Photo by Karin Strickland
Crafters have a long history of combining the pragmatic with the aesthetic, adding an artistic flair to everyday items from quilts to coasters. So it’s no surprise that the Southern Highland Craft Guild has answered the challenges of virus-containment protocols with a line of attractively patterned handmade face masks — a far cry from the pleated blandness of industrial models or the high-fashion pretensions of expensively marketed ones. The handcrafted masks are made by Guild members who have risen to the challenge envisioned by the group’s marketing director, Millie Davis.
It was early in April, when infection rates were rising and preventive protocols were at the forefront of everyone’s concerns, that Davis noticed the rapid response to the small supply of handmade masks made by jewelry maker and Guild member Molly Dingledine, who was donating the proceeds from her mask sales to Asheville’s Manna Food Bank. “I immediately reached out to her,” says Davis, “and promoted the masks through the Guild’s social media and in our newsletter.” The masks quickly sold out, so Davis turned to other Guild members to suggest they sell their masks through the org’s website.
Among the first makers Davis contacted was fiber artist Connie Brown, a Guild member for 20 years. Brown had started making masks for her husband and his co-workers at Fedex Express after she discovered, in late March, that many of her fellow quilters were doing the same.
“But there was a controversy at the time about who should be wearing them,” Brown notes, “so for a week I just observed what was being thrown my way: everything from mask patterns, styles, materials, features.”
Brown’s son works at a grocery store, and on March 30, she recalls, a customer gave him and his fellow employees face masks.
“Well, the guilt set in. I’m a professional quiltmaker and textile artist with plenty of fabric on hand, so the least I could do is look out for my family.”
Brown had already made 130 masks for her husband and his fellow delivery workers when the call came from Davis at the Guild. Her first batch of 50 masks sold out in a matter of days. By late May, Brown had made 685 masks, and donated more than 160 of them to essential workers unable to self-quarantine.
Four other Guild members quickly joined Brown in crafting two-ply masks made of top-grade cotton fabric in a colorful array of patterns. Among them was Charlie Patricolo, who teaches textile art and makes fabric dolls (including, in a nod to front-line healthcare workers, what she calls “Nurse Angel” dolls).
Photo by Karin Strickland
“I had a little trouble finding elastic for the masks, but I had all the other things I needed,” notes Patricolo. “I had fabric, thread, a machine, and time, since all my classes have been cancelled for the past few months.” Reached in early summer, she had made about 75 masks for the Guild’s effort, and another 25 or so for family and friends.
In fact, many of the Guild’s members have lost revenue from teaching, so mask making helps on that end, too. “My textile-related events were being cancelled through the end of the year, and some as far away as February of 2021,” Brown says. “I’m also a Buncombe County substitute teacher, so [I’ll have] no income for the remainder of this semester, and who knows what the fall semester will look like for a substitute?”
She adds, “The thought of selling something that is in such need makes me feel guilty, but I have to keep telling myself that I’m a small-business owner, not a hobbyist. I can’t afford to use up my supplies and donate all of the product.” And, Brown points out, by having the online shop of the Guild’s website handle sales and shipping, she has more time to make more masks while generating a small income for her and for the Guild.
By early June, the Guild had sold 200 masks online and was offering them in its newly reopened bricks-and-mortar shops (there are free mass-market masks for shop visitors, in keeping with the state’s regulations for retail locations).
“As far as I know, this is the first time the Guild members have come together to offer a specialty item,” Davis says. “It’s nice seeing them work separately on the same item, and how all the masks end up with their own unique style and character.”
And there’s even one more benefit for Brown. “I do save all the scraps,” she says. “Some day they’ll end up in a quilt.”
For more information on artists and initiatives of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, see southernhighlandguild.org.