Ambatalia is my own quirky interpretation of women empowerment. I created it to do something meaningful with my life besides my most important job, loving my beautiful family, Willem, Camille, Annabel, and Jullian. I didn’t want to go along with the herd of popular consumerism- supporting companies that don’t support the environment or people that make their goods. Ambatalia is about making sense of the world; it’s about human respect and integrity. Ambatalia is my way of screaming out “I want connection!”
I grew up in a big family with six siblings in Mill Valley, California in a 100 year old hiking lodge made of redwood. My mom and dad were collectors of a many things, hanging old tools all over the kitchen wall was an example of my mom’s aesthetic. There is something so beautiful about a hand tool. It tells a story of the work of human beings. Growing up with the Marin City flea market, the unknown museum, collector parents, artist and activist siblings, And great friend with funky style, sculpted who I became. I never considered my self an artist, but I now realize I am. I was a hair dresser for 20 years, and I was happy to make that my living. However, when Jullian, my little boy was born, I was inspired to do something passionate and meaningful in my life, so I decided to sing to my friends and family for my 40th birthday party.
I wanted to share myself with them and for me. I knew than that when I sang I felt most connected to the oneness of the universe. So I decided to sing seven songs with a pianist. Going through this experience taught me a lot about myself, one moment feeling like it was my will to do it, and the next wondering why anyone would want to hear me sing. I just wanted to share who I truly was through my passion for singing.
After delivering what some may have considered a “mediocre” performance, but having had one of the most joyous and heart opening moments of my life, I realized I could never doubt my passions and love again. There was no going back. I had tasted what it was like to trust my passions- pure joy. I had to live my dream. What exactly was my dream? I had to ask myself the same question! Inspired by a serger from my mom and husband as a birthday gift and receiving a grocery-bag-inspired birthday card in the mail I went on a creating-frenzy that sparked the beginning of an answer. I just started sewing grocery bags from the recycling bin, into stationary, hats, bike bags, I was amazed by the paper’s potential, and it wasn’t before long that I realized my own.
Ever since seeing “Sex, Lies, and Videotapes,” where what’s-her-face freaked out about where all the garbage went, I realized my own love for other peoples’ garbage. There is nothing more exciting to me than to find something special in somebody else’s trash, especially here in Mill Valley. I am a huntress; I love hand picking quality that some one else might not see. I started putting the pieces together, the feeling I would get endlessly flipping through magazine layouts in my tub, frequenting hardware stores, yarn shops, and fabric boutiques- these were my passions! I continued researching this feeling and it just got more and more intense.
I remembered standing in line in a big, corporate fabric store with mothers holding bolts of fabrics in one arm and crying babies in the other with no one to lend a helping hand and thought- this can’t be the only way! Surely there are more humane ways to experience these fabrics and children and mothers and creators! And so the concept of a loving, thriving, happy, beautiful, thinking fabric store was born.
I wondered what I would do if it could do anything I wanted and now I am doing it. I am a blessed and loved wife and mother. I am a fortunate enough person to have three healthy and beautiful children Camille, Annabel, and Jullian. My husband is not only drop dead gorgeous but also the kindest and most supportive man I’ve ever known. I would not be able to do my dream without him. Thank you FAMILY, thank you FRIENDS, thank you, thank you WORLD, thank you love, magic, or God for supporting my dream. I love you.
Molly de Vries
