ROGERS — The shop windows of a historic downtown Rogers building display splashes of liturgical colors in red, green, white and violet on textured fabrics.
The former Beaulieu Hardware Store is home to Holy Orders Liturgical Threads, a place where owner Ruth Davis creates original church vestments for Catholic and other Christian clergy.
The interior of the shop opens up into a well-lit space with a large cutting table in the middle of the room. Several sewing machines are mounted on one side of the wall while changing rooms line the other side.
It is here that Davis works on a project at one of the machines while her assistant Betty Rolniak lays out the design pattern for a chasuble on the table. Creating vestments has been Davis’ vocation for two decades.
“I have been doing the vestments since the first year we moved up here,” she said. “And we’ve been here 20 years.”
Originally from Georgia, Davis, in a soft southern accent, speaks about her grandmother’s influence on her career.
“My grandmother started me in sewing when I was 11. She also taught the 4-H girls,” she said.
In the beginning, Davis worked out of her home in Rogers, doing alterations. In 1988, a visiting priest at St. Vincent de Paul Church needed a new vestment for Mass, and Davis created one for him. He was so pleased with her design that he referred other clergy to her. The next year she bought a tuxedo and alteration business and started creating more vestments.
Holy Orders Liturgical Threads began mostly by “word of mouth.”
“Actually starting out, almost everything I did was outside of the Arkansas area,” including New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Ohio, she said.
To work up a design for a new vestment, Davis said, “We like to talk with the priests and find out what they want — what they are interested in. I just got an e-mail from a lady in Maryland who had seen one of our stoles at a convention. After looking on my Web site, she contacted me to make a stole for a priest friend in Maryland, but he was originally from Ireland. We designed it with shamrocks, a burning log and a Celtic cross, and she chose the sketch she liked.
“I got the greatest e-mail back from her — ’He loved it. And I am telling all my friends.’ Here again, word of mouth. That we like doing. It’s fun to sketch up things.”
In making vestments, Davis’ talents in sewing and art come together to create detailed liturgical designs, not only for Catholic priests but also for several Protestant ministers and churches as well.
Holy Orders Liturgical Threads is now represented at religious conventions and shows around the area where vendors can set up display booths.
For every chasuble, the outer priest garment worn during Mass, Davis also makes a stole to match.
“Sometimes if it is one we really like and we think it needs a deacon stole, we do that also. But sometimes we just decide to make some stoles because we like to have those to sell when we attend Catholic or Episcopal conventions.”
Each order can take from six to eight weeks to create and sew. Prices range from $400 to $600 for a set, including a stole and chasuble. Special designs and fabrics, however, might raise the price to $1,000 to $4,000. A stole alone costs between $125 and $225, Davis said.
An interesting aspect of the creative process is the incorporation of specific church features into the design of the vestments. According to Davis, she has designed vestments based on stained glass windows and church interiors.
“One of the clients in Ohio sent us pictures of his windows and the inside of the church. If they are not too far away, we’ll go and visit the church to see what we are dealing with,” Davis said.
While most of her original designs are completed on a machine, Davis still does some work by hand, particularly when doing restoration work.
“Betty would sit on one side of the table and I would sit on the other, and we would just do these tiny, tiny little stitches. We would work about an hour and then have to walk away for awhile. It can be very tiring,” she said.
Davis’ assistant, Betty Rolniak, has been an important part of the business for the past five years. When Rolniak, sacristan at St. Vincent de Paul Church, first walked into the shop, Davis kept saying she needed help in the shop.
After her third visit, Rolnaik came on board.
Rolnaik said she likes all facets of the business.
“I like to sew, and Ruth is a great teacher. It is very exciting to see how these things turn out so beautifully. Besides that, you are doing something good for whatever church you are working with,” she said.
The business’ Web site is www.holy ordersliturgicalthreads.com.
