Southeast Ohio Fibershed

Regional textile supporters will converge on the Hocking Hills Garment Center (HHGC) in Buchtel, Ohio for the Southeast Ohio Fibershed’s Spring 2026 Meetup on Saturday May 30th 2pm to 5pm to celebrate local fiber arts and relaunch efforts in our regional textile industry. 

Athens native, Betsy Franjola, returned to the area after working in the garment industry in both New York City and Los Angeles, and she founded the HHGC. Franjola states, “We believe the future of American manufacturing is not about recreating the old system, but building a new one that is more connected, ethical, and place-based.”

Fibershed’s focus on regional fiber systems, natural materials, and collaboration across the supply chain reflects so much of what inspires our work every day.

Betsy Franjola, Founder of the Hocking HIlls Garment Center and a Member of the Southeast Ohio Fibershed Board of Directors

Southeast Ohio Fibershed, founded in 2021 by Athens fiber artist and business owner Lisa Heinz, provides guidance for textile ecosystem development that includes a focus on sustainability, regenerative farming practices, and provides advice for regional textile development efforts. 

Our efforts mean enabling connections between farmers who grow fibers, such as wool or flax, and those who would like to make products from them.

Lisa Heinz, Southeast Ohio Fibershed Founder and Board President

Heinz states that “as a budding non-profit, we focus our efforts on public education about what sustainability means in clothing, household, and other textiles that use grown, or natural, fibers.”

The Fashion Design and Retail Merchandising program at Hocking College, led by local designer Coral Wedel, provides aspiring tailors and sewists with the skills to design and make clothing. “A thriving and sustainable regional textile ecosystem that connects people and resources is a vision that I hold dearly. As an artist, designer, and educator whose work centers around this vision, I believe in the potential to connect people and resources to build it.

The Southeast Ohio Fibershed is working to be a foundation for this meaningful work, and by joining us in community for the Spring Meetup, you can find a tangible way to participate.

Coral Wedel, Member of the Southeast Ohio Fibershed Board of Directors

Activities at the event on Saturday May 30th will include speakers, fiber artists and fiber arts demonstrations, shearers, information tables, and local sheep for visitors to get to know. For details and logistics, please go here.

The Southeast Ohio Fibershed, a registered Ohio non-profit, works toward obtaining its status as an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit by the end of summer 2026. For more information, please attend the Meetup or find us on social media at seohiofibershed .