Environment

Caring for the environment is central to my practice. Natural dyes are biodegradable, gentle on the earth and generally pose far fewer environmental or health risks than synthetic dyes. Although natural dyeing does use mordants and modifiers — most of them food‑ or garden‑grade — the colours themselves break down safely, and the overall process has a lighter footprint than synthetic dyeing, which relies heavily on petrochemical‑derived chemicals. Both methods have their considerations, but natural dyeing is widely regarded as the more eco‑friendly approach.

And what is better than extracting colour from plants from your own surroundings, each producing something unique to your specific environment.

Where there is a less harmful chemical to use, I will always opt for that. For example, instead of using sodium hydrosulphite or thiourea dioxide for indigo dye vats which are sulphur based and release hydrogen sulphide, I prefer to use less noxious fructose-based vats. For dyeing plant fibres such as linen and cotton, I use aluminium lactate (GOTS compliant), a product made from lactic acid obtained by fermentation of renewable materials from the sugar/starch industry and sometimes I use aluminium acetate. I mostly use alum and tannins as mordants.

Yarn choice is focused on ethically-sourced yarns which are good to wear next to the skin. The superwash yarns used are treated at a UK mill accredited with the EU Flower and OEKO-TEX 100. This mill runs a state-of-the-art effluent treatment plant. The particular type of superwash wool used biodegrades very quickly in composting and marine environments breaking down very quickly to leave no residues.

Postage, packing and labelling materials are all sourced from recycled material wherever possible. Plastic is avoided.