Showing her True Colors> Sedgwick woman puts love for hues into garments, staircases

It’s a wild and woolly day. It’s raining hard and blowing out of the northeast. The Benjamin River — an inlet reaching up into the coastal town of Sedgwick — is a sea of whitecaps.

It’s a day to be indoors, ensconced in a soft, snug sweater, with the fireplace lit or the wood stove cranked. A day to watch a nor’easter unfold from inside.

That’s the scene in the Sedgwick home of Elizabeth Coakley. Sitting on a sofa backed by sheepskins, she’s wearing a hand-knit cardigan — a mosaic of gold, rose and tangerine hues — that warms the eye. The wood stove is humming. A kitten is batting a clear glass marble across the oak floor.

Peering through a jeweler’s magnifying lamp, Coakley is sewing a band of moss-green velvet onto the collar and cuffs of a newly knit, button-down sweater. The Swiss silk velvet is just one of the things that set apart her sweaters that sell for hundreds of dollars. There’s the homespun wool, artful patterns, and exotic buttons made from abalone, nautilus and cowrie shell and other things of the natural world.

But first and foremost are the rich, joyous colors — from pumpkin orange to lupine blue — that lift the spirit and warm the soul.

“Color gives me a zing. Whether it’s in wool or paints, it’s the driving force with everything I do,” Coakley reflects. “I think color is inspirational. Wherever I am, it’s the first thing I notice.”

The creator of Mermaid Woolens, Coakley produces handmade sweaters, vests, mittens, socks and hats. She designs the garments that are knit by women scattered across the Blue Hill Peninsula and beyond. The merino and mohair wools are homespun and custom-dyed.

Coakley assembles and puts finishing touches on the garments. She sews together the panels that make up the sweaters and vests. The garments are knit in the “stocinette stitch” and have an up-and-down, slimming effect. She adds the buttons and velvet trim.

Coakley has a tiny shop in her home. Entering it is like stepping into Aladdin’s cave. Brightly colored skeins of wool glitter from fish totes where they are piled high. A pair of squash-colored mittens looks like it has gems — nuggets of color — embedded in it. Slipping one on feels like curling up in a warm bed.

Coakley’s husband, Richard, a builder and sailor, constructed their clapboard house overlooking the Benjamin River. The downstairs is like being on a steamboat from another era with its long rooms, low ceilings and plank floors. Conch and other seashells collected in the Caribbean line the mantel of a massive fireplace made from sedimentary rock. Orchids grace a windowsill.

Ascending the staircase to the second floor is like reading a storybook. A different scene is painted on the tread of each step. They are familiar images such as a white sloop beating down Eggemoggin Reach toward the Deer Isle Bridge. Besides her knitted creations, Coakley paints people’s staircases. She draws from the landscape around a person’s home. The oval-shaped watercolors are varnished many times to withstand the constant wear of feet. Many of her storybook stairs are featured in houses her husband custom-built.

“I think it adds a whimsical quality to a house,” she says. “Houses are usually so functional and utilitarian. I call them my `Steps to Dreamland.”

Coakley got into the sweater and custom-staircase business quite by accident. Whimsical sweaters she had designed for her husband and sons and a staircase painted in her first Maine home caught the eye of friends. Word spread.

“Why I do this, God only knows. I was a real tomboy. I was not a girl who did handiwork,” she says, chuckling, referring to her woolen works.

Originally from Massachusetts, Coakley grew up in a coastal community north of Boston. Much of her childhood was spent mucking about in the salt marshes, sailing with the tide down a creek and riding horses on the beach. She loved animals and had many pets ranging from gerbils to ponies.

Coakley doesn’t see herself as having an innate gift to draw or paint, but does remember always making things as a child. That creative impulse led her to study at Boston’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Her main focus was sculpture and photography.

After completing their studies, Coakley and her husband, also a graduate of the museum school, and their newborn son spent six months traveling in Latin America. The colors from that trip are still fresh in her mind.

“There are places in Argentina where the sides of mountains are rose, purple and orange. It’s astounding, you feel you are right up in heaven,” she says. “The shapes and colors were so different from anything I’d ever seen. It would take your breath away.”

The Coakleys have lived in Maine for more than 25 years. Both love to sail and wanted to be by the sea.

Coakley still has a menagerie. As she sews, an ancient, creamy-colored Siamese cat named Rupert slinks by the sofa. The occasional rumble of kittens roughhousing can be heard upstairs. Ruby and Ziggy, a basset hound and standard poodle, are outdoors. Two Arabian horses graze in a pasture.

Animals find their way into Coakley’s work whether it’s a sweater pattern inspired by the sight of deer running on Isle au Haut or a scene, on one of her staircases, of two foxes frolicking in the snow.

“I don’t know if what I do is an art or craft,” she muses. “But it’s meant to bring fun and joy into people’s lives.”

Elizabeth Coakley’s woolen creations can be purchased at her home located on Reach Road in Sedgwick. Tel: 359-2747. Her work also is carried by Molly’s, Main Road, Winterport (223-8838), and in the summer at Main Street Studio and Gallery in Deer Isle (348-5667).