"Theresa Wentzler - Art, Cross
 Stitch, and Fantasy"

  by Diane Kennedy-Jackson


  For many cross-stitch enthusiasts,
the name Teresa Wentzler is synony-
mous with stitched-art masterpieces
that combine unparalleled beauty and
the utmost attention to detail with a
distinctive twist of fantasy.

  Teresa's list of design credits are
lengthy and impressive. Among her
popular designs are "Winter", "Spring",
"Summer", and "Fall", a quartet of carousel
horse designs; "The Castle Sampler"; "Fa-
ther Winter", "English Cottage Sampler",
"Under the Evergreen"; "Peacock Tapestry",
which she considers to be her most chal-
lenging piece thus far: and "The Castle",
which to date has sold more copies than
any other in-house leaflet published by
Symbol of Excellence Publishers, Inc.

  Teresa, who started in the cross-stitch
design field by doing custom work for a
friend, says, "Originally, it was just for fun."
She has always loved needlework of any
kind and worked on a variety of different
types of needlework projects as a young-
ster. She began cross stitching just one
year before she started designing.

  She credits her serious interest in art
to her high school art teacher, who, she
says "showed me I could do something
with it (art)." Before then, she notes, she
never saw it as a possible profession-as
a way of making a living. This instructor's
work which took the vein of pure fantasy
and which always appealed to her, has
greatly influenced Teresa's work.
   Her formal art training after high
school focused on artwork for advertis-
ing. She studied at Pennsvlvania State
University and later received her degree
from an area community college.
  The talented designer enjoys her
work, and her comment "I love it" sums
up her feelings about her designing ca-
reer. She readiiy admits that she does
not like constant deadline pressures and
recalls that the reality of daily deadlines
and crunches so common in the adver-
tising world turned her away from
pursuing advertising art as a career. Af-
ter college, "I punched a clock for four
years and hated it."

  Her venture in the world of needleart
offers Teresa the chance to create with
stitches masterpieces she visualizes in
her mind. Her favorite design subjects
are pure fantasy-sometimes she
dreams them up, at other times she has
visual inspiration, and often she draws
an idea from something someone has
said. She enjoys the feedback she re-
ceives from stitchers and welcomes
their ideas, noting that they often are a
source of her inspiration.

  She enjoys working not only on com-
pletely new concepts but also on giving
new slants to ideas that have been done
before. When considering ideas for a
design, she considers the subject matter
and the flavor the piece will have and the
limitations presented by the size of the
chart. Often her attention to detail
means that so much is packed into one
small portion ol the design that, when
complete, the entire piece might be too