By Mike Templeton
I will openly confess that I cannot keep up with the trends and ideas that circulate in online culture. My knowledge of upcycling comes from my wife, about whom I will say more below. Upcycling is the process and art of using old or discarded items to create something useful or valuable. Simply put, upcycling is just taking old things and making something new out of them; rather than tossing things in the trash we re-use things. It is a process that is made for our times, one would imagine, yet it is a process deeply embedded in Appalachian culture. The practices of ordinary people in the southern mountains came with them when they migrated to the urban areas, and the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition counts a number of contemporary craft artists among our own, including at least one upcycling artist.
The process of reusing things for another purpose comes from plain old-fashioned need and practicality. Poor farming families did not have the luxury of tossing things out and buying new every time something got old. The most obvious example of this practice is quilting in which scraps of fabric were reused and painstakingly sewn together to produce beautiful coverlets. Quilting is so important to Appalachian culture that the patterns have taken on a kind of linguistic and symbolic meaning.
The importance of Appalachian quilts and other textiles is now a recognized American art form. The McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville featured an exhibit of Appalachian textiles in 2021 called Textile Art from Southern Appalachia: The Quiet Work of Women. The work of quilting and other textile arts was largely, if not solely, the work of women. The Museum explains that “Appalachian women with great artistic talent wove by choice and not necessity, making a conscious decision to create beautiful objects as a means of celebrating important family members or events. It also shows how some women turned their artistic outlet into a source of income.”
The creations of Appalachian women led to a uniquely American work of art that pulls together basic human need, magnificent artistic talent, and a way for women to gain entry to the exclusively male world of small business. This potential for a source of income has found a new outlet in what we are now calling upcycling.
Emmy Ruth is an artist and entrepreneur from North Carolina and one of the early pioneers in upcycling as a solo business. She operates exclusively on Instagram (I will provide the link below), and a quick scroll will show you that she is taking old quilts and blankets, pieces of fabric and quilt tops and using these things to make beautiful women’s clothing, jackets, coats, etc.
In essence, entrepreneurs and craft’s people like Emmy Ruth are furthering the old Appalachian practice of reuse for our modern age. The quilts, for example, are already to be found in thrift stores. Rather than let them molder in attics and basements or wind up in a landfill, these items are being re-worked into useable items in ways that are creating yet another art form and yet another avenue for subsistence and profit.
There are, of course, controversies over upcycling and reusing, especially where it concerns items that some claims have historical value and are worthy of being preserved as they are. There is serious work involving the preservation of quilts and other textiles. The exhibit noted above in Tennessee is just one example. Local groups around the Appalachian region and the country work to preserve quilts and other textiles. The fact is the items used in upcycling are far too numerous to preserve. Most of the items used in upcycling are factory made items meant to appear homemade. Think about the entire industry of “old-timey” that corporate entities like Cracker Barrel try to cash in on (have you ever noticed that the “antiques” in Cracker Barrel are exactly the same “antiques” in every Cracker Barrel). What upcycling craftspeople and artists are doing is rescuing these items from the landfill and turning them into beautiful and one-of-a-kind items of clothing.
Another controversy that has emerged within the world of upcycling is the corporate cash-in on a trend started by small businesses and individuals. Large brands and enormous corporate interests have noticed the potential for the upcycling market and are now trying to exploit this market. The other side of this are people and companies that are using brand-name clothing in upcycled items while prominently displaying the brand logo. These practices have wound up in the courts with huge financial settlements and penalties.
But the individual “solo-preneur” and artist remains where it’s at for most people, and the practices of upcycling remain tied to the same needs as they were in the origins in the Appalachian region. Upcycle Ohio, for example, is a social action effort assembled with several organizations in the Athens, Ohio area with the purpose of reducing waste and providing help and opportunity to people in the region. As they explain in their website, “UpCycle Ohio, is a business. To be sure. But we’re much more than that. We’re a social enterprise, which means that while we strive to be profitable, we’re also working to build a better, more sustainable community.” The website for Upcycle Ohio is below.
A simple Google or Instagram search on will turn up countless upcycling efforts. These are micro-businesses run by single individuals who make the clothing themselves, market them online, and sell them from their own home. This kind of practice is as close to the origins of Appalachian reuse as we could get in our digital age.
I have learned about these things from my in-house upcycling expert, Emily Templeton who is the artist and urban Appalachian poet behind For Emily Whenever, and she also happens to be my wife. That said, For Emily Whenever is one of the prominent practitioners of this emerging art form and small business and certainly worthy of mention as the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition seeks to highlight urban Appalachian small businesses.
If you are thinking about how to begin the process of upcycling, consider that Emily told me her earliest experiences involved wearing the clothes her mother made from the kitchen curtains. Upcycling has its origins in the artistic practices of ordinary Appalachian people, mostly women. The idea of having a basket of fabric scraps or turning a torn and worn quilt into a coat lining is extremely old. As we face new challenges in the Twenty-first Century, the old ways appear to be, yet again, the best ways.
For Emily Whenever can be found at https://foremilywhenever.bigcartel.com/.
More information on Upcycle Ohio can be found at this link: https://upcycleohio.com/.
Emmy Ruth can be found on Instagram at this link: https://www.instagram.com/emmyruth_/?hl=en.
Michael Templeton is a writer, and independent scholar. He is the author of The Chief of Birds: A Memoir published with Erratum Press and Impossible to Believe, forthcoming from Iff Books. He is also the author of Collected Apoems, forthcoming from LJMcD Communications and the awaiting of awaiting: a novella, forthcoming from Nut Hole Publishing. Check out his profile in UACC’s Cultural Directory. He has published numerous articles and essays on contemporary culture and works of creative non-fiction as well as experimental works and poetry. He lives in West Milton, Ohio with his wife who is an artist.