Founded in 2019 by Alabama Chanin founder and creative director Natalie Chanin, Project Threadways explores, studies, and records the history of textiles as material culture. Our mission is to understand the impact of textiles and their creation, from raw material to finished goods, on the...
Image captions: left: “African Burial Ground”, 2009; right: “Meanderings of an Imaginary River”, 2020 by Valerie S. Goodwin Valerie Goodwin is a mixed media fiber artist, architect, and educator whose fine art works are included in museums and private collections. She has received degrees in architecture...
Today, National Nonprofit Day, recognizes the efforts nonprofits and charities put into making an impact in their communities. In 2019, Natalie, CEO and creative director of Alabama Chanin, continued her commitment to textiles and community by founding Project Threadways. We are a nonprofit that records, studies,...
During the recent Project Threadways Symposium—a virtual event in partnership with Alabama Chanin, Project Threadways, and the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area—several presenters discussed the topic of indigo dyeing and processing, both historical and modern. As our partner, Alabama Chanin, moves forward with their Botanical...
Founded in 2019 as a 501(c)(3), Project Threadways records, studies, and explores the history of textiles. Through our work, we seek to understand the impact that textiles and their creation—from raw material to finished good—had on our local community, the region of the American south, the nation, and finally...
This story was originally posted on the Alabama Chanin Journal on June 10,2020.. The fabric tells a story. In the careful stitches, the colors, the pieces, a narrative takes shape. The blue water, the bright sun overhead, the American flag. In the center, a black fist holds a...
Founded last year as a non-profit, Project Threadways examines, documents, and records the history of textiles. In preparation for our next symposium, we have been researching textiles’ history over millennia and the broader arc of time (look for updates next week). As we think ahead to the...
In 2016, Natalie wrote the following on the Alabama Chanin Journal, ”In my design training, we never really spoke directly about the cultural impact of the things (products) we were making. In my memory, conversations tended more towards how the culture impacted us as designers....
This story was originally posted on the Alabama Chanin Journal on January 19, 2016. I’ve been reading Pattern Recognition (2003) by William Gibson as a sort of “digital book club” with a friend of mine who lives in another state. I’ve never been a huge fan of science...
Project Threadways, as a concept and idea, has been in the works for several years—taking shape in Natalie’s mind for even more. Last spring, the planning, learning, researching, and visioning came to life at the inaugural Project Threadways symposium, held at The Factory in April....