Hi friends, my name is Heidi. I'm originally from the Midwest, where I grew up on a farm near a small town in Northwest Iowa. I studied ceramics, sculpture, and printmaking at the University of South Dakota before moving to Northern California 20 years ago. I now live on the ancestral lands of the Native American Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo tribes in West Sonoma County in Northern California. I'm a textile artist, teacher, natural dye advocate, and founding member of Fibershed (a nonprofit organization that develops regional fiber systems that build ecosystem and community health.) I've spent the last 15 years living in a tiny redwood forest with my husband, two ridiculous cats, a family of foxes, and myriad wildlife. I first discovered natural dyes in 2010, when Rebecca Burgess approached me to design knitting patterns for her natural dye book Harvesting Color. Working with botanically dyed natural fibers and seeing the beautiful colors made from plants gathered from the surrounding landscape sparked my curiosity, and my journey with plant dyes began.

Fast-forward to 2019, when I began teaching mending and slow stitching. It was then that I found a way to incorporate my love of natural dyes and plant lore into my art practice, and began hand-dyeing fabric and thread. Botanical dyes and Plant Magick both involve working with the natural world and embracing its beautiful, ever-changing, mercurial ways. They fill the gap between craft, art, and science for me--it's the alchemy of the unexplainable. When the pandemic hit in 2020 and our regional lockdown "Shelter in Place" began, I decided to use my time exploring plants and the colors they make, with the intent to create textile art and clothing with my experiments and discoveries. During this time, California experienced an exceptional drought and three consecutive years of wildfires. The impact of this was not only visible on the landscape, but also in the colors the plants and trees were making. After two years of wet winters and significantly fewer fires, I've found that I can no longer reproduce some of those colors.

Instead I have discovered new colors and found more plants to befriend. I have an ever-growing respect for land and plants, as well as their beautiful, everchanging, mercurial ways. I also teach natural dye and slow stitching workshops in Northern California. I enjoy sharing my knowledge of natural dyeing, Plant Magick, mending/darning, and patchwork, with a focus on minimum-waste practices. I am happiest outside, gathering madrone bark, acorns, and oak galls and experimenting with plants for dyeing. Having the privilege of writing a book and sharing my knowledge of natural dyeing has been an incredible experience. My approach to creating color is to emphasize intent over perfection, and I hope after reading it, your love and curiosity for the land and plants that surround you grows. Remember that coaxing colors from plants requires practice, experimentation, and embracing mistakes as opportunities to learn.