We had the good fortune of connecting with Huckleberry Starnes and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Huckleberry, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
Not to sound like an old man, but I’ve been running my business in Atlanta for 27 years now, starting it with a chop saw and making deliveries on the back of a motorcycle.  In that time I’ve gone through a lot of different phases, including working on projects in Japan, Taiwan and all across the US, but I’ve always been glad to return home to Atlanta and get back to my studio. This is where I’m the most productive (and happy) and I try to instill in people just starting out how important it is to set up an environment that sparks your creativity, summed up in my mantra “Take care of your studio, and your studio will take care of you”.

After many years of running a woodworking business that specializes in custom furniture, movie and photo props as well as doing design/build for restaurants and retail I shifted to industrial environments.  Switching to a design role for these new customers, and working with my fabrications team, I was able to do large scale projects for the military, FBI, all of the The Smithsonian Institution sites, Lockheed Martin and half of the nuclear power plant control rooms in the US.  This work was very rewarding, always challenging, and I especially enjoyed working with a team.  However, 10 years ago my wife became pregnant with our son and I decided to step away from my career and I became a stay at home dad so that I could focus all my energy on my family, truly the most important thing in my life.

Skipping ahead to a few years ago, with my kids becoming more and more independent, I started thinking about returning to my previous career and it was about that time that COVID hit causing me to rethink my former model of working.  Faced with the prospect of spending  at least a year in quarantine, and with my traditional customers freezing all projects and just trying to figure out how to stay open, I found myself at a crossroads.

Looking at my options, which included the ability to be home for my kids and being in charge of virtual learning, I randomly found myself on a forum about vintage Western wear, and discovered the specialized antique hand guided embroidery machines that were used to make them, called “Chainstitch” machines.  After months of searching I found one for sale, a 1930 Singer 114w103 chainstitch machine, which I promptly bought and drove to Ohio to pick up., I fell in love with this machine and the process immediately.  I have been sewing since I was a kid, but this is a whole different style of working, which lets the machine sew in any direction and is controlled by a rotating handle under the machine to steer it. This freedom basically turns this machine into a tattoo gun for clothes and lets me draw my designs or add text to almost any garment. Now a year later I have 4 vintage machines and I have returned to the studio full time creating custom varsity jackets, chenille patches, denim jackets, and custom garments for the movie industry. This once again proves that if you take care of your studio, your studio will take care of you.

 

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
One of the interesting things about running a vintage embroidery and custom garment business is educating your customers on the difference between a hand made and computer made item. Most of my machines are around 100 years old and create a very specific look, which is very different look than what is now commonly used, and these machines also have a set of limitations in the level of detail they can generate based on the stitch size. For this reason I get a lot of inquires for commissions because people can tell my products look different and cool, but most people can not figure out why. In these initial conversations I help guide people in to the product that is the best fit for them, even if that means referring them to another person for computer embroidery because I believe it’s better to select the projects that are best suited to me and my machines, rather than trying to convince people to hire me and figuring out how to make it work.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Normally I would take friends to the Clermont Lounge, Righteous Room, Moe’s and Joe’s and Quoc Huong, but I think we need to consider COVID and be responsible about how we behave as the pandemic is on going while at the same time finding a way to support local businesses.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Their are a small group of artisans around the world that also do chianstitch embroidery on the antique machines, and for the most part, they are very supportive in sharing information and helping work through technical issues. Without this group of people I would have not been ale to overcome the initial learning curve. I’m glad that now I can be one of those that give back, including my bi-weekly Live on Instagram (@chainstitch.sessions) where my co-host and I help answer questions and talk about the issues of running a small business over cocktails.

Website: www.Huckmade.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/huckmade_dot_com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/huckmade

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClDqo8joJoGZg-o8iFIw9wQ

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutAtlanta is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.