GIGS
From left to right: Designed For Joy co-founders Kristen Sydow and Cary Heise
FLOWER POWER An immigrant and mother shares her positive energy through embroidery by ADDIE LADNER
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nside an embroidery hoop, a woman shaped like a Matryoshka nesting doll is brought to life through brightly colored threads; florals and leaves that grow from minuscule beads sewn into groups; a patterned fabric serves as her stylish little top. She sits among many others, each a personality of its own, wrought in stitches and knots in a multitude of colors. The cheerful hues belie an aura of solemnity: Elena Caron’s talent found its origin from a rough childhood in her native Ukraine, the hoop art a bridge between the past and present. She learned the craft from her grandparents, who took her in, along with her sister, when their mother left them at a young 48 | WALTER
photography by S.P. MURRAY
age. Her grandparents passed away soon after, leaving her impoverished father to care for the children. He was so poor that some months they’re eat only apples and bread (he was often paid in produce) and she had a single pair of socks that she’d wash and dry on her grandfather’s radiator, mending them when they’d rip. Despite the hardship, she persevered. “My grandfather was a horticulturist and taught me to work hard at what you love,” says Caron. She found respite in the natural world, on long walks with her father in the woods and flower identification lessons from her grandfather. “I like looking at different patterns of the moss, the ferns and the movement. It helps me
