Duct tape stoles

This is the first in my “Origin stories” series…

I am often asked how I came up with the idea for some of my stoles, so I’m starting a series of blog posts to share the origin stories of some of my more unusual types of stoles.

Duct tape? Yes, duct tape

My duct tape stoles didn’t come about as a question, as in, “hmm, I wonder if I could make a clergy stole out of duct tape?”

They came about when my husband was about to be ordained. In our denomination, each pastor is ordained separately, in a joyful, individually-crafted service designed to celebrate and highlight that person’s individual gifts for ministry. That means that the day before an ordination involves a lot of running around trying to get everything all set up.

We were using white duct tape to make sure picture frames wouldn’t slide around on a slippery tablecloth at the reception, and to secure long ribbons onto the cardboard doves that would be leading the procession, and to cover the bright orange driveway markers that the doves were attached to (they were the perfect length and had the perfect amount of flexibility, just not the perfect color), and I jokingly said,

Sheesh – it takes a lot of duct tape to be a pastor!!!!!

As soon as I said it, I knew. I needed to make my husband a duct tape stole. It was a bit of a joke, but also, not a joke. Ministry is messy. You don’t always have exactly what you need. Improvising is essential – if you are going to be God’s hands and feet in this world, you have to figure out what God needs you to be doing, and how to do it with whatever you have available. You need to be be MacGyver figuring out how to defuse a bomb and the engineers figuring out how to get the Apollo 13 rocket back to earth safely, and that’s just before lunch!

So I ran to the hardware store and grabbed a roll of red duct tape (the liturgical color for ordinations) and a roll of regular silver duct tape, and brought it back to our command center: my parents’ home, 5 minutes from the church where the ordination would be held.

I will admit, that first stole was rough, but it was indeed a duct tape stole – mostly plain old silver duct tape, with a white cross on a red band near the top. When I presented it to my husband during the reception after his ordination, it got a lot of laughs. And although the other pastors in the room were laughing, they also had a knowing look that said, “Yeah, he’s going to need it.”

So I guess that means that duct tape stoles were invented on January 19, 2008.

However, before I started selling them, they went through a LOT of improvements. I figured out how to make them smoother and more even. They have a curved neckline like the rest of my stoles, so they fit comfortably and look like a stole. They are still a bit wrinkly and have some small air bubbles, but they are durable.

They also come in a great storage tin, so they are ready to go whenever you need them.

My duct tape stoles are available below, because sometimes, ministry gets messy.