John and Lauri Maeder craft art in ‘desert lace’

Many have seen scraggly desiccated corpses of prickly pear cacti while out on a hike or pruning fence lines, but these remnants are a world away from the perfectly-rendered inner structure of a cactus. This system of scaffolding is so intricate it’s referred to as “desert lace.”

Holding up a specimen, multimedia artist and jewelry maker John Maeder of Desert Lace Studio in Jerome explained how in nature, the dead cacti pads “degrade when they lay out and get moldy and crispy; you can’t see the fibers made up of individual cells.”

The cells, he explained, tell the plants how to grow and when to flower. “It chemically communicates with itself,” he said, sounding like a scientist.

While joking that he’s more of a “mad scientist,” Maeder and his wife and fellow artist and jewelry maker Lauri Maeder have nonetheless discovered a way to reveal unique aspects of cacti innards, as they have become experts in the removal of the plant’s outer layers — so expert, in fact, that they have produced samples for use at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.

They developed their process, which is a closely-guarded secret, about a decade ago over the course of 23 months.

“We made a list of things that we were constantly changing and updating and kind of worked around this list and tried all sorts of different ways and combinations of ways and we finally had a breakthrough,” John Maeder said, admitting they’d almost given up twice.

But why even bother in the first place? What was it about the cacti that motivated an undertaking of which the Maeders said, half in jest and half seriously, “We suffered for our art”?

Sharlot Hall’s Hat

During what the Maeders refer to as “that fateful trip” to the Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott, a certain hat caught their attention.

While strolling around the museum, the Maeders noticed a display of an outfit that Sharlot Hall [1870-1943], an American journalist, poet and historian, had worn in 1925 to deliver Arizona’s three electoral votes to Washington during the presidential election of Calvin Coolidge.

“The outfit is a green silk dress, a real fine copper chainmail overdress, a Jazz Age thing and then a hat made out of prickly pear cactus,” said John Maeder. “Lauri saw that hat and thought it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.”

Hall must have felt the same way, because according to the Sharlot Hall Museum’s website, after the election she continued to wear the hat and the rest of the outfit, which was commissioned by the Arizona Industrial Congress, as she lectured about Arizona and its resources.

Upon returning home from the museum, the Maeders cut some cactus pads from their yard and attempted to take the fiber out to replicate the hat, thus beginning their 23-month experiment, which involved many sacrifices on behalf of the prickly pear community — and of the Maeders themselves, in the form of the various injuries they suffered along the way.

“I have photos on my phone of our hands with glochids [small hair-like spines], thorns, you name it,” John Maeder laughed.

Eventually, the Maeders decided to give their cactus grove a break and began taking cuttings from friends and neighbors, a practice that they continue today, as harvesting cacti from public lands is prohibited.

“We’re providing a service,” Maeder explained, noting that many of the cacti they trim would otherwise be taken to a landfill. “They are expensive to dump, because they weigh a lot, so what we’re doing is upcycling.”

Hats Off to the Market

After finally achieving their goal of creating a facsimile of Hall’s hat, the Maeders began to wonder what else they could create with desert lace.

“We just kind of progressed,” Lauri Maeder said, while her husband produced an array of early work ranging from decorative wall panels to hats of varying shapes and sizes, as well as some of their earliest jewelry prototypes.

The Maeders told a story of how they had entered several items at the Arizona State Fair in 2018 and to their amazement, they were not only accepted, but won various awards.

“A lot of people entered,” Lauri Maeder said. “They don’t tell you if you won or not, so we had to drive all the way.”

The Maeders said that upon arriving, they were unable to locate their entries and in their confusion, they asked around until someone suggested they look in the “Best of Arizona” room.

“Sure, enough, there was our panel, our beautiful copper bracelet,” Lauri Maeder said.

Their entries, 12 in total, had earned two blue ribbons, one third-place ribbon and two Best of Arizona ribbons.

“So then we knew we had something,” John Maeder said.

Following their success at the fair, their work was featured in Arizona Highways magazine and soon afterward, they began taking orders from gift shops and galleries and increased their production significantly. Eventually, they began traveling to markets.

In the beginning, the Maeders traveled across the state to sell their wares, but after the COVID-19 pandemic response they began to consider the practical benefits of staying closer to home.

“The big shows didn’t open back up again,” John Maeder explained. “But what did were all these little shows in Sedona and we started booking into these shows and rapidly discovered we could save $1,000 right off the top by not having to travel, so that was an eye-opening thing.”

With the money they’ve been able to save by staying local, the Maeders have invested in equipment that has enabled them to create more varied and sophisticated styles of jewelry and additional items like shot glasses, hair accessories and home décor pieces.

They have even hired a production assistant, a friend and former neighbor, Marla Quillard, who works 15 hours a week in the Jerome studio. Quillard, an experienced jewelry maker, helps by assembling and finishing pieces and lends her creativity to some of the designs.

“She’s got a great color sense and design sense,” John Maeder said of Quillard.

Future Plans and Artists’ Village

While the Maeders say their work keeps them busy 24/7, they have greater ambitions as well —starting a new art fair in Old Town Cottonwood, which they have named the Artists’ Village.

So far, the Maeders have selected 39 regional artists working in various mediums to participate in the fair, which will not feature any live music or food vendors.

John Maeder explained that live performances and food trucks take attention away from vendors and noted that visitors can enjoy the “many wonderful restaurants” in town after they’ve attended the fair.

The fair took place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Oct. 11 through 13 at the Old Town Activity Park. For more information about the fair, visit Artists-Village.com.