Our Story

It all began with a thunderstorm.

When wind-driven rain soaked piles of textiles at an outdoor peasant market and the organizers were about to throw out all of the fabric, we stepped up and rescued this material. Once dried out, we began turning the fabric into reusable shopping bags (to make up for a ban on plastic bags) and organizing workshops to teach others to do the same. During the pandemic, we pivoted to using our discarded fabric to make masks. We are expanding to engage in textile diplomacy in communities ravaged by Holocaust and genocide.

Meet the Founders

Growing up as a member of a large family on a small island in Maine, Patricia Callow Bernheim learned the value of reuse and the creative skills of resourcefulness. Her mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and other women before her served as sewist role models across generations who weaved the concept of craftivism into the fabric of their daily lives. 

Robert Bernheim, Ph.D. - the other half of Patricia  - stands in solidarity with his wife and their three adult daughters and granddaughter in these craftivist endeavors. His research and writing address the memory and residue of the Nazi Holocaust in our modern world through truthful storytelling.