Working at a Joyous Creative Thing is a WEM funded creative research residency that explores the textile legacy of Letty Esherick through the lens of making, craft histories, and material culture studies. Letty Esherick, overshadowed by her husband Wharton Esherick, was an accomplished weaver, garment maker, and educator who engaged deeply with the materiality of textiles, the practice of making, and the evolving role of women in craft networks. This project engages with archival research, textile reconstruction, and public-facing programming to examine how Letty’s work intersects with broader conversations on craft as labor, gendered histories of making, agency, and embodied knowledge in material culture.

By connecting Letty’s journey to sites of craft education and community making—including Penland School of Crafts, Crossnore School, and Hedgerow Theatre—this project will investigate the ways in which making serves as a transformative practice. Using historical research and hands-on experimentation, I will examine how Letty’s woven garments, embroidery, and textiles offer new insights into craft as a site of agency, resilience, and innovation. As a faculty member in Fashion and Apparel Studies and a textile scholar, I will integrate this research into teaching, exhibition development, and scholarly writing, contributing to contemporary discourse on making, craft pedagogy, and feminist material culture.