Natural dyeing found me when I didn’t know I was looking for it.

It was early 2020. I was 29, home with twin babies and a five-year-old, closing in on my Saturn Return without knowing what that meant yet. I loved my children with everything I had — and I was also the most lost I had ever felt inside myself. Two things can exist at the same time. I was grateful and I was disappearing. None of my friends were in those years with me. I felt like I had no one who could understand what I was feeling.

And then I stumbled across someone dyeing with turmeric, and something cracked open.

I started with kitchen scraps: coffee grounds, onion skins, avocado pits, black beans. What began as curiosity became the thing that brought me back to life. Making something with my hands, watching color emerge from things most people throw away, moving slowly enough to actually feel something. It gave me a sense of purpose I didn’t know I had been missing.

Natural dyeing is an avenue to explore yourself through the natural resources that exist all around you.

The ability to go for a walk, forage wild plants, and come home with excitement to see what color they make..that’s real magic. Those of us who practice are wizards of this world. It lets you play like a child while bringing the care and attention of an adult who wants to do something that matters. The mix of science, foraging, exploration, and time as a necessary ingredient is a recipe that reminds you: moving slow to go fast is how you find your way back to yourself.

My father understood this before I could put words to it.

I dyed him a Carhartt shirt with cutch, and he wore it to every family gathering, proudly telling people I might have used potatoes. He wore it because it meant something. Because I had made it. The dirt still on the collar holds the days he lived in it. He is no longer here, and that shirt is one of the most sacred things I know.

He always showed the world how proud he was to be my father, and wearing that shirt was his way of showing it. He made me feel safe, secure, and loved unconditionally. That sense of pride and belonging..the feeling of being truly seen by someone who loves you, is what I hope to give to my community through this work.

I dye things because I don’t know how not to.

When I walk outside, I see plants and flowers and I immediately wonder what color they would give. When I thrift and find a beautiful garment with some imperfection, I think “this could be brought back to life.” The world rearranged itself for me the moment I put my hands in a dye pot for the first time. I haven’t seen it the same way since.

And I don’t want to.

Falling Off Trees is my way of sharing that. The craft, yes..but underneath it, the invitation. To slow down. To make something. To remember that you are connected to the earth and to each other. To feel, even for an afternoon with your hands in a dye pot, like you belong to something.

That is my philosophy. That is my why.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. Let’s create something beautiful together.

Warmly,
Korie