Background
Esther Sietmann Warner Dendel was born on February 2, 1910, in Laurel, Iowa, United States. She was a daughter of Lewis Sietmann and Grace Sietmann.
1943
Liberia
Esther Sietmann Warner Dendel carves a sculpture.
Esther Sietmann Warner Dendel, educator, author, craftswoman.
Iowa City, IA 52242, United States
Esther Sietmann Warner Dendel studied at the University of Iowa but left it to teach.
New York, NY 10027, United States
Esther Sietmann Warner Dendel earned a master's degree from Columbia University.
Ames, IA 50011, United States
Esther Sietmann Warner Dendel earned a Bachelor of Science from Iowa State University.
Jo Dendel and Esther Sietmann Warner Dendel producing Bantu dinner-ware, dishes inspired by their stay in Africa.
1950
Jo Dendel and Esther Sietmann Warner Dendel working on the stone wall of their Costa Mesa home in the 1950s. The couple built the house and designed just about everything in it, from the furniture to artwork on the walls, and decorated many surfaces with tile made in their next-door studio.
(How to use primitive weaving, braiding, and plaiting tech...)
How to use primitive weaving, braiding, and plaiting techniques for everything from pigtails to ponchos.
https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Fingerweaving-Esther-Warner-Dendel/dp/067121697X/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?dchild=1&keywords=Esther+Sietmann+Warner+Dendel&qid=1590570975&sr=8-1-fkmr0
1974
Esther Sietmann Warner Dendel was born on February 2, 1910, in Laurel, Iowa, United States. She was a daughter of Lewis Sietmann and Grace Sietmann.
Esther Sietmann Warner Dendel began her education in a one-room school a long walk from home. An avid 4-H member from age 10 and statewide 4-H girls' president at 17, she interrupted her time at the University of Iowa to teach. She earned a Bachelor of Science from Iowa State University in 1938 followed by a master's degree from Columbia University in 1939.
Fascinated by crafts at a young age, Esther Sietmann Warner Dendel taught arts and crafts in West Virginia for six years. Inspired by African art, she decided to travel to Liberia to study the crafts of the African people there and teach crafts to them as well. She came to view Africa as "my homeland of the spirit." To gain entree among the wary villagers, she used a simple piece of yarn. "I would sit in the dust, playing with the yarn and arranging it into designs on the ground. Soon we were all friends, and the string did it," - she said.
She supported this endeavor by training and selling chimpanzees to Americans. Dendel remained in Africa from 1941 to 1944, and later converted her African diaries into half a dozen books - one describing the culture in New Song in a Strange Land (1948), another her adventures with the chimps in Seven Days to Lomeland (1954) and a third her friendship with a young black nurse in the novel The Silk Cotton Tree (1958). After a return trip several years later, she described the custom of buying and selling little girls in a dowry system - the Dendels "bought" a child who went on to become a Liberian official - in her book The Crossing Fee (1968).
While in Liberia she met her future husband, Jo Dendel. Then they returned to the United States: she returned to teach at the University of Minnesota, and he served in the Navy, but by 1946 they were both in Costa Mesa, converting a small garage into Denwar Studios. The name was a combination of their surnames - Dendel and Warner, the name of her then ex-husband. The Dendels switched to mosaics in the mid-1950s. Some of their resulting work is displayed in the Orange Central Library. By 1967, the Dendels had moved into fiber arts-spinning, dyeing, weaving, knitting, crocheting, creating rugs and tapestries, and baskets. They taught individuals, organized a weekly Dendel Craft Fellowship, and staged annual crafts fairs in their growing studio and home.
She also taught classes in the studio and at high schools and universities, such as the University of Minnesota, the University of California at Irvine, and Orange Coast College. She wrote about arts and crafts in such books as The Basic Book of Fingerweaving (1974), The Basic Book of Twining (1978), and Design from Nature: A Source Book for Artists and Craftsmen (1978). Esther Sietmann Warner Dendel was a supporter of the arts throughout her life, and founded the Dendel Scholarship Fund for artists and craftspeople. She personally created quilts and other items to sell at annual fund-raisers.
(How to use primitive weaving, braiding, and plaiting tech...)
1974Esther Sietmann Warner's first husband was Bob Warner. Esther Sietmann Warner married Jo Dendel in 1950, and their shared goal was to make a living from their crafts. Their first product was ceramics - dinnerware sold all over the United States and Hawaii. They created and operated Denwar Studios in Costa Mesa for more than 55 years.