The Textile Atlas is an accessible digital knowledge platform that presents traditional textiles through local and global perspectives, highlighting artisan’s voices/practices and encouraging creative connections within the field of interest. Launched by Sharon Tsang-de Lyster of Narrative Made in 2017, The Textile Atlas takes on a holistic approach by incorporating field experience in both the private and public sectors, bridging the gap between local artisans, academia, and design businesses to enable new opportunities and articulate meaningful relationships based on unique cultural resources.

Since its initial launch, The Textile Atlas has been awarded the Design For Asia Grand Award 2018 and Grand Award for Culture 2018. It has been listed as resource platform by the British Council, the Oriental Rugs and Textile Society, ASEFCulture360, and featured on international publications including WGSN, Design Anthology, Evoked and more. The platform has connected dozens of designers, craftsmen, collectors, curators, cultural institutions and fashion brands.

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Kutch, India, 2024: An educational tour with Judy Frater. Focusing on exchanges with graduates from Somaiya Kala Vidya, the first design school for artisans, and visits to other renowned artisans in the region, the trip effectively mapped the strengths and challenges of artisan communities and provided opportunities for future cross-border collaborations.

Ladakh, India, 2022-2023: A baseline research was conducted on the social and cultural practices in a nomadic community. The trips laid the groundwork for the founding of an upcoming non-profit organisation and youth fellowship.

Bolga, Ghana, 2019: For a private client. The project investigates the Bolga basket weaving landscape and the possibilities for value-adding partnerships and design innovations. In collaboration with representatives of the Kufuor Scholars' Program, the trip covered topics such as artisan pay scales, material sustainability, product innovations, social and economic development, working relationships with local social structures and entrepreneurship training. The project kick-started a series of product testing and is expected to continue with local engagements.

Rare Thread, London, 2019: A photo-elicitation and a knowledge transmission experiment at weaving studio, Rare Thread. It was carried out with a mission to discover how weavers (and artisan at large) may respond to seeing the documentation of their bodily involvement in the textile-making process and how they would communicate crafts with the relevant materials available. The project revealed the weaver’s awareness and language use in communicating embodied knowledge, the various perspectives on the before (producing) and after (produced) lives of the textiles, and the roles of bodily movements in craft knowledge transmission. Most importantly, it highlighted how the understanding and presentation of bodily knowledge in the making process may contribute to the perceived value of crafts by the makers and viewers. The experiment aims to contribute to studies of how to better credit artisans in relation to intellectual property rights in both educational and commercial contexts.

Oaxaca, Mexico, 2018: Participated as a China representative at Garland’s Global Pathways of Craft Today Forum. Organised by Valeria Florescano, the programme was filled with field visits and exchanges from artisans, designers and artists across Mexico and aboard. It was a chance to learn about the Zapotec values that underlined their mesmerising crafts, and particularly its place in the world today. From the lives of rug weavers, embroiderers, dyers, glassmiths and potters, visits to the ruins of Atzompa and the national archives, to the celebrations of El Día de los Muertos with the families of local craftsmen, it was a priceless exchange and visioning time for the future of Oaxacan crafts, which gives great inspirations for the cultures around the world. Read more about it here.

The Craft Cities is a network of cities worldwide launched by the World Crafts Council (WCC) in the framework of the creative economy and in response to the growing awareness of the contribution of local authorities, craftspeople and communities to cultural, economic and social development.

A Craft Cities Map was developed by Narrative Made for the WCC to visualise the network’s geographical distribution and strengthen the community.

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Sojourner Collection, 2016: Sojourner is a collection that appreciates the sojourners of our world, in collaboration with Indonesian brand SukkhaCitta. Today where division strives, we call for kindness. We call for the embrace of differences and diversity - the sojourners, the ones from a different culture and background, the ones with a different habit, a different language, diet, or prayer routine. Inspired by the generous posture of harvesters instead of picking up dropped grains they leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among them, it voices the idea that abundance should be shared. The collection features natural indigo dye and hand-drawn batik from the hilly mountain village of Jlamprang in Central Java of Indonesia. Its profit goes towards funding the building of a new workshop in the village.

Home Craft Collection, 2015: Narrative Made features heritage handmade crafts and naturally dyed materials from around Asia with a mission to preserve heritage crafts and produce clothing that empowers the marginalised artisans and their communities. Home Craft, a collection that brings you the hidden crafts normally found in the backyard of a talented craftsman. The collection includes unique fabrications from handwoven, hand-pleated and double-sided embroidery from the Miao people in China, as well as hand quilting, natural dyed and shibori dyed silk and cotton from Bangladesh. Colour ranges from black, dark indigo to madder red and betel nut.