Thurgood Marshall Mask by Cotton Blocks

We are creative platform connecting textiles and technology to offer unique products that celebrate, educate, and uplift the people, places, and events of the Black American experience.

Our flagship offering features handmade masks - crafted with Ankara textiles we carefully selected and carried from Ghana - that commemorate the lives and influence of prominent Black Americans. 

Cotton Blocks founder, Michelle Felder, has long felt the call to create a platform dedicated to honoring and uplifting the Black American experience — she just never knew that a pilgrimage to Ghana and a global pandemic would be the catalysts to bring it to life. After more than a decade as the Creative Genius & CEO of an event planning company, in the spring of 2020, Michelle found herself facing a future without events and with reams of Ankara textiles she purchased in Ghana the year before. An entrepreneur at heart, Michelle saw more than an opportunity to start a business, but one to tap into the change happening all around the world: her masks would showcase African beauty, establish a direct line to artisans there through curated, handmade textiles, and educate Americans about the Black activists, artists, and thinkers who shaped us. 

And although she comes from a long line of seamstresses, Michelle had never sewn a single stitch in her life. She relied on her aunt’s expertise to teach her over YouTube and Whatsapp, and in short order, she started producing and selling her handmade masks on Facebook. Michelle launched Cottonblocks.com on Juneteenth 2020 , with her masks quickly selling out across the country. Now, Michelle plans to continue expanding and uplifting Black people, places, and events through a growing line of products and artisan partnerships.