Abracadabra is located on East Liberty across from the federal building and post office, between Chelsea Flower Shop and Sam's Clothing.

Steven Lesse has some stories to tell – making a necklace out of a gall stone is just one of them.

The co-owner of Abracadabra Jewelry and Gem Gallery has seen a lot since opening his downtown Ann Arbor shop in 1974. Originally located in the building that now houses Herb David Guitar Studio, Abracadabra moved to its current location at 205 E. Liberty in 1976 and has remained there ever since. Lesse, who co-owns the business with his wife Katherine, fell in love with Ann Arbor when he set up a booth at the art fair during the summer of 1973.

“I was tired of the gypsy lifestyle – it was like being in a rock band,” Lesse said. “You were always traveling around city to city, art fair to art fair. It was a fun lifestyle when you’re not attached and you don’t have own a house.” Soon after he visited, Lesse rented his first building in Ann Arbor and opened his first gallery, which also became his apartment.

The store is well-known for pieces made using the mokume gane metalworking technique, a layering process originally used to create samurai swords hundreds of years ago. The store sells the work of five of the top artists in the country who specialize in mocha mokume – “mocha” referring to the color of the jewelry. For those looking for a less expensive version of the mokume jewelry, the store offers jewelry made using the Damascus technique, which has a similar look but a lower price tag. 

In general, items in the store range from $20 for pre-made pieces to as much as $20,000 for high-end custom work. They work within a customer’s budget when crafting one-of-a-kind pieces, so prices vary.

In addition to mokume jewelry, the business sets itself apart by using alternative metals like palladium, as well as exclusively recycled and conflict-free stones. This ensures that the stones are ethically mined, which means that the land isn’t disturbed and workers are paid and treated appropriately, Lesse said. It also ensures that money earned from diamond sales has not been used to fund illegal activities.

“This is a choice any jeweler could have made all along, but we were one of the first to do it,” said Katherine Lesse. “There’s no reason to mine fresh stones, to rape the earth, when there are already an abundance of recycled stones.” 

Steven and Katherine Lesse in their store on East Liberty.

The store is also know for its custom-made jewelry. Some of its work has garnered national attention: a women’s ring designed at the gallery and made of diamond and wood was featured in an issue of Vogue magazine.

When The Chronicle asked about the strangest pieces of jewelry he’s ever created, Lesse recounts the one time a woman came in to his store asking him to make a necklace out of her gall stone. “She said that she almost died, but she survived and that the necklace was to be symbolic of her triumph,” said Lesse.

He’s also cast a Doberman puppy’s tail, which he said resembled a rabbit’s foot charm. For his daughter’s birthday, Lesse made a necklace featuring her favorite condiment: hot sauce. Lesse claims he can make jewelry out of almost anything, and encourages customers to bring in their own stones or miscellaneous items that they want made into jewelry.

Despite the weak economy, Lesse says Abracadabra has been busier than ever, growing through customer referrals and word of mouth. “It seems that as the economy has been going down the drain, our business has actually been getting stronger,” he said. “For us, the market always seems to be good and growing.”

There are a lot of jewelers in Ann Arbor, but Lesse says it’s a less competitive market then one might think. “You’re always going to compete, but each jeweler is doing something different, whether it’s custom jewelry or another kind of specialization,” he said. 

Abracadabra has seen inquiries about jewelry sales via their website continue to grow – Lesse says that they receive around one email per day asking about pieces on the site.  

The Lesses have done their own bit for the local economy, by featuring the work of those who have lost a job. Currently the store is selling jewelry made by a man who was laid off from Pfizer. Lesse said it wasn’t until the man lost his job that he realized he had a passion for art. “We feature a lot of our friends, a lot of local artists who are just starting out in the business,” said Lesse. 

Lesse wouldn’t have predicted any of this when he got his first lessons in jewelry-making – he’d be the first to admit that an art career was not his main intention when he signed up for a jewelry class in high school years ago. After finding out from his older sister that the class was almost all girls, he thought it might be a good way score a date with his female classmates. 

Today, he offers a few words of advice to anyone who is trying to decide what direction to go in their life. “You need to do what you’re enthusiastic about, that one thing that you love, because then it’s not work, it’s just what you do.”

Abracadabra Jewelry and Gem Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The shop is closed Sundays and Mondays. The Ann Arbor Art Fairs are the busiest time of the year for the Lesses and their staff, but afterwards they take a break by closing the shop until Aug. 18.

About the writer: Alex Nicola-Iott, an intern with The Ann Arbor Chronicle, is studying journalism and business at Indiana University. He’s spending this summer with his family in Ann Arbor. 

Dick Sampier behind the counter at his vacuum sales and repair shop at 2165 W. Stadium Blvd. in Ann Arbor.

Boxes upon boxes filled with vacuum parts and accessories pack Dick Sampier’s small shop behind Stadium Hardware, a shop so off the beaten path that it might go unnoticed unless you were looking for it. But customers find it because they are looking for it – Dick Sampier Vacuum Sales and Repair is one of the last remaining vacuum repair stores in the Ann Arbor area.

Sampier, who opened the business in 1985 and is the sole employee, can often be found in the back of the store, either answering customers’ questions or working on one of the 10 or so vacuums he fixes each day. Sampier says he considers himself more of an artist than a mechanic, and he’s earned a reputation as someone who can fix even the most tricky mechanical problems.

So how does someone end up starting a vacuum repair business, and then stick with it for nearly 25 years?

Sampier is the first to admit that a career in vacuum repair and service is not what he ever imagined he’d be doing. A graduate of Lincoln High School, he has lived in the greater Ann Arbor area his entire life, except for a brief five-year stint in Chicago. He says he wanted to be a commercial artist, but instead began his career after high school at a General Motors factory.

That job didn’t last long, he said, and with a pregnant wife and a child on the way, Sampier started looking for any job that would allow him to financially support his family. Upon hearing of an opening at Electrolux – a company that sells vacuums, among other appliances – Sampier applied for the job, and got it.

Sampier worked in the offices of multiple Electrolux branches in Michigan, at various times doing sales, service, collections, and bookkeeping. He also found that he had both an interest and aptitude in mechanics. “I started tinkering around with the vacuums we had around the office and realized that I could repair them quicker than the factories we would send them off to,” said Sampier.

Sampier worked for Electrolux for 28 years, then decided to start his own business in 1985. He says he relies heavily on word-of-mouth advertising and referrals. “Good service is the best form of advertising,” he said, “because if you do a good job, you’ll keep people coming back and they’ll refer their friends, too.”

Sampier’s main competitors are the larger chain stores that carry appliances. However, what separates his store from the rest is his ability to fix almost any problem that may arise with a customer’s vacuum. “A lot of the time, those bigger stores can’t fix the vacuums because they don’t have the parts,” he said. “So they refer the customer to me, and tell them that ‘If Dick Sampier doesn’t have it, then you won’t find it.’”

The entrance to Dick Sampier's vacuum repair and sales shop, behind Stadium Hardware. He has been at this location since 2002.

Over the years, Sampier says he’s found almost anything you can think of inside the vacuums he repairs. “From mice to underwear, I’ve seen it and done it all,” says Sampier. “People seem to think that their vacuum cleaners are their garbage disposal.”

His experience was on display when The Chronicle visited the shop recently: A woman came in searching for new bags for her 20-year-old vacuum, and Sampier was able to correctly pick out which ones she needed based solely on her description of the brand and color of the vacuum.

To those who are looking for a new vacuum, Sampier’s only advice is this: Don’t be afraid to spend money on a quality device. “Too many people buy cheap vacuums from deep discount stores, that only last them a year or two,” he said. “If they would pay a little more, they’ll get a nicer vacuum that will last for 10 years.” As for his own vacuum, Sampier uses an Electrolux, a reflection of both his allegiance to the company that sparked his interest in vacuums and his dedication to high-quality vacuums, he says. 

The 74-year-old enjoys playing in weekly softball games, but he admits that his work still takes up the majority of his time. ”It’s been a good living for my children and I, and I’ve enjoyed it,” he said. But to anyone considering a career like his, Sampier has this advice: “I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone now, because things aren’t as good as they used to be. This really is a dying business.”

Although he never achieved his childhood dream of becoming a commercial artist, Sampier feels that his work with vacuums is artistic, too. “I don’t consider myself a parts changer,” he says. “I’m a repairman. I get to play around.”

Dick Sampier Vacuum Sales and Repair is located at 2165 W. Stadium Blvd. in Ann Arbor. The shop is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

About the writer: Alex Nicola-Iott, an intern with The Ann Arbor Chronicle, is studying journalism and business at Indiana University. He’s spending this summer with his family in Ann Arbor.

Erik Kauppi rolls the red electric motorcycle around for a better view.

“We need more data, let’s go launch something!” George Albercook of Rocks and Robots was talking about a reconfigured trebuchet beam. He and his colleague Katie Tilton had reinforced a PVC pipe with Kevlar thread, after a failed first attempt at the A2 Mech Shop open house Saturday afternoon.

But Albercook’s enthusiasm for the empirical applies equally well to any number of the enterprises grouped under the umbrella of A2 Mech Shop, LLC, which is housed in around 3,500 square feet of space on Parkland Plaza, just south of Jackson Road. They’ve had the keys since November 2008, and set up in January.

One example of an A2 Mech Shop enterprise is REVolution Electric Vehicles, a subsidiary of Electric Vehicle Manufacturing, which expects to begin producing electric maxi-scooters as soon as July 2009 at a not-yet-finalized Scio Township location. That location will also serve as a retail storefront, explained EVM’s chief engineer, Erik Kauppi, while the A2 Mech Shop space will continue to serve as a research and development facility.

The A2 Mech Shop can be loosely described as a co-working space with shop tools. It encompasses more than just research and development on electric scooters, but that’s where we’ll start.

Electric Scooters

At the open house on Saturday, Kauppi, along with operations director Terry Richards, showed off a fully-assembled, working version of the production vehicle that’s expected to retail for around $6,500. He invited visitors with a motorcycle endorsement on their driver’s license to take the red machine for a spin. [The Chronicle lacks such an endorsement.]

The state of Michigan considers their vehicle to be a motorcycle because of its horsepower rating, which is around 8 hp. Top speed is 55 miles per hour, with a range of around 50-60 miles on a 4-hour charge. Kauppi stressed that it’s a real-world range, not the kind of idealized estimate he says is typical of the electric vehicle industry. Their goal, he said, was not to repeat the overpromise, underdeliver pattern the electric vehicle industry had seen to date.

George Albercook and Katie Tilton load the projectile for their trebuchet.

Another pattern they’ve not repeated is what Kauppi describes as the typical electric vehicle development scheme: Invest millions of dollars in research and development to design a perfect vehicle from scratch, then go over budget and miss deadlines, never bringing a vehicle to market. Kauppi says their strategy is actually to bring a vehicle to market, then expand and revise their products in response to market feedback.

Richards said they recognize that the scooter market is a niche – it doesn’t replace four-wheels and a roof – but that within that niche they’d like to be the leading manufacturer in the U.S. They’ll be hiring locally, and there was at least one open house attendee we overheard pitching his services as an assembler of these electric scooters. Response: Send us your resumé.  Assembly isn’t just bolting together a bunch of parts – some aspects involve welding and some knowledge of electronic assembly.

So how have three guys – John Harding serves as president of EVM – managed to produce their first electric vehicle with prospects of beginning assembly for the marketplace about three months from now?

A large part of that answer has to do with their strategy of using as many off-the-shelf components as possible. They’re sourcing the chassis from a motorcycle manufacturer, with the batteries plus chargers coming from a Chinese company, Thundersky. They’re also sourcing the motor and one of the two controllers that are a part of the machine. A second controller has been designed and will be assembled by EVM. Kauppi brings engineering experience from Corsa Instruments, which he co-founded in 1991.  Richards brings years as a technician for Chrysler’s electric vehicle projects.

Another part of the answer is that it’s not just three guys. A theme repeated over and over at the open house in talking with different tenants was that there’s a spirit of collaboration and cooperation among the members of A2 Mech Shop – most of whom don’t work for EVM – that makes the work not just fun, but more efficient. Having heard tell more than once of the collaborative nature of the work, The Chronicle asked Terry Richards for a concrete example.

In response, Richards picked up a jig that he had fabricated for ensuring that the rear suspension was installed at the exact same distance on both sides of the bike. One end of the jig had two wrench heads welded to the square steel stock. Why two? Because Dale Grover, who’s also a member of A2 Mech Shop, had pointed out that instead of making two different jigs – one per measurement – both measurements could be enforced with the same jig, if it were made double-ended. Kauppi allowed that this was not some kind of “breakthrough idea,” but that the accumulation of helpful suggestions like this made the work easier and more enjoyable. “We’re clearly doing it wrong,” he quipped, “you’re not supposed to have fun at work.”

Etching, Milling, and Timekeeping

In addition to handing out suggestions to the electric vehicle guys on their manufacturing jigs, Dale Grover spends part of his time etching metal. At Saturday’s open house, Grover was showing kids how a large pattern could be reduced to a much smaller version through a linkage. One of those kids was Steven Martin, great-nephew of Bob Stack.

Steven Martin watches Dale Grover trace an etching.

Stack has space in the rear of the building for a computer-driven milling machine, which he uses to create lithophanes (among other things). Stack explained that his mill was, while we were chatting, creating an image using a 1/32-inch bit doing .007-inch step-overs – a measure of the resolution of the milling. For this “raster pass,” the distance between horizontal passes across the material was .007 inches. An earlier step had involved the roughing out of the basic shape using a larger bit and a “vector pass” – where the bit traverses the material in a less grid-like fashion.

Stack starts the lithophane process with a high-quality photograph, converts it to a grayscale image, and from there it gets converted to a height map based on the intensity of the gray at any given point in the image. It’s the height map that the mill carves into the material – which in Stack’s case is Corian®, somewhat more durable than traditional porcelain.

Under ordinary light, the resulting image shown on a lithophane is recognizable as a basic shape. But when backlit, the fine detail in the image emerges. It’s a photographic challenge to capture the essence of a back-lit lithophane – one that The Chronicle did not meet. The Wikipedia article on lithophanes provides images showing the striking contrast.

Stack said that the lithophanes were more like a hobby at this point than a commercial enterprise. His thoughts are turning that direction, though. At the A2 Mech Shop open house he was wondering how much someone might be willing to spend for a lithophane of a favorite photograph. At the open house, Stack had his lithophanes displayed using “helping hands” (alligator clips mounted on a stand) – a display solution that would work for the owner of the image as well. Stack attributed the idea to Peter Jensen, another member of A2 Mech Shop, who builds clocks out of nixie tubes.

Stack was excited about the prospect that Jensen would acquire a larger, beefier mill and bring it to A2 Mech Shop’s space. Jensen moved into the building just last week – even though he’s been aboard in concept since the beginning. Jensen uses his current mill for fabricating enclosures for his clocks, either out of wood or metal. The bigger mill would allow him to set up and mill 10 enclosures at a time. For now, Jensen will be fabricating the enclosures at A2 Mech Shop, but continue to assemble the clock electronics at his home shop space.

William Wardrop, whom we met as a model-builder for REVolution Electric Vehicles. He's familiar enough with other A2 Mech Shop gadgetry to demo the track-following robots for open-house attendees.

Robots Etcetera

Among the displays set up for the A2 Mech Shop open house was a robot that managed to navigate on its own around a circular path marked out with black tape. We surmised it was likely set up by George Albercook of Rocks and Robots, another member of A2 Mech Shop – but based on the number of different folks we saw introducing it to visitors, it could have been anyone.  Among them was William Wardrop, who’s actually working with REVolution Electric Vehicles building models for them. Wardrop specializes in cardboard models, using a technique that involves soaking the cardboard in superglue.

At the open house, we first met Wardrop looking at an early prototype of an electric motorcycle that Terry Richards had built. The prototype featured a gas tank with a grid of holes drilled into it to help cool the battery chargers located inside. We remarked on how regular the grid was, given that it had been measured out by hand. That led Wardrop to reminisce about his grandfather, who did the pinstriping on Chrysler Imperials back in the 1930s – by hand.

Albercook and his colleague, Katie Tilton, were occupied for most of the open house undertaking design modifications to their trebuchet. The first attempt, which we missed, led quickly to an attempt to reinforce the small PVC pipe that served as the main beam in the catapult-like device. The attempt at reinforcement did not succeed, either. The third design iteration involved increasing the caliber of the PVC pipe.

The third design iteration achieved more success than the first two attempts, although success came only incrementally. After the second attempt, one onlooker declared, “It hit the ground nearby, but with much more force this time!”  There was one attempt that included a backwards trajectory, and a couple that sent the golf ball on a nearly vertical path. In the attempts we witnessed, one sent the pink ball about 40 yards in the intended direction.

The key to aiming the trebuchet is a hook that determines the release point of the projectile. If the angle is too acute, the release comes too late, slamming the ball into the ground in front of the machine. If the angle on that hook is too wide, the release comes too soon, sending the ball backwards. Because the hook was smashed into the ground with each attempt, thus altering its angle from its starting position, it was hard to make the tweaks necessary.

When The Chronicle departed the open house, Albercook and Tilton were preparing to make some modifications that would allow them to dial in the hook angles for future attempts that would be a bit more reproduceable. A couple of the nearly vertical launches had given them pause – there were lots of cars in the lot belonging to open house visitors, not to mention people’s noggins that they wanted to preserve.

Peter Jensen holding a circuit board for a nixie tube clock, examples of which are visible in the background.

Milling a lithophane at .007-inch stepover on a raster pass.

A chassis for a two-wheeled electric vehicle roughly in the same shape REVolution Electric vehicles receives them before modification.

Terry Richards holding a jig made from square stock steel and two wrenches.

REVolution Electric Vehicles scooter in its charging configuration.

A years-old prototype of an electric motorcycle constructed by Terry Richards required drilling a grid of holes in the gas tank to help cool the charging system.

The trebuchet just after launch.

This close-up diagnoses a problem: release of the projectile (here a pink golf ball) from the sling before it has opened properly. The ball achieved backwards trajectory on this trial.

Attachment points for trebuchet launch strings. By design, the string will at some point slip off the upper hook as the beam rotates, allowing the sling to discharge its contents. The angle of the hook is crucial, because it determines where in the arc the projectile is released.

The final step in making an alfajor, a traditional South American cookie, is dipping it in chocolate.

Maite Zubia lifts a cookie with her fork, a cookie she’s just dipped in slippery melted chocolate. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she asks. “It’s simple, but it’s beautiful.”

She’s in the basement of an Eighth Avenue home on Ann Arbor’s Old West Side, which is also set up as a commercial kitchen, showing The Chronicle how she makes these traditional South American cookies, called alfajores. She’s also telling the story of how she’s growing her business, Maitelates: “It’s been a story of support.”

Zubia came to Ann Arbor in 2004 with her husband, who’s studying for his Ph.D in political science at the University of Michigan. She’s worked at Wild Swan Theater – “They’re like my family here,” she says – and has taught Spanish classes as well. But when her son Pedro was born on Christmas Eve in 2007, things changed.

Maite Zubia dipping an alfajor in chocolate.

Her husband’s scholarship was running out and she needed to make some money, but with an infant in tow, working at the theater became too difficult. She’d been making Dulce de Leche – a creamy caramel that’s made with sugar and fresh milk – to give to family and friends. Since Dulce de Leche is the filling used in an alfajor, a simple shortbread-type cookie,  she wondered if the cookies might be something she could sell at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market.

Last spring she talked to Molly Notarianni, the market manager, who told her that market rules required the product be made in a commercial kitchen. That began a quest that led her to Jefferson Market & Cakery, where owner Mary Rasmussen agreed to rent out the shop’s kitchen to her by the hour.

When she returned home to Santiago, Chile, last summer for a visit, she took a class to learn how to make chocolate. Chocolate-dipped alfajores are a variation on the traditional cookie, and one she thought would appeal to the American sweet tooth. The cookie also draws on her family tradition – Zubia’s grandmother owned a farm, and in the summers her family would gather there and make Dulce de Leche in a large copper pot over a fire, each child taking a turn at stirring during the hours it took to cook.

Maite Zubia arranges her display at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market on Saturday.

Back in Ann Arbor, Zubia began selling her individually wrapped alfajores at the farmers market in September, just on Wednesdays, for $2 apiece. Her first day she brought 100 and sold 50: “I thought, ‘I’m a winner!’” she recalls, laughing. The next Wednesday, she sold 80 – and so on.

In November, she got space in the Saturday market, which was a turning point, she said. Sales continued to grow. The Saturday before Christmas she made 500 cookies, and sold out.

By this time, Zubia had moved production to the basement of Barbara and Michael Steer’s home, in the commercial kitchen set up for Barbara’s business, The Pastry Cart. It was a better fit, Zubia said, and the Steers have been incredibly generous. Barbara Steer is back in school and doesn’t use the kitchen much, so Zubia can work there whenever she wants – generally, that means at night, when her husband is home and can take care of Pedro.

Barbara Steer also has given helpful advice, Zubia says, like encouraging her to buy local ingredients and offering suggestions on recipes and techniques. At the beginning, she made the “classic” alfajor – the Dulce de Leche-filled cookie covered in chocolate. Now, she has four other variations, mixing the filling with coconut, roasted almonds, and espresso (she uses Roos Roast‘s Lobster Butter Love coffee), and one kind covered with white chocolate.

A wrapped alfajor Maitelates.

Making Dulce de Leche is a simple but time-intensive process, stirring sugar and milk for several hours over a low flame. Mainly, it’s boring. So Zubia makes a lot at one time, and stores the finished product in big plastic tubs in the kitchen’s refrigerator. The rest of the process is typically parceled out over several days. She makes about 200 shortbread cookies at a time, then after they cool she fills them with Dulce de Leche. She likes to let them rest a day, so that the cookie can absorb some of the filling. Then she’ll dip them in chocolate, and let them cool again before hand-wrapping each one in squares of black paper and sealing it with a sticker designed for her business.

Zubia sells her alfajores individually as well as in funky corrugated-cardboard boxes: 12 for $22, and 18 for $32. She’s also found there’s a market for pure Dulce de Leche, which she now sells in glass jars. And starting last weekend, the cookies are for sale at Everyday Wines in the Kerrytown Market & Shops, adding to owner Mary Campbell’s list of “incubated” businesses there. You can also buy the cookies online.

“I’m taking it step by step,” Zubia says. “I’m enjoying the moment – most of all, I’m relieved that it worked, and that I’m helping my family.”

A tray of alfajores dipped in white chocolate.

Maite Zubia stacks a tray of chocolate-dipped alfajores to cool.

A shopper at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market samples one of Maite Zubia's alfajores on Saturday.

The Maitelates display at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market.