Meeting

I had a meeting with Laura Chenoweth today. She has a self named line of natural dyed organic cotton clothing based out of the north end of Halifax. A few places in Halifax carry her work and she has a shop/studio. She was telling me how she has people in India hand block print, screen print or dye her clothing with natural pigments and dyes and are produced there, and she sells them here. If anyone is interested, her website is laurachenoweth.com.

Some of Laura's designs, a natural dyed hand block printed organic cotton dress. Find it Here

Some organic and natural dye facts for all you cool kids out there

-a teacup of pesticides is being used for every tshirt you own
-24% of insecticides are used on cotton crops
-the water table in India is being very contaminated by the switch from natural plant based dyes to synthetic dyes from consumer demand
-you can get nearly any colour with a natural dye that you can with a synthetic dye, with the exception of hilighter neons. to show this, here are some silk samples i've done in various natural dyes. I try to do as much dye work as i can in natural dyes.

purple madder and vinegar, curry and alum, madder and curry and alum, cochineal, 

onion skins and vinegar, curry and black tea and alum, madder and alum, purple logwood and alum,

 some of my natural dye work from NSCAD University's annual wearable Art Show

As consumers of fashion, educating yourself about what you are buying is very important. A lot of people are unaware that the textiles industry is one of the largest pollutants in the world. If the consumer demands change in process, change may happen. Here are some links for more information about sustainable textiles.

Wikipedia article about sustainable fashion

Ecotextiles is a magazine about sustainable textile issues 

An article of the most sustainable fabrics

This is one of my own posts about dying a dress grey with pomegranate skins