myths of the Greek Goddess Artemis as the framework for this exploration. The class combined beading, crocheting and sewing skills to make a reversible handbag (our Artemis reversible handbag), and was offered at three Lake Oswego shops, each of which hosted a portion of the class.

That’s how it all started… and this is Divine Women Creative Studio now! Welcome – it is good to have you here.