Natural Settings Former teacher recycles granite, seashells into unique flatware

All Tamra Philbrook wanted was a unique set of flatware.

She didn’t want plain stainless. Her foray into sterling ended in a tarnished mess. So she went shopping. She went online. She even contacted a woman in Africa.

But she came up empty-handed. Literally. So the Old Town resident decided to design her own.

“I was obsessed with finding something interesting for my table,” Philbrook said, her knees tucked under her as she sat by the fire in her living room. “I thought, ‘What can I use around me? What does Maine have around me that I can use?'”

The answer was simple and abundant – granite scraps and seashells, which she crushes and suspends in layers of jeweler’s resin, then polishes to a glossy sheen. The resulting line of forks, knives, spoons, serving pieces and accessories, which she sells under the label Artful Wares, was named the best new product at the 2003 New England Products Trade Show in Portland.

It took her awhile to get there, though. In 2002, she left her job as an English teacher at Orono High School to pursue her passion. Though Philbrook’s eye for design is apparent in her home – brightly painted walls, vibrant furniture and bold artwork by her former students combine to make a striking statement – her flatware expertise was limited. So she began researching processes and materials, consulted a friend who is a jeweler, and set out to find suitable utensils for her decorative handles.

“I quit my job because I was so obsessed with this,” she said. “So many people say, ‘You left teaching? You’re making flatware?’ Yes.”

Philbrook, 44, was equally obsessed with learning and exploring, and she was convinced her idea would make a splash. So she withdrew her retirement savings, sought out small-business funding, and, with help from her husband, Glenn, who has a background in engineering, she was able to develop a durable, stylish product using recycled materials.

Her granite handles, which can be custom-made to match countertops or kitchen colors, are made from stone chips. For her mussel handles, she walks Lamoine Beach with a bucket in hand, shoveling shells that she later crushes. She made her first set of lobster handles with the shells from her family’s Christmas dinner, but now her lobster and clam shells come from the A.M. Look seafood cannery in Whiting, whose now-retired founder, Donald Look, was Philbrook’s first customer.

“He couldn’t believe I had done something so beautiful with his shells,” Philbrook said.

Most people had no use for Look’s castoffs, save for the occasional person who wanted them for their driveway, so they usually ended up in a shell dump. Look had never seen anything quite like Philbrook’s Artful Wares, but he was intrigued.

“It was a unique item,” he said by phone from his Whiting home, “and very attractive.”

Look’s successors at the cannery agree.

“They’re gorgeous,” said Cynthia Fisher, whose partner, Mike Cote, took over the business when Donald Look retired. “They’re museum-quality.”

Philbrook makes each piece by hand. It’s an eight-day process that starts with a bare utensil, the handle of which she covers in jewelers resin and dips in crushed shells or rock in her basement studio. During a recent visit, forks, knives and spoons were suspended to dry in various stages of completion, looking a bit like ice cream cones dipped in jimmies. When the layers are complete, she and Glenn then sand and shape each piece, brush the stainless steel and polish the handle. The resulting product isn’t cheap (a five-piece place setting costs $150), but that hasn’t turned people away.

“I can get them to look the same, but when you touch them and feel them, you’ll know they’re one-of-a-kind,” Philbrook said. “I don’t want to ever have to make a mold. That would take the art out of it. Then it’ll just become another common flatware that anyone could offer.”

But Philbrook isn’t just anyone. She has the good looks and pep of a head cheerleader, coupled with the savvy and eloquence of, well, a seasoned English teacher. In other words, if anyone could make a go of it with high-end, seashell-handled flatware, Philbrook could.

“Tamra’s just a wonderful, wonderful girl,” said Kim McLaughlin, who recently started an online and in-house lobster-based gift shop, the Maine Lobster Pot, at McLaughlin’s Seafood in Bangor. “She saw a need and fulfilled it with her vision. She’s been really positive and I think she’s got a great niche.”

So do her customers, many of whom are as obsessed with unusual flatware as Philbrook once was.

“Women are happy that they have something different to choose from and have color on the table,” Philbrook said.

Artful Wares are available locally at The Kimball Shop in Northeast Harbor; Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport; McLaughlin’s Seafood and The Grasshopper Shop in Bangor; Northport Landing Gallery in Northport; Maine Gathering in Camden; and Moosehead Furniture factory store in Dover-Foxcroft. For information or to order, visit www.artfulwares.com or call 827-8923.