by Love stories can have the most unusual of starts, and for one couple from Pennsylvania, it all began with a pack of candy!
Emily Seilhamer first met her husband Malachi when he offered her Starburst candy in high school. It was Malachi’s favorite sweet treat, and it only made sense that he shared it with the lady he thought was even sweeter.
Emily who was still an artist in the making, definitely was smitten by this simple gesture and shared her intention with Malachi to make something surprising out of the Starburst candy wrappers that he otherwise would have thrown away.
Since that day, a lot changed in their young lives; for one, the two said I do and got married, and Emily went on to become an artist who focuses on reusing products from everyday life to create fashion and other beautiful goods.
However, what didn’t change was Emily’s plan to reuse those Starburst wrappers.
“As his favorite candy he began to save grocery bags full of wrappers for me . I’ve been saving Starburst wrappers diligently (with the help of friends and family) for 4 years …”
So after all those years spent collecting over 10,000 wrappers, Emily masterminded this special gift to present to her husband on their 2-year wedding anniversary!
It’s a fabulously fitted and colorful dress made entirely out of those candy wrappers she had saved. The process was not easy by any means. She recalls:
“After enough were saved I organized them into colors, ironed them, folded them into links, and made candy wrapper chains. With the use of elastic thread, I was able to sew the links together into a “fabric” to create the dress.”
After posting pictures of her finished project on Facebook, she also shared the story with her local news station. Seeing this dress, one can easily see that her creativity, patience, and skills are unique by any standards, but her motto as an artist says otherwise:
“… anyone’s an artist if they’re willing to try.”
One of her equally intriguing projects that she shared recently is an Easter dress which she made out of the old wallpaper from her grandparents’ kitchen. She says:
“Growing up I always thought this flowered wallpaper from my grandparents kitchen would make a nice Easter dress…so when that kitchen was remodeled recently I had a chance to make that fantasy reality.”
No matter how hard most of us try, I don’t think we have the imagination to make such a beautiful thing out of nothing! Emily truly has a unique gift and it is amazing to see how she is able to use her creations to inspire others into looking at old objects with a new set of eyes.
For the happy couple though, perhaps the candy wrapper dress will stay the highlight of their magical beginning. Until of course, Emily thinks of something equally out of this world to create out of pretty much thin air!
