After seven years of collaborating on a dinnerware collection, Alabama Chanin and Heath Ceramics announce a jewelry line, producing hand-etched necklaces in the Alabama Chanin-Heath Ceramics collaborative style. The necklaces are cut in Heath’s San Francisco tile factory then completed in their Sausalito factory, where the jewelry team drills the holes in the bars, glazes, etches, fires, and assembles the necklaces. The bars are fired in the kiln with larger ceramics, filling in small areas of the kiln that would otherwise be empty, and thus making the production process more efficient. The highly skilled etching technique used in Alabama Chanin’s line of dinnerware is also applied to the necklaces.
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Founded in 2019, Project Threadways utilizes Makeshift's conversations, Alabama Chanin's experience, and Natalie's vision through academic partnerships and programming. Project Threadways explores, studies, and records the history of textiles as material culture. The purpose is to understand the impact of textiles and their creation, from raw material to finished goods, on the local community, and then connect that to the region, the nation, and across the world. In a partnership with the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area (MSNHA) and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, Project Threadways collects oral histories, analyzes and publishes data, and stages events that begin and advance conversations on the connections between people, places, and materials.
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Alabama Chanin hosts a pop-up at The Factory for swimwear designer, Malia Mills, creator of the love thy differences™ movement. Mills, an innovator in swimwear design and marketing, focuses on bra-size fit and selling two-piece suits as separates, allowing women to match tops and bottoms to their individual body types. As part of this gathering, The Factory hosts a No Bullshit Breakfast, inspired by Mills’ New York City events of the same name. A roundtable conversation between Mills, Dana Thomas, journalist and author of Fashionopolis, and Natalie about the role of sourcing in fashion launches a weekend of events. The No Bullshit Breakfast is the first of its series, which aims to unite friends, guests, and community members for an enlightening morning, creating the space for learning and conversations that last beyond the event.
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![Alabama Chanin - The Gathering, 2019]()
The community picnic that starts at Lovelace Crossroads transitions over the years into an annual spring open house at The Factory, and, in 2018, is reintroduced as The Gathering—an expanded series of events at multiple locations across the community. The events are a time for employees, artisans, collaborators, supporters, and members of the community to gather and celebrate. The first annual Gathering features a Friends of the Café Dinner with chef Steven Satterfield, a Custom Design Workshop hosted by The School of Making, an evening cocktail workshop in collaboration with friends Brooks Reitz of Jack Rudy Cocktail Co. and Cathead Distillery hosted at 116 E. Mobile, a local venue and event space run by our friends at Single Lock Records. There are also mini workshops, a BBQ lunch celebrating the artisans, a booth with friends from Bluewater Creek Farm, a presentation of the history of the company with Natalie, a stenciling booth, tours of The Factory, and a special Swampette tour of Shoals music venues. The weekend wraps up with a family-style brunch featuring Nashville’s famous Biscuit Love.
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