Sewing With Nancy

Today's Nancy's Corner guest has a remarkable mission. It's to bring joy, healing and community through textile arts. In memory of a friend who lost her life to domestic violence and as a pledge to help others Sue Rock founded a non-profit organization Sue Rock Originals to repair and revitalize lives. Sue joins us today via Skype. Sue, how are you doing today? Fantastic. Really, thank you so much for having me, Nancy. Oh, it's my pleasure. I've had the opportunity to speak with you earlier and you are coming to us from Queens. Oh, actually it's Brooklyn, sorry.

Nancy

Brooklyn, sorry. Brooklyn, New York, it's all right. You have a remarkable story to tell that happened oh, seven years ago. It started seven years ago. Give us a little history of Sue Rock Originals came to be. It's an amazing story of two experiences coming together and creating a good cause. Seven years ago, in New York, Indie Fashion was very in. It was at the same time that the garment industry and the interior design industries were slowly coming you know, they were slowing down a great deal. So, we decided well, since a lot of this fabric was being released onto the market through the Internet why not try to resource it and create a business for ourselves something small, something interesting. Well, the first time that we went for a fabric pick-up Nancy, it was in 15 50-gallon bags of fabric. Well, it was more than we could even imagine. We thought that with all of the fabric that was available that we could utilize it but maybe we could transform the remainder into a craft charity. Unfortunately, at the same time, that all of that was going on and we were continuing to make pick ups a dear friend of mine passed away. And unbeknownst to me it was due to a domestic violence incident. Now, this was a woman who was living in a suburban area here in New York. She had kind of a wonderful civil service job, two children. Her husband had the same. That really didn't matter, because she was still going through the trials and tribulations of domestic violence. So looking at how to do a craft charity having this experience resonate you know, for myself and for my husband because we knew the woman it made sense to try to create something that would apply itself to people who left. What happens when a person leaves. So we created something that was very unique. It's domestic violence support with a textile twist. Textile support winds up meaning creating a way for people to have all of the self-sufficiency skills and all the self-sufficiency materials that your grandparents had, my grandparents had. You know, it's an intercultural experience. Right now, using the resources that are being discarded from these industries each and every day. And us being here in New York these resources are abundant and they're constant. Behind you, we can see that you're situated right in your storefront or in your shop. There are places for people to come and learn to experience textiles, and also to purchase, correct? It's marvelous, yes. And you also work with women. You teach them to sew right there. Exactly, it's a two-part process. When we first started, it was with knitting and crocheting. I think that like seven or eight years ago the wave of knitting and crocheting was riding through the country so many people were getting back into it. So we started with that, pushing the envelope encouraging people to not just do hats and scarves but let's see if you can do a shrug. Let's see if you can do a skirt. Let's see if you can make practical items that a woman would need once she leaves this very difficult situation and wants to start this new life. That's the first part of our work. We do donations. So we'll have people come and donate items that they have handcrafted. What you see behind me are two mannequins wearing skirts that were made by volunteers to help support survivors of the Haitian earthquake. That's another way that we have volunteers make items with donated materials to contribute to people in need. But the other piece, is that because we have so much and so many different types of materials here we're able to train. So what we have is a domestic violence empowerment program in which if a woman is living away either in a residence or with her friends she can come during the time that she's kind of in between and make all the things that she would need by the time that she leaves that temporary housing situation. These are tough times all around. Unfortunately, many folks don't have the skill base that we used to have. We've taken on the responsibility to actually teach that skill base and enjoy watching the creative process heal. Sue, it's a remarkable story. It's inspiring how textiles have brought together and touched so many lives unified, and been a real inspiration. You have warmed my heart. I know others will enjoy reading about your story even further. You can go to all things Sewing with Nancy. They're found at nancyzieman.com and you can click on the Nancy's Corner section and find out more about Sue Rock Originals. And Sue, thank you for joining us. Thank you so much. Thanks to you for watching our Sewing with Nancy series. Join us next time. Bye for now.