Southeast Ohio Fibershed

By: Coral Wedel

In preparation for my travels to Cleveland for the 3rd Annual Rust Belt Fibershed Symposium, I was tasked with considering a word or phrase that embodies the theme this year of “A Textile Future Worth Making”. I considered this from multiple angles because my role(s) within the fibershed are layered. As an educator and mentor, I discussed this theme with students and faculty and found lots of momentum. We stitched a huge banner with our ideas, and had meaningful discussions.

As I considered this theme from the personal perspective of an independent designer and artist, my thoughts and feelings had a collecting, or collective, focus. With the Southeast Ohio Fibershed in mind, my stalwart interest in connecting people to investigate their overlap was clear. One word became the most important to me to express this theme:

Community

The unifying nature of bringing people together with their ideas to form an experience, was evident from the first step into the space designated to hold this fiber-focused event. We arrived with a group of students and faculty to be present within this community for this event of collaboration. Connections sparked with excitement and overlapping interest all over the room. We heard personal stories from speakers that were poignant, such as Caressa Brown, Owner and Director of (DE-FI) Global INC, who has been a catalyst of community within my own journey. Participation from the entire room activated during the opening with Margaret Sankey, as she led us in making harmony with Jessie Boeke and Sarah Pottle, Co-Founders of the Rust Belt Fibershed.

I sat in a room surrounded by colleagues, students, friends, strangers, and we listened. We participated. We were present. We were in community.

We left with something more than I had expected. Not only did I feel the community that was so important going into it, but I also left with two more words to encapsulate my experience of what, “A Textile Future Worth Making” will take.

• Tenacity
• Optimism

These two words were the only notes I took at the event and were offered by Heidi Barr, Co-Founder & CEO of the PA Flax Project. She discussed what it takes to do the work we are all working toward. This event offered so many important insights, inspirations, and experts, but these two words are what I chose to take with me. We will need tenacity to stick with the hard work ahead and we will need optimism to imagine, believe, and enact the possibilities of our vision for a “Textile Future Worth Making”. 

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