Material Memory

This cohort-based mini-project is meant to build community momentum leading up to the fourth annual Rust Belt FIbershed symposium on January 30th, 2027.
Several outfits will be featured in a fashion show following the speakers around noon on Saturday at 78th Street Studios.

Learn More & Sign Up Here!

WELCOME TO MATERIAL MEMORY!

The theme for our symposium this year will deal with themes of gift economies, meaning and value behind fiber work, and relationships to our materials and each other. This project asks: How can we re-imagine the relationships we have with materials in our lives to envision something new? Maybe the materials are well-loved, forgotten, or have a specific memory attached to them. How do we re-envision these materials?

Last year, the morning speaker segment of our symposium ended with a fashion show that features soil-to-soil outfits made by hand from One Year, One Outfit participants. This year's One Year, One Outfit participants are still working to create their outfits which will debut at next year's symposium (2028), and so we have an opportunity to focus on upcycling and share outfits created in this Material Memory project.

We're calling it a flash project because, compared to One Year, One Outfit, it's fast! Debut is on January 30th— either by wearing your piece, sharing about your piece on social media if you can’t attend the symposium, or entering it into the fashion show!

DETAILS:

All material needs to come from textiles currently in our Rust Belt Fibershed (within 250 miles of Cleveland). (i.e. don’t purchase antique quilts from California on Etsy)
Materials do not have to have been originally made here (like with local wool) but have to have some memory here. For example, sari silk from India but worn here by your mother in Cleveland is a-ok.
The project is very much about your relationship to these memories, and we’re going with the spirit of that: Let’s say you found some lace from the early 1900s at a garage sale, and you’d like to use it for this project— since your relationship to it would be new, does the lace symbolize something really specific and important to you because of some quality it holds? Or does it just seem like a cool piece of lace that would look good as a neck tie? The first is a good example of a material to use, the second seems like a fun up-cycling project, but not a great fit for this project. Previous materials have included:
— Ball pit balls from a son’s prom night that the mom organized, used to adorn a dress
— Wallpaper from Grandma’s house, made into a skirt and top
— A comforter from a childhood bed, made into a puffy coat
Materials do not have to be natural fibers or dyes-- they can be any textile or material currently in our fibershed. The idea is that we are bringing these materials back to life.
There will be a fashion show featuring some (12-15) of the participants’ work, but participants do not need to participate in the fashion show to participate in the project.

Learn more & Sign Up Here!