An Invitation to Explore
The Chesapeake Fibershed is looking to explore in community an earth centered practice
of finding colors for our textiles from within in our landscape.
Our intent is to open our dialog and the beginning of a series of invitations and forays into
the colors of our local landscape. Our journeys will take a seasonal tone in that we plan
to explore our relationships with three to four plants a season. From these explorations
we hope to develop color palettes and to cultivate understandings of the history and
potential of the plants and minerals in our fibershed. We welcome community
conversations and hope to create a platform to share ideas and inspirations.
How do you relate to your landscape and to the earth? What is your relationship to the
plants and minerals around you, and in our extended fibershed? It is through natural
dyeing that many of us have the opportunity to experience deeper relationships to the
earth and its seasonal shifts. Through our experiences with plants we discover not just
the release of colors, but also a greater awareness of place and a sense of belonging
and being in conversation with the living landscape of our local spaces. The gift of the
practice of natural dyeing, the release of color and medicine in our fibers, brings a wealth
of complex and wondrous hues, healing gestures and alternatives to dye systems which
continue to cause significant harm to our planet.
In the spirit of conversation, plants invite us to think beyond the recipe, towards the
deepening of a relationship to the processes of natural dyeing. In thinking about harvest,
whether from our own cultivated gardens, or wilder fields and forgotten spaces, we have
opportunities to think beyond what we can gain in inspiration and color, towards what we
can give back through connection, mindful tending, sustainable foraging practices and
appreciation. In this way, we are not just asking of plants and earth minerals, what can
you give and bring, but we are asking of ourselves too what can we bring, give, and how
we can be in relationship to the place, the earth and to the planet. At the very least, to be
open to seeing and responding to the plants around us we are entering into a different
kind of dialogue, that of being in community with the earth. In this way of working, of
appreciation and acknowledging, we enter the spirit of reciprocity, a concept used in the
writings of Robin Wall Kimmerer* to help draw focus and attention to our relationship to
the natural world through the philosophy of Indigenous peoples.
Where do we begin in our personal journeys with plants as a dye source? For those just
beginning their explorations we have posted a resource list of some of our favorite dye
books, as well as a list of places to purchase plants and seeds. It is our hope that we will
find ways to share our experiences and to grow, collectively a sense of the identity of
this place and its history through our stories and practices as well as exploring the colors,
traditions and histories of the plants we chose to grow and invite to our cultivated spaces.
We recognize that in working with plants we are always learning and, ultimately, every
experience, every harvest, and encounter is unique. That said, we have access to careful
notes from many wonderful experienced natural dyers who can help shape our own
personal work and give us the clues towards developing our own color palettes.
*reciprocity as a concept in relation to the earth is a shared concern. The writings of
Robin Wall Kimmerer have truly helped to draw focus and attention to these themes
through her book Braiding Sweetgrass.
READ ABOUT DYEING WITH HOPI SUNFLOWERS
READ ABOUT DYEING WITH GOLDENROD
READ ABOUT DYEING WITH PLUM LEAVES
READ ABOUT DYEING WITH BLACK WALNUT
READ ABOUT DYEING WITH POKEBERRY
READ ABOUT DYEING WITH MARIGOLD