Instructor Joyce Huizinga, of Dempolis, helps Chair Caning participant with her project.  These participants are each caning special family heirloom chairs - Jean (far left) is working on her grandmother's kitchen chair and Sherre (far right) is working on her husband's childhood ladder back chair.  Treasured pieces are being given new life while these participants learn a "new" art!

Melissa works on a footstool while watching other participants at work on their projects.

"I had so much fun getting messy with the clay at the class. I really learned a lot about pottery making. I really love my bowl that I made to put my favorite jewelry in." -Laura Grace Creswell

A Yellow Watermelon by Ted M. Dunagan

     "In the best Southern literary tradition, A Yellow Watermelon explores poverty and racial segregation through the eyes of an innocent boy.

     In rural south Alabama in 1948, whites pick on one side of the cotton field and blacks on the other. Where the fields come together, twelve-year-old Ted Dillon meets Poudlum, a black boy his own age, who teaches him how to endure the hard work while they bond and go on to integrate the field.

     With beguiling prose and an ear for the way people spoke in that time and place, author Ted M. Dunagan brings to life a story so engaging and heartfelt that it will resonate with young and old."

In his own words: Gee's Bend artist Tyree McCloud on his quilt murals

Posted by Birmingham News July 30, 2008 5:55 AM

In the warehouse at the Black Belt Treasures store in Camden, Gee's Bend artist Tyree McCloud is painting murals of Gee's Bend quilts that were depicted on postage stamps last year. When completed, the murals will form a 17-mile Gee's Bend Quilt Mural Trail.

Tyree McCloud examines the detailed painting on half of his mural depicting a quilt by Jessie T. Pettway. When complete, the mural will be part of a Gee's Bend Quilt Mural Trail and be placed near Pettway's home.

During our family's visit to the Folk Life Festival in June, our disabled son spent hours observing and talking with Earnest "Buster" Scruggs as he created kudzu baskets. Our son was so inspired by the things he saw and learned that he decided to give basket weaving a try.  When we arrived home, he gathered kudzu vines and began to create his own baskets.  His baskets are really nice creations and are uniquely his own design.  They have a special place in our home.  Thanks for the opportunity to meet the artists and craftsmen from the Black Belt region during the Folk Life Festival.

Mrs. Cash, Perry County

Buster Scruggs

Black Belt Treasures is one of Alabama’s beauty spots and it is surely one of my favorites. Thanks to you and the group who helped to bring this about.

Please accept my warmest thank you for your awesome hospitality to the several groups I have asked you to host.  They have all enjoyed the local history and wonderful background information on the artists. It was quite an honor for my guests to purchase an Alabama treasure there at Black Belt Treasures.

Again, my sincere gratitude to you and your staff. - Alma M. Lett, Evergreen, Alabama