When you see Mary, the mother of Jesus, she will be wrapped in a shawl that reminds you of sunset, with shades of gold, purple and teal.
Leila Heise, costume designer for the popular Biblical series, “The Chosen,” was drawn to the wrap created by southern Utah artist Celeste Meyeres, which will appear in the show’s upcoming fifth season. “A lot of things you buy now are made by machine,” Heise said. “But the things Celeste makes are handmade, otherworldly and so lovely.”
Meyeres is better known at home as a Kane County commissioner, elected to deal with development and tourism in Utah’s redrock country. Her knitting reaches a bigger stage — in shawls that swirl from iconic singer Stevie Nicks’ shoulders, elaborate blankets for productions of the Broadway musical “Frozen,” and recently, garments for “The Chosen.”
Fans seek out replicas on her CricketsCreation storefront on Etsy’s online sales platform, where she also sells her handmade designer scarves, shawls and throws. Her second Etsy shop, Baby Birdz, specializes in baby blankets and other props that can be used in infant photography.
“People hunger for a deeply authentic connection to handiwork that feels real in a world that often feels fabricated or manipulated,” Meyeres said about her success. “I try to finish at least one item a day. Some ask me, ‘How many hours a day do you do this?’ I tell them, ‘All of them.’”
Her pieces range in price from $48 to several hundred dollars, and her knitting can generate nearly six figures in a good year. Meyeres believes it helps make her a better public servant because — similar to the work expected of a county commissioner — it requires her to craft a plan and carry it through to completion.
”I love knitting,” she said. “It’s like mathematical meditation that also incorporates my creative side. For me, it is stimulating and relaxing in a way few other things can be.”
‘Worn it countless times’
Meyeres learned to knit from a friend as an 8-year-old growing up in Montana. But her passion did not translate into profits until 2007, when she and her husband Nicholas stopped at a Kane County shop in Duck Creek to admire the unique stock it carried.
He opined that the handicrafts she made would make a nice addition to the store. When she returned with some of her hand-knitted scarves, the owner bought them all — and Meyeres was in business.
The budding entrepreneur also offered her creations to stores elsewhere, and opened her Etsy shops. Her online enterprise began as a trickle but soon became a steady stream from customers who expressed admiration for the artistry of her work and the painstaking time it took to make each item.
Meyeres’ sales boomed in 2014 after she designed a shawl for Nicks for a contest and won top honors and $2,000. Meyeres knitted a black and silver shawl she dubbed “NAY-TIV RAY-VIN,” which she said was a nod to her own Cherokee heritage and her love of the mercurial and mischievous ravens endemic to the American Southwest.
After choosing it, Nicks said in a statement, “I felt this garment could have been made for Rhiannon or for Gold Dust Woman,” adding it felt “Celtic” to her. “It is obviously the tribal element that drew me to it — be it Welsh or Southwestern — Congratulations!!!”
Since then, Nicks has “worn it countless times on tour and she’s accumulated even more shawls from me over the years,” Meyeres said. “Now her fans want to buy one of my shawls because I’m a verified Stevie Nicks shawl designer. And every time she goes back on tour, I get a huge rash of Stevie Nicks shawl orders.”
The “Frozen” blanket Meyeres invented has popped up on The Great White Way in midtown Manhattan as well as off-Broadway productions in the U.S., Japan and Australia. At one point, she said, prop masters for the various shows, many of which were running simultaneously, were squabbling to get their custom blanket first.
The “Frozen” character Anna, who has been blasted by an ice beam from her sister, Elsa, reposes on the blanket while Grand Pabbie, leader of the Hidden Folk, heals her.
“It requires over 10,000 stitches for the backing of the blanket,” Meyeres said. “Then I have to apply thousands upon thousands of tassels to the backing so it looks like a latch hook rug or shag carpet on steroids.”
‘Love looking at her stuff’
(Celeste Meyeres) Celeste Meyeres in her studio holding an image of Vanessa Benavente playing Mary, the mother of Jesus, wearing one of her shawls in the TV series "The Chosen."
In 2022, Meyeres fielded an online order for a shawl from an address in Midlothian, Texas, which she later learned was from the set of “The Chosen.” The brown-gray shawl debuted in Season 3 of the series, draped over the shoulders of Vanessa Benavente, who played Mary the mother of Jesus.
Since then, the needleworker has knit outfits for several more cast members, including a tunic-type vest that is worn by Zhaleh Vossough, who plays Veronica, the name given the woman from Caesarea Philippi in the Bible who was healed of a chronic bleeding condition by touching the hem of Jesus’ cloak.
Mother Mary is set to don another of Meyeres’ shawls – the one in sunset colors – in Season 5, which will premiere in theaters in March and April. It will then be made available to stream.
“I usually buy two or three [pieces] from her because they are great to put on cast members who need a wrap of some sort,” HeiseI said. “I love looking at her stuff.”
For Meyeres, a self-professed devout Christian, helping costume the Chosen cast is less about cash and has more to do with “glorifying Christ.” At any rate, she said, Chosen wear is not as big a moneymaker as Nicks shawls.
“A person who is a huge Stevie Nicks fan wants to dress like her when they go to her concerts,” Meyeres explained. “But Chosen fans care more about Jesus and God than wearing 1st-century garments to prove how much of a fan they are.”
(Celeste Meyeres) Celeste Meyeres models a copy of the contest-winning shawl she made for singer Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac fame.
Still, sales of her crafts are robust. To keep up with the demand, in 2013 she and her husband bought an unfinished 7,000-square-foot home in the small town of Kanab, which they have called home for nearly two decades. The house now doubles as a bed and breakfast and their residence.
They also have converted a theater room large enough to house an RV into a home workspace for Meyeres to store her supplies and craft her clothes. She often buys materials in bulk – as much as 150 kilograms of exotic and premium Turkish yarn at a time – or scours the market looking for artisan-dyed, limited-run yarn so she can indulge her creative streak without having to stint or settle for second best.
Meyeres balances her designing with her elected role, serving on what historians believe is Utah’s first all-female county commission. But she said she sees little upside to upsizing her business by hiring other knitters or opening another studio. She said she is open to whatever opportunity Christ places before her.
“If my hands were crippled tomorrow,” she said. “I would be fine because knitting is not the purpose of my life. It is the expression of my life’s purpose.”
