#SouthernMakers 2017 Revisited

Southern Makers 2017 found us in a new city, a new venue, and a few new additions to our celebration! Despite storms earlier in the week and high temperatures, the weather held out for us all weekend and the viaduct at Sloss Furnaces was the perfect retreat from the mid day heat.

The festivities got underway Friday night at Pepper Place Market with a one-of-a-kind dining experience featuring the culinary delights of 5 southern chefs and special guests Natalie Chanin and Mike Wolfe. The food and drinks were delicious and the company divine! The dinner was a perfect introduction to the weekend festivities at Sloss.

Attendees lined up early outside the 19 feet tall x 32 inch wide custom made, salvaged wood entrance. The gates opened at noon and the crowd poured in, ready to enjoy the offerings of around 100 makers. Event goers were able to sample goods, participate in demonstrations, and interact with some of the most talented artists and makers from throughout the state of Alabama. Maker booths and tents were lined up both sides the length of the viaduct. One end of the viaduct supported one of this year’s new features, a craft beer garden, while the other end was home to live musical performances as bands took to the makeshift stage to entertain the crowd.

Another new feature this year was the addition of graffiti artist Moses Pressnell. Moses painted the side of this trailer Saturday and Sunday during Southern Makers. This beautiful work of art is titled “Fly First”. You can follow Moses and see more of his incredible art on Facebook at facebook.com/mosespressnellart.

The other new addition was the Urban Arts Dance Competition and Demonstration sponsored by Alabama Dance Nation. Watching the highly talented dancers battle it out for the big prize was highly entertaining! And… we can’t forget about the concert Saturday night at Avondale Brewery by Single Lock recording artists including John Paul White and Mia Dyson.

Coming through a jam packed weekend, we have to take this opportunity to say a heart felt THANK YOU!! There is no way we can name everyone by name without leaving someone out, as it took a countless number of people to pull off an event of this magnitude. Every single person who played a part in this event, large or small, was needed and appreciated. Our thanks goes out to all of the Makers, Sponsors, those who have worked tirelessly over the past year to help plan every aspect of this event, the Southern Makers and Southern Accents Team, our venues; Sloss Furnaces, Pepper Place Market and Avondale Brewery, the Volunteers, the Chefs, Brewers, the Security and those involved from the City of Birmingham who helped make this happen, and of course our media sponsor Garden & Gun Magazine. Most importantly, we want to thank the attendees! Without you, all the effort would be in vain. We realize your time is precious and we appreciate you choosing to spend some of it with us!

We’ll be posting photos on our social media accounts in the coming days so keep watch! We also want to see YOUR photos! Please post your photos from this past weekend and tag us with #southernmakers2017 or @southernmakers.

The demonstrations throughout the weekend were a huge success! Casting artists from Sloss Furnaces, pizza making with Bill St. John and broom making with George Jones were but a few of the crowd pleasing demonstrations!

The VIP lounge was hopping all weekend as VIP ticket holders were treated to culinary delights and refreshing drinks in the decked out air conditioned tent!

The Pine Hill Haints returned this year, along with other musical guests, to entertain the crowds.

The Beer Garden was a popular new feature as craft beers from over a dozen Alabama brewers were offered throughout the weekend.

Happy faces from makers and guests alike were common under the Sloss Furnaces viaduct! We hope to see you all again next year!!

Southern Makers – 5 Star Dinner with Mike Wolfe & Natalie Chanin

Southern Makers 5 Star Dinner
29th Street at Pepper Place, Birmingham, AL
August 11, 2017
Cocktails: 5:30-7:00
Dinner: 7:00 until

Tickets are now available for this one-of-a-kind dining experience to benefit Southern Makers nonprofit. With special guests Natalie Chanin and Mike Wolfe.

Special dinner guest, Natalie “Alabama” Chanin, is the founder and creative director of Alabama Chanin. She was born and raised in Florence, Alabama, where her company, which creates beautiful hand stitched clothing, is based. Natalie has traveled the globe working as a stylist, costume and fashion designer. In 2013 she won the CFDA/Lexus Eco-Fashion Challenge, an award competition that identifies and celebrates the greatest American designers working in the realm of sustainable fashion. Natalie’s fashions focuses on sustainability at every stage of the manufacturing process – from materials and processes, to cultural sustainability in the form of preserving hand sewing skills. Over the years, Alabama Chanin has expanded to include The Alabama Chanin collection, The School of Making, The Factory Store + Cafe, and Building 14 Design + Manufacturing Services.

Our other special guest for the evening is Mike Wolfe. Mike is the creator and star of History Channel’s American Pickers! While we have all come to know Mike on television as a picker, Mike is so much more than a finder and rescuer of old objects. Mike is an American history buff who’s passion lies in discovering and preserving the stories of the treasures that he uncovers. In addition to American Pickers, Mike is the creator and executive producer of Nashville Flipped, has is own line of American made products and apparel, Two Lanes, and is an avid motorcycle collector and enthusiast!

This very special evening will start at 5:30 PM in the cocktail lounge with libations and a Southern Makers anniversary craft cocktail created by Chris Hastings. Guests will enjoy a five course dinner prepared by a variety of top southern based chefs including: Adam Evans, formerly of Optimist, Atlanta, GA,  James Lewis Bettola, Birmingham AL,  Alex Harrell, Angeline, New Orleans, LA, David Carrier, Certified Burger, Sea Island GA, and Josh Quick, Odette, Florence, AL. Miami’s own, five-star sommelier Heath Porter will pair wine with courses. Each chef will prepare a special plate to add to this one-of-a-kind culinary experience. The atmosphere and surroundings will complement the dinner with an urban farm-to-table feel and theme. Table flourishes include place settings from McQueen Pottery, cotton napkins by Alabama Chanin, flowers by Stone Hollow Farmstead and more. 29th Street to the historic Pepper Place will be transformed for one night only into a joyful dining room under the stars of Alabama. Dress attire for this event is business casual. A very limited number of tickets are available and can be purchased by visiting southernmakers.com.

Southern Accents 2016 – Our Year in Review

Another year has come and gone… but it has been a great one! 2016 has kept us so busy that it seems like only yesterday we were here recapping 2015. This past year started off with a bang as we traveled to New York to design the runway backdrop for our good friend Billy Reid for New York City fashion week. Returning from New York we quickly began a project for Mike Wolfe of American Pickers. We traveled to his home in Tennessee, providing salvaged wood and installation for the floor, ceiling and wall of his motorcycle warehouse. Mike has become a dear friend and we are currently working on other projects for him. Watch American Pickers and you may see Mike wearing his SA t-shirt!!

This past spring we were thrilled to be featured in Garden & Gun Magazine! Our relationship with Garden & Gun further developed this past year as we designed and decorated the G&G Artist Tent at Slossfest for the second year in a row. But, only after another very successful trek to Montgomery for our fourth installment of Southern Makers! We are already excitedly working on Southern Makers 2017 and believe that this year will be our biggest and best show yet, so stay tuned!!

This past fall we were excited to have the opportunity to save over 100 stained glass windows from Central Baptist Church in Decatur, Alabama. During this salvage mission we discovered a time capsule tucked away in the center of a cornerstone. The cornerstone and it’s contents will be presented back to Central Baptist Church this spring during their anniversary celebration.

October was a busy month as we traveled to Florence, Alabama for Billy Reid’s Shindig No. 8.While famed chef John Besh catered the event, Blackberry Farms Brewery provided their award winning beer as we were in charge of the set design and decorations for the annual event hosted by designer Billy Reid. We also started work on one of our largest projects to date at The Westin Hotelin Nashville, Tennessee.

To round out the year, for the first time in the history of Southern Accents, we closed the store during what is one of our regular business days so that our entire team could attend the Retailer of the Year Awards luncheon in Birmingham. Southern Accents was awarded the Silver distinction in our category. 2016 has been an exciting and successful year, but we know that without our customers, none of what we do would be possible. Whether we are patching a door, undertaking a large design project or preparing for an event like Southern Makers, it is only through the support and patronage of our customers that makes any of it possible. We would like to say a heartfelt THANK YOU for allowing us to do what we love!

Make sure you are following all of our projects via our social media accounts, as well as this blog. We are looking ahead to another exciting year in 2017 and would not want you to miss anything!!!

American Pickers Meets Southern Accents

Ever so often we are presented with an opportunity that is simply too hard to pass up. This past fall Mike Wolfe of American Pickers and his lovely wife Jodi visited our showroom. As is the case with so many of our customers who hold a deep appreciation and respect for things of old, we immediately connected with Mike. Mike and Jodi toured our main showroom and then traveled a short distance down the road to our salvaged wood showroom. Mike carefully selected salvaged lumber from several stacks for a specific project that he had in mind. Several weeks later we found ourselves on the top of a mountain in Tennessee, salvaged wood in hand, ready to tackle Mike’s project.

A work in progress!!

 

If you are a fan of American Pickers, you probably know that Mike has an impressive collection of antique motorcycles. Mike built a large garage to house his motorcycle collection. In one corner of the garage he included an office. Mike wanted to create an atmosphere for his office that matched the look and feel of his collection.

Garlan Gudger, Jr. and Josh Howe

Working with the salvaged wood that Mike hand picked, we covered the interior back wall of the office with re-milled quarter sawn white oak. The ceiling was dressed with antique beadboard and the floor was a mixture of stained and painted white oak. The exterior wall of the office was wrapped with reclaimed lumber in a kaleidoscope of gorgeous colors. Once installed, the wood was finished with two coats of linseed oil.

Mike Wolfe and Garlan Gudger

We loved working with Mike on his project. Upon completion, Mike took one look and declared that his new office was “sexy”! We’ll take that compliment!!

Josh Howe, Mike Wolfe, and Garlan Gudger stand in front of the “sexy” salvaged wood wall that now decorates Mike’s office.

Thanks to Meghan Aileen from Antiquearchaeology.com for sharing her fantastic photos of Mike, Garlan and Josh! If you somehow missed their blog post last week showcasing their visit to Southern Accents, you can read it HERE!

2015 – Our Year in Review

As we begin looking back at the year 2015, we are astounded with all that we have accomplished. Although to say that 2015 has been our best year to date sounds a little cliche’, it is a true statement! This past year has kept us bustling… each project has been filled with excitement and has pushed our creativity to new heights!

2015 began with a trip to Spartanburg, South Carolina, where we began our largest salvage project to date. We worked throughout the year saving architectural elements from a beautiful 10,000 square foot estate known as Bonhaven.

Come May, our attention turned to Southern Makers in Montgomery, Alabama. In it’s third year, 2015 saw Southern Makers expand to a 2 day festival and without a doubt, the best one yet! For SA, Southern Makers is like a huge family reunion as we get to collaborate and hang out with other artists throughout the state, many of whom have become like family.

This summer we took on a new project that took our creativity to new heights. We were asked by Mason plus Dixon to create the Garden & Gun Artist Lounge for Birmingham’s largest music festival, SlossFest. We transformed the interior of a large event tent into an amazing lounge that was a haven from the heat for the music artists during the weekend festival. The tent transformation, complete with salvage wood walls and arched church windows was nothing short of spectacular!

Fall rolled around and we were asked to create an artistic entrance for Chef Frank Stitt’s private party held in Florence, Alabama, as part of Billy Reid’s Shindig No. 7. We were given creative license on this project, so we designed and built a salvaged wood tunnel with an artistic twist!

In between our larger projects and events we have stayed very busy. We are extremely proud of all the custom jobs that we have taken on this past year. We have worked on custom jobs for McPhearson Oil, Yellow Hammer, Oven Bird Restaurant, Lyons Coffee Roasters, Mike Wolfe of American Pickers, and Billy Reid. We also designed and built a community table for Highland Village in Jackson, Mississippi. We hosted several events in our alley including a lunch for Senator Jeff Sessions, a black smith demonstration and a personal pizza making event for a group of first graders from East Elementary!

You can follow all of our projects via our social media accounts as well as our blog. If you are not following us, click on the links below and join us! We are looking ahead to another exciting year in 2016 and would not want you to miss a thing!!!