My regenerative dye garden is where everything begins.

It’s where I grow many of the plants I use to dye my clothing with indigo, marigolds, and coreopsis among them. The garden is my creative space.

It’s where I feel connected, inspired, and grounded in the rhythms of the earth.

But the dye plants I grow aren’t the only source of color. The land surrounding our home is rich with wild color. Some of these include willow, sumac, nettle and beautiful old trees growing along the edges of the property, offering tannin-rich dyes. I work with what grows here, both cultivated and wild, in conversation with the land itself.

I don’t choose to stop dyeing in the winter, it just becomes too cold for me. When the seasons shift, I can no longer wash, mordant and dye clothing outside by hand. I make as much as I can when the plants are blooming and the earth is warm enough to hold the work. Some years, just in the warmer months alone, I have dyed over 300 garments, one by one- using multiple outdoor dye pots. It’s extremely laborious to work this way, physically demanding and all-consuming.

But I remind myself: in winter, I can rest.

Like the garden, I go dormant. The colder months offer a time to reset, to slow down, and to focus on new clothing designs and fiber art.

The land leads, and I follow.