Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
Is your business serving the residents of Tri-Cities? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 232: Wendy Newman transforms photographs into vibrant, 3D wearable art while giving back to those in need.
What makes Wendy Newman with Wendy Newman Designs a good neighbor?
Creativity has a way of evolving in unexpected directions, as exemplified by Wendy Newman's remarkable 51-year journey through fashion design and photography. What began as a desire to do something different with her photographs blossomed into Wendy Newman Designs, a business creating stunning wearable art through an innovative mandala technique.
Wendy transforms ordinary photographs into extraordinary multi-layered mandalas—sometimes 15 layers deep—all meticulously crafted in Photoshop from a single image. These intricate designs are then printed onto scarves, leggings, umbrellas, and bags using dye sublimation, ensuring vibrant colors that never fade even after countless washings. The magic of her mandalas lies in their versatility; when printed on a scarf, the complete image remains visible no matter how it's tied or worn.
The most surprising element of Wendy's designs came as a complete shock even to her—they're all naturally three-dimensional when viewed through special glasses (which she now includes with every purchase). This serendipitous discovery connects her work to that of Salvador Dalí, a connection first noted by a curator at the Dalí Museum in Spain who recognized similarities between their artistic visions.
While her design business flourishes through collaborations with prestigious clients like the Biltmore Estate and the Naples Winter Wine Festival, Wendy's heart truly shines through "Wendy's Cancer Warriors." For thirteen years, she has offered free professional photography services to terminally ill children and adults, creating precious memories for families facing cancer. Having lost her husband after his 26-year battle with cancer, this work gives her profound purpose—"the reason I get out of bed in the morning."
Discover the intersection of art, serendipity, and compassion at wendynewmandesigns.com, or reach out if you know someone with cancer who could benefit from Wendy's photography services at wendynewmanphotography.com. Experience how creativity combined with kindness creates something truly extraordinary.
To learn more about Wendy Newman Designs go to:
https://wendynewmandesigns.com/
Wendy Newman Designs
(828) 273-0346
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. We've got a very special guest in our studio and I'm excited to learn all about them and their business. And I'm sure you will be too, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor. And I'm sure you will be too, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, miss Wendy Newman pardon me who is the owner operator of Wendy Newman Designs.
Speaker 3:Wendy, welcome to the show. Thanks, Skip. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:We're thrilled. We're thrilled to have you. And I see you have some beautiful designs behind you there, so I'm really interested in learning all about how that came to be. So if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us about what you do?
Speaker 3:I've been a photographer and a degree fashion designer for 51 years, celebrating half a century.
Speaker 3:It seems weird to say those words. Half a century, it seems weird to say those words. And I think I got my first professional photography job when I was 18 years old and I actually, the same year I had obtained my fashion design degree. I went to college really early and I was actually working in this couture salon and I was making, I made my first gown for someone and got my first paid job at 18. Also, I had done some designing and got paid, but that was my first real job and it all happened when I was 18 years old, so it just seems like it was yesterday.
Speaker 3:But this business, wendy Newman Designs, got started. Actually, it's all from my photography and I wanted to do something different with my photographs and I got interested in this mandala project. I learned how to create mandalas multi-layered, sometimes 10, 15 layers deep, all done on Photoshop, and I can do it all from one photo, for instance, a wedding. I will take one of my pictures from a wedding and then I will have the couple in the center and I'll create the mandala and then I'll have the flowers. Maybe I'll have a location, whatever, maybe it's their rings that are a different layer in a mandala, different layer and a mandala, and so then I take that mandala and I will print it on an heirloom piece like a silk scarf or an umbrella, or I have done bags. I do these vegan leather bags, all kinds of different things.
Speaker 3:I really like the leggings. They're fun and that's how I started this business, which was a pair of leggings that I had made for my girlfriend who was leaving Asheville. We did yoga together, so I made her my very first pair of Asheville leggings. What I had done is taken all these unique photos of the downtown buildings of Asheville and then I created the mandalas and then I collaged them all into a pair of leggings and I wore them to this luncheon which, because we did yoga and I gave her a pair and I actually made them by hand I didn't have a factory or anything, and I like to call it launched at lunch because that day, that luncheon, all these women, they ended up buying a substantial amount of product from me, but I didn't even have a factory. I had no way of doing it and I told the girls. I said they started throwing checks at me. I said, yeah, I don't know if I can do this. I don't even have a factory yet and I'm not going to make all these by hand. So I quickly got busy and located the factory but I didn't like their fabric so I had to import all my own fabric there. Anyway, that's how it all got started was at that one luncheon.
Speaker 3:And then companies started finding out about my work and what I did and they were having these fundraisers and some of them were just events or galas. And, for instance, I did the international. Some of them were just events or galas and for instance, I did the international, the Naples Winter Wine Festival, which is like the number one activity for the wealthy done in Naples, florida, at the Ritz-Carlton, and they raised something like $20 million in a couple of hours from this gala and I created all the scarves and umbrellas for that gala and those were given to the donors as they were walking in the door. So it was, it was very, very special. That was one of the very first events I did. And then I did wine festivals after that and I did art festivals after that and all kinds of galas, like for the Vizcaya Museum in Miami.
Speaker 3:Biltmore ended up. They were one of my first clients, the Biltmore Estate, and I'll never forget this. I don't know if you know the store Bellagio in Asheville, biltmore Village. They're not redone yet, unfortunately, but no, everything is coming back in the village since Helene.
Speaker 3:But what happened was I wore my outfit into Bellagio, I was buying a gift for my girlfriend's birthday, and the girl that was checking me out she said where did you get that outfit? And I said oh, thank you. I said I made this and she said it. And I said oh, thank you. I said I made this and she said really, and I had, it was a, it was one of my mandala scarves and leggings and it had the city hall building, which I think is a gorgeous building of Asheville, and she said that is really unique. And I said well, thank you, and she's going to have your card. And I gave it to her and I walked out with my present and went on my merry way and I didn't even get to my car and I got a phone call from the owner and he said you don't know me. He said, but he said my, my girl that was. She just checked you out. She said that you were wearing something really wonderful and he said I was wondering if I could see it.
Speaker 3:And I said well, I'm standing right outside your store so I'll come back in. I said where are you? And so he told me. He said I have all my buyers here today and I would really like to meet you if you have a chance. I said sure. I said I'm on my way to the Grove Park Inn and I said so I've got about 10 minutes because I can't be late. And I said so I don't want you to think I'm rude because I'm going to be running out. And he said no, no, no, come back. Do you want me to bring all the stuff that I was going to be taking to the Grove Park Inn? Because I have it with me. He goes whatever you have, bring it in. So I did. I unzipped the garment bag, threw out the leggings and the scarves and everything, and they were all the buyers were there at this table.
Speaker 3:It was really funny because he said are you ready to take an order? And I went, uh, sure, oh, my God, I didn't even know what to do. Um and so, and so I got my pad out and took the order. And, um, it was a very substantial order and it was like, officially, my first large order, and I said OK. So he said so.
Speaker 3:You said you're going to the Grove Park Inn and I said, yeah, he said well, there's only one tiny little problem with that we have to be able to sell your merchandise in our store exclusively. And I didn't know how that was going to work. But I thought, you know, I'm just getting started, why not, I'm just going to go ahead and do it. And it turned out to be a really good thing for me to have that blessing of him and get started. And so I did it for a year. But there were too many other yoga studios and other stores that wanted to carry my stuff, so after a year it just was not a practical thing. I needed more exposure and so, but I was very, very thankful for that opportunity and that's how it just kind of got started, organically. People found out about it and it just grew.
Speaker 3:Different events and fundraisers started asking me for, you know, 200 umbrellas, 300 umbrellas, and the umbrella is the perfect thing for what I do and what I like about the mandala is when you put it on a scarf, no matter how you tie it, you're going to see the image, whereas if I just took a picture of a horse on a scarf which I could do but you start, you know, folding that scarf and you might get the horse's eyes or the horse's ear or the horse's behind or whatever, but you never get the whole horse. But when you have a mandala, you can actually get the entire photo within that scarf and then, depending on how you wear that scarf, sometimes you can get the whole mandala. And I have unique ways to tie and wear that scarf too, and they're very large, oversized scarves. That's how it all started, with those very few projects, and then it just sort of blossomed from there organically. I did fashion shows and all kinds of things like that. In fact, at the AC Hotel in downtown Asheville, one of the, they asked me if I would display my art on the walls, because they have this, they still have this running art hall up in their bar, their bar, and that goes out to the rooftop bar, and it was lovely, and I also had a chance to display my umbrellas at this very, very unique inside this arena. It was wonderful and the grand opening for that art show, with all my art on the wall. I actually did a fashion show with the pieces some of them are behind me of clothing, the scarves and the umbrellas. So I did a whole fashion show in the a cappella lounge. We ended up having hundreds of people come totally unexpected, no idea that was going to happen, and we raised quite a bit of money for Arts for Life. It was a fundraiser also, so it was.
Speaker 3:That is something else that I do. I photograph terminally ill children. I do this in the community for free. I've done it for 13 years here in Asheville and also sometimes in Fort Myers. When I go down there and there's some terminally ill kids that need to be photographed, I do that. The families are basically at the end of their ropes and their kids are not going to be around much longer, and so I'm happy to be able to provide those services and really the last memories of their children. And so that's how Arts for Life came in as one of the benefactors of this and you can find what I do. It's Wendy's Cancer Warriors and I'm on Facebook and it's under Wendy's Cancer Warriors, and they do it all for free. There's never a charge for prints, for the digital images or the shoot, for anything, and oftentimes I can have hair and makeup done. I work with a makeup artist and a hairstylist and they'll do all this for particularly the woman.
Speaker 3:Now I don't do just children anymore, because it's sort of just exploded, and John Lee did a when he was here I guess it was about four or five years ago did a story on me and then I was dominated for person of the year that year for this work that I do with my cancer warriors. I'll tell you something it's the reason I get out of bed in the morning is that Wendy's cancer warriors. It gives me a great sense of of, of just good feeling all over. I love doing what I do and I'm I feel very fortunate to do that and I feel very I've. I just my husband just passed away of cancer and he's had it for 26 years, so it's a cause that's very dear to my heart and it's it's something I really like to do.
Speaker 2:Wow, you have an amazing story. I mean especially organically. You know, you just happened to bump into this guy that says, hey, we got a bunch of buyers here. Can you come show us your stuff?
Speaker 3:I mean that's just amazing to me it is, it's serendipitous.
Speaker 2:Yes, and and there's no, absolutely no way that you've been in business for 51 years, you know that there's, that there's that just not, not, not possible it's been a journey.
Speaker 3:It really has. And then, um, I love the photography and, like all photographers, you tend to think, okay, now, what can I? What else can I do with my photography? And you know, I've worked with some of the horse people at Tryon and I photograph their horses and create these beautiful masterpieces for them and it's, it's nice, it's, it's, it's um, it's another way to use your photography and expand it. And I, as far as I know, I'm the only person. I know people that print photographs onto fabric and then create dresses and things like that.
Speaker 3:I don't know anyone that does the mandala work that I do. And one mandala can take me up to well. For instance, that wine festival that I did in Naples, florida. I did a scarf for them that took me 360 hours to create, because I had 35 different wineries and their labels and their bottles of wine on this scarf. Yeah, they're very time consuming. An average mandala that has two to three layers only takes me about 20 hours. So it's a very time consuming process because it has to be so exact, just like the original mandalas, which were done with sand and then washed away. It's just. The whole impermanence of it is just. It's very gratifying.
Speaker 2:Now do you use sublimation to put the actual print on the fabric? Absolutely.
Speaker 3:It's all dye sublimated, which is wonderful for our environment because there's no water that's wasted. Absolutely A lot of times that's what you're going to have with dye sublimation. It's really the way to go. It's more expensive, but I think it's a better product. What I like about the dye sublimation is that it doesn't fade Leggings which typically fade after a couple of washings. Mine never fade. They're the same brilliance after 50 washings. Wow, yeah, Dye sublimation is the way to go. I'm impressed that you knew that.
Speaker 2:Well, I used to have a good friend who ran a sublimation company and I was just amazed at how, you know, it actually soaks into all the fabric. It's not on the surface, it's in the fabric. That's an amazing process. It's an amazing process.
Speaker 3:It really is, and that's a lot. I only do the quality. I only want quality products, because I wear all my stuff and I want it to last forever and I want the colors to be vibrant and, as you can see, behind me there's a lot of color, a lot of color, bright, vibrant color. Oh, and I didn't tell you this, all my work is 3D, and this is another fun story.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, these are my 3D glasses and put them on and when you look through them, it's all 3D and it really is. And what's weird is I went to Spain. I was at the Dali Museum and there was a 3D exhibit, actually, and the owner actually she was, I guess, the manager at the time of the museum I was traveling with Curate and we had a food and wine tour and that was one of our things that we did that day, and so I was walking around and she came up to me. She said where did you get that scarf? And I was wearing a Dali scarf that I had created from the Dali Museum in St Petersburg, and so I told her that I'd made it, and she said, oh, you make one for us, us. And I ended up doing one for them as well. And she said, oh, you like Dali. And I said, oh, I love Dali, that's why I'm here. And she said, no, you like Dali. And I went okay, yeah, I like Dali. What she was trying to tell me that I didn't understand, because her English was so broken, was that my work was similar to Dali's and and I never knew this till I got back and my son and it didn't dawn on me and I had to keep up with our tour group, which was only 14 people. I said I'm really sorry, I have to go, but I ended up taking some of my pictures from that museum and then I created them and sent them a scarf.
Speaker 3:And what was so ironic about about all of it is I came home and my son said mom, you gotta see something. He said I want to take you downtown and it was a head shop downtown and I said okay, we go in and he goes look. And he pointed to this piece of fabric on the wall and I said, okay, I don't understand. He goes, pick up those glasses on the counter and look at it. And I immediately, when I saw the fabric and it said 3D tapestry. I said well, it's not a tapestry, it's just a piece of fabric. I know what a tapestry is, it's heavenly work. You know this is not a tapestry. But that wasn't even the point.
Speaker 3:When I put the glasses on, I went oh my God, he goes, mom, open up your umbrella because it was raining outside. I had my umbrella with me and I looked at the umbrella through those glasses. He said your stuff is all 3d. And I freaked out. I went, oh my god, this is like so amazing. And I came home, I put the glasses I actually got a pair of glasses from the store and I looked at everything and I went, oh no. So then I had to print my own 3d glasses so I could put it with every product that I sold. I wanted people to see how this was just too cool. It really was, and it's the mandala and it's the color and texture of the portion of the photograph that I use that creates that depth and that 3d effect, and the glasses are just like amazing. So and I didn't even know this until I'd been doing it for a year- Wow, wow.
Speaker 2:So, do you do you when you somebody buys an outfit. So when somebody buys an outfit, do you give them a pair of glasses too.
Speaker 3:Oh, with every product, every single product that I make you get the glasses with it, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Wow, very cool, very cool it is fun.
Speaker 3:It's not a selling point, but it is a nice little fun extra conversation point for the product. Little fun extra conversation point for for the product. What I didn't know was that I guess one out of every um 4 000 people actually see in 3d.
Speaker 3:Uh, they, they, they're mine dali was one of them by the way, and they, they, they can see that concept of 3d. I didn't, obviously. I didn't know this. Ok, until I learned it I went wow, that's really cool. And it's sort of like one out of every four people are born with perfect pitch, but if you don't develop it, by the time you're age four you start to lose it. Hmm.
Speaker 2:Yes, a little fact there, a little factoid, all right Well cool Little fact there. Little factoid, All right, Well cool. Well, let's switch gears for just a second Outside of work. What do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:Oh, I love bike riding. I love it. I do that four times a week. I do Pilates every single day of my life and I like to go over to club Pilates, but when they're not open on a holiday or whatever, I'll just do it at home. I do not have a reformer and that's my favorite piece of equipment. And I tell you something, pilates is really hard. What else do I like to do? I love to golf that's a real favorite. I like to read and I love to cook. But I'm health-oriented.
Speaker 3:I grew up at a health resort called Shangri-La in Bonita Springs, florida, so I have an extensive health background. My father almost died of cancer at 28, and he started eating nothing but fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds all organically grown, opened up this place called Shangri-La. People from all over the world came there Barbra Streisand, hackett, andre sagobi, all these people were regulars at shangri-la and there were no televisions at shangri-la and you learned how to eat and get back to nature and eat real, whole foods no chicken, no fish, no meat, no dairy, no breads, no spices, just whole, organic. And I was the sprout girl at Shangri-La and I grew 27 different kinds of sprouts some in dirt, some in jars for 150 people a day. We fed that came from all over the world to learn how to eat and how to be healthy and how to meditate and exercise and what was best for them.
Speaker 2:So, wow, fascinating, Absolutely fascinating. Well, if, wendy, if you could think of one thing that you would like our listeners to remember about Wendy Newman designs, what would that be?
Speaker 3:I would. I would say, if you don't remember anything else, remember that if you know someone that has some form of cancer and they need pictures to have them, just call me. It's a totally free service and I do this for grownups, children, whoever needs my service, I am available to them. I travel some, you know, depending on how far it is, and I go to hospitals if they need that. I've done that many times. But I would say, if that's the one thing you have to remember, remember that.
Speaker 2:Awesome, wonderful thing to remember, and you mentioned this briefly. But if, for those of our listeners that are interested in, they do know somebody that has some form of cancer and or they're super interested in in checking out some leggings or an outfit with some 3d glasses, how can we learn more?
Speaker 3:Um, wendy Newman designscom. Um is where you can find my website, and I've done over I don't know 16 cities now. Um, and I have all kinds of differentimaginable leggings, from festivals to whatever. You can find something that you can relate to in the collection, and I'd say that the bags and the scarves especially the scarves you know men are wearing scarves now, so that's kind of a cool thing too but are two of my favorite items, and particularly those people who are event planners or any type of fundraising committees If you need a special project or you need something special for your donors or whatever it is that you need, we can do that here at Wendy Newman Designs. All you have to do is call me, and it's wendynumandesignscom, and if you need pictures, it's wendynumandphotographycom.
Speaker 2:All right, very good. Well, this has been absolutely fascinating, wendy. You've got a super interesting story and multiple interesting stories, and so I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to spend some time with me and our listeners and want to thank you for what you do in the community for cancer patients and for the community there in Asheville and, moving forward, wish you and your family and Wendy Newman Designs and and photography all the best thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me also we loved having you and would love to have you back again, because I'm sure you've got more stories we would love to hear thank you thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast.
Speaker 1:To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnp try-citiescom. That's gnp try-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.