If Monica Lewinsky is considered at all a trendsetter, then hand-crafted hand bags are the latest trend. Distancing herself from the political arena, everybody's favorite intern, Monica Lewinsky, is trying her hand at the arts. Bored in the courtroom, she taught herself how to sew only months ago and now has a website selling her velvet knit handbags. Her marketing strategy lies with the attached tag laced with red roses that reads, "Made Especially for You by Monica."

  If your somebody like Scottsdale residents Kerri and Cristin McDermott, those red roses could have piercing thorns of injustice. Unlike Lewinsky, who "realized her creativity" and entered the world of design with little experience, 29-year-old Kerri McDermott has been cultivating her talent over the last quarter century, now focusing on creating unique accessories, specifically handbags. Bypassing what she calls "historically used fabrics," Kerri's craft is created weaving electrical copper wire.

  The McDermott sisters are proof that the life of ordinary objects is only as endless as your imagination, not to mention the fact that there truly is a place for copper electrical wire in every wardrobe. Weaving wire into fashion forward fabric, Kerri and Cristin McDermott make elegant handbags, shawls, 

  Kerri, the artist behind McDermott Design and graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design, is the creative partner, while big sister Cristin, one year Kerri's senior, handles the more business-oriented functions. "Kerri does the designing, creating and knitting, and I do the computer stuff, banking, shipping and some of the sewing," Cristin says.

  Although they focus mainly on the timeless handbags, which vary in size and color and range in price from $24 to $130, McDermott Design also creates home décor. Large-scale, folding oak screens, accented with layers of wire, hand-cut copper and glow-in-the-dark glass--their big ticket item--sell at fine art galleries and small boutiques. "The people who go to those places generally look at our work beyond face value. They see the work that went into it and appreciate the uniqueness regardless of the price," Kerri says, referring to the artistic room dividers.

  If all else fails, the sisters could always resort to a proven hand-bag-selling technique and create a sex scandal with a prominent somebody in the Oval Office. In the meantime, they're building their business, one bag at a time.

  A Scottsdale artist and her sister are gaining national attention by weaving art, fashion and business into a winning combination.

  They've created a unique clothing and jewelry line that's wooing both critics and customers - all younger than 30.

  The McDermott's, Kerri, 27, and Cristin, 28, are the founders and proprietors of McDermott Design, a business that markets the original designs Kerri creates.

  Her specialty is garments woven from fine copper wire and chenille yarn, designs that become wearable art. Already Kerri McDermott's work weaving shirts, shawls, curtains and wall coverings has received an award from Niche Magazine, a prestigious art journal.

  "It  takes a certain type of person to wear or like something like this," Kerri McDermott said of her bold and unusual clothing line. She added people are always asking how they wear one of her designs.

  Once she graduated, she found herself with a lot of time on her hands, so she started working more with the copper and eventually made a jacket. From there she began to make more garments, as well as glass jewelry to be worn with the clothes, and then began to market both.

  Kerri McDermott soon found creating and selling her work was overwhelming for her to handle by herself, and that's when her sister stepped in.

  Cristin McDermott became her sisters business manager, allowing the girls to fulfill the lifelong dream of owning their own business.

  "We decided to take a chance," Cristin McDermott said. "She's the creative end. I'm everything else that needs to be done."

  The pair started out traveling to art exhibitions and craft shows, then they approached various galleries and museums, asking to display the work. Now they are developing a brochure, have a contract to supply

  Kerri McDermott's work was even featured as curtains, garments and jewelry in the film Waiting to Exhale and now sells for between $250 to $3,800 for wirework and between $30 and $190 for jewelry.

  "If we were older it might have been harder to start," Kerri McDermott said. "When you're younger, you feel like you have the world at your fingers. You don't have the same fear of the world as you would have if you were older."

  She added that having the support of her family has allowed her to do what she does and to grow as an artist. Being in the business teaches perseverance, she said. "It takes a long time - you have to be in it for the long haul."

  Kerri McDermott said their next goal is to increase name recognition and create a clientele base that would support them financially and allow Kerri to concentrate on one-of-a-kind pieces.

  "Artistic success and financial success don't always go hand in hand," she said.

  Obsessions with electrical wire are usually reserved for gear heads and underground militia members, but Scottsdale's McDermott sisters have spun a passion for metallic thread into a successful line of clothing and accessories they call "A Way With Wire." And their designs, beautiful metallic evening bags, glow in the dark folding screens, shirts, shawls and even curtains, prove that the age of wireless communication may not be as eminent as we think.

  McDermott Design started five years ago when Kerri, a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design and Pilchuk Glass School, decided to use the techniques of textile design and glass making to develop her own line of hand-crafted products. She began by working with knitted copper wire, concentrating mostly on metallic fashion pieces like jackets and other wearable art, but quickly realized that the fast pace of fashion seasons as well as the difficulties of fittings and sizing were overwhelming for just one person.

  Kerri needed a business partner and manager to make it all come together, and that is when her sister Cristin entered the picture. For the past three years, the sisters have been working side by side to build a network of retail clients nationwide. Kerri is the creative partner and master knitter, and Cristin,

  Woven copper wire can take on a variety of textures from lace to linen, depending upon Kerri's design, but the main thing that makes it stand out is its uniqueness as a material, which is something that can have a major impact on the fashion world. Innovative materials like micro fibers, once introduced into the mainstream, seem to take over the textile industry being used in a multitude of designs from shoes and evening bags to floor length skirts. "That's the thing about fashion today," says Kerri. "I feel like it goes beyond the shapes and styles. The way to make them different is what you are making them with. That's what I try to do, to open people's eyes, to make them see what they haven't seen before."

  After testing out various designs at craft shows and galleries, the dynamic duo came up with a formula for success: create a reasonably affordable product that offers the consumer a piece of wearable art at a price that won't break the bank. Since larger clothing pieces must sell at higher prices because they require more time and materials, the sisters have channeled their energy into a line of specialty evening bags and purses which retail between $24 and $144. Each comes with

  Aside from wire products, McDermott Design also produces two lines of hand-crafted glass and silver jewelry. Some of the more elaborate pieces incorporate woven wire into glass beads, but "the glow line" of pendants, rings and earrings which look innocent enough in the light of day (no neon colors) are the products that are closest to Kerri's vision of art meets big business. "I've always been obsessed with it. I felt like the glow in the dark thing has such mass appeal... children, teens everywhere," explains Kerri. "I was playing around with different techniques with the glass and came up with something, and I thought there it is... unassuming glow in the dark. I think people freak out because they don't think that it is going to do that. I thought it might make millions."

  Currently the sisters are working on creating name recognition for their products, and a distribution deal with a major department store is in the works. Right now, you can get your hands on the bags and jewelry at various galleries and specialty shops including Mind's Eye Gallery in Scottsdale. Also look for upcoming trunk shows just in time for Christmas. For more information, contact McDermott Design at 602.443.8904.

Copper as Handbags?
by Joshua Rose
January 14, 1999
The Tribune

  If the Phoenix Art Museum wants a follow-up to its "Copper as Canvas" exhibit, two Scottsdale sisters have some ideas. How about "Copper as Clothing" or "Copper as Handbags?"

  Kerri and Cristin McDermott founders of McDermott Design, have stretched the utility of Arizona's trademark to include knitwear, evening bags, shawls, and curtains. Their hand-crafted lines have been showcased in art galleries, department stores and trade shows across the country. Kerri became intrigued with copper as a fashion material while she attended the Rhode Island School of Design. She devised a way to incorporate copper into weaving, making a jacket, then a shawl, then other garments.

  "It's difficult to market handmade pieces because most people don't understand the time that goes into making each one," says Kerri. "To sell the work, it's important to determine how to market yourself and how to get people to stop thinking with that mass-production mentality."

  After working on her own for a couple of years, Kerri brought in Cristin to help with marketing and promotion. The sisters thought their big break had come in 1995, when a costume designer

  "The movie was good, but it was also a little frustrating," Kerri says. "They wanted all this work done, and then when the film actually opened, most of the scenes with the work were edited out."

  Not to be discouraged, the two traveled to Los Angeles and got commitments from several costume designers to use their clothing in shows such as Friends and Melrose Place. But the sisters found that if their pieces were used, the credit for the work went to the show's designer.

  "It was a difficult situation because if you want to appeal to the younger set of people, it's important for the work to be seen on television and in the movies," Kerri says. "We decided we would rather not live like that, so we turned from the clothing to the handbags, wall dividers and jewelry."

  The switch in emphasis has proved a good decision. Their wall dividers, recently featured in Phoenix Home and Garden magazine, have removable screens with a sewn copper pattern that locks in glass beads and copper pieces that, when charged under bright light, glow in the dark.

  "It really is beautiful," Cristin says. "In the dark, it looks like an entire

  The purses also are a testament to Kerri's design skill. Intricately sewn copper patterns are held together by velvet strands across the top of the evening bags. With dyed sections of copper, the purses come in several different colors.

  "The copper is amazingly easy to work with," says Kerri, who uses a large knitting machine. "It is a very fine wire, so it is actually much easier to deal with than the velvet is."

  Kerri's adeptness at knitting can be traced across to Ireland, where she spent a year interning in Dublin. The Irish company was a true cottage industry - a group of women who knitted sweaters in their own homes.

  "The experience in Ireland was important for me because I really got an opportunity to see how a small company can be operated successfully, and it really gave me a sense of confidence," Kerri says.

  McDermott-designed objects can be found at several Valley locations, including the Mind's Eye Gallery in Scottsdale and the State Capitol Museum Store. A full range of products, including clothing, dividers, purses and jewelry, can be seen on appointment by calling 443-8904. Also, look for a McDermott trunk show and sale at Nordstoms around Valentine's Day.