Recordings of the 2026 Project Threadways Symposium are now available. Purchase here to receive a link in your inbox, including presentations from COMOCO’s Stephen Satterfield, textile artist Shradha Kochhar, fashion designer Marwan Pleasant, and many more. Poet Jason McCall kicked off the symposium with original verse inspired by our theme of Regeneration.It is an honor to share it with all of you. A Season to Draw. A Season to Measure. A Season to Cut.by Jason McCall When the weather turns, there’s always my wife needing me to feel the edge of a sleeve or pair of pants. She wants to know if my hands know anythingabout thickness, the choicescommunicated...
As Interim Director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Marcie Cohen Ferris guides a hub for interdisciplinary research, publication, and teaching about our region. CSAS explores the Southern experience by publishing and preserving the voices that shape its evolving story. Born and raised in northeastern Arkansas, Ferris has studied, documented, interpreted, exhibited, taught, and written about the South for more than forty years. Her research focuses on foodways, material culture, and the Southern Jewish experience. She is the author of The Edible South and Matzoh Ball Gumbo and, most recently, edited...
Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras is one of the very first business books I ever read. I sat down at my desk one morning and got up when I finished reading. It was at a time when I was thinking about how to turn a “project” into the kind of business I would like to own and run. It inspired me to read that often times, making the right decision for a business is about making the right choices in life. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies Jim Collins also wrote another inspiring book about...
Preparing for my journey to New York and looking forward to the adventure.
Plan your adventure and journey to Brooklyn to join us for events@ Spacecraft and Etsy.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain
History. Legacy. Healing. Frederick Murphy is the founder of History Before Us, a project that aims to capture, preserve, and advocate for influential history. His film Echoes of the Forks of Cypress follows his own research to trace his ancestry back to the Forks of Cypress, a storied North Alabama plantation, and the journey of both Black and white descendants as they reckon with their shared past to consider a healing path forward. On April 24, as part of the 2026 Symposium, Project Threadways partnered with Florence Arts and Museums to stage a screening of Echoes of the Forks of Cypress at the Shoals Theatre in downtown...
"This is the work of many, many hands bringing everything together."– Natalie Chanin The future of craft rests in the hands of young makers. At Project Threadways and Alabama Chanin, we are working to foster that connection, to bridge the gap between tradition and innovation, and to train the craftspeople of tomorrow. For many years, Project Threadways has partnered with schools and universities to educate students, record oral histories, and share knowledge. A meaningful and long-standing collaboration has been with Florence High School and its cooperative education program, Launch. Today, we highlight two Launch students, Grant Billingsley and...
“I realized that the hand-embroidered shirts I’d been making were really little more than a quilting stitch. I wanted to go back to the community of my childhood in North Alabama. I wanted to talk to my grandmother and the other ladies like her who had quilted their whole lives.” — Natalie Chanin Since 2000, the work of Project Threadways has been made possible by artisans in and around the Shoals. Collaborating with these skilled sewists is one way that we fulfill our mission to preserve craft, provide economic opportunities, and honor the cultural heritage of this region. All Alabama Chanin pieces are...
There are moments in work when the value extends beyond the finished piece. In November, we shared Cyerra Latham’s path from Project Threadways intern to production coordinator and design assistant. During that time, she kept a journal, a working record used to study construction, document materials, test ideas, and learn a craft from the inside. Its pages include fabric swatches, hand-written notes, pattern studies, and records of process. Together, they document how skill is learned through repetition and time. Cyerra’s internship was supported through our relationship with Closely Crafted, whose investment sustains education and training within the American fashion industry....
Full Circle. Cyerra Latham grew up in Florence, Alabama, and moved to Atlanta to study fashion at SCAD. There, she connected with Closely Crafted—whose board proudly includes Natalie Chanin—an organization that strives to revitalize craft in the U.S. through industry commitment and workforce development. With the help of a grant from Closely Crafted, she landed an internship in an unlikely place: her hometown. “I wanted to go to New York. I wanted to jump into a city scene. But after the first week of my internship with Project Threadways, I told my parents I could see myself staying...
The following excerpt was published in the Southern Cultures “Future of Textiles” issue, guest edited by Natalie Chanin. stories@projectthreadways.org What Is It Worth? by Libby O’Bryan After a career as a textile buyer and production manager in New York City’s Garment District and after seeing so many factories shut down and skilled workers lose their jobs to overseas competition, I am on a mission to preserve the skill of sewing in our domestic manufacturing economy. For me, that means providing good jobs and a new model for production, as well as supporting the independent designer’s scaling production needs. Since 2010,...
