Episode 069: Preserving Natural Dyeing Traditions with Kristine Vejar

This week Felicia chats with one of her personal heroes in the world of hand-crafted colour: Kristine Vejar. Kristine is a natural dyer, teacher, owner of A Verb for Keeping Warm and the author of The Modern Natural Dyer. She is also the founder of many thoughtful projects including The Seam Allowance and The California Wool Project.

Please join us this week as Felicia and Kristine discuss Kristine’s rich and fascinating journey through textiles, yarn, and colour.

[smart_track_player url=”https://traffic.libsyn.com/sweetgeorgia/069_Preserving_Natural_Dyeing_Traditions_with_Kristine_Vejar.mp3″ title=”Episode 069: Preserving Natural Dyeing Traditions with Kristine Vejar” artist=”The SweetGeorgia Show // Felicia Lo” social=”true” social_twitter=”true” social_facebook=”true” social_gplus=”true” social_pinterest=”true” social_email=”true” ]

On meeting natural dyers all over the world: “It’s incredible how similar we all are… It gives… my heart so much solace to know that transcending language or religion or political structure… That those who choose… natural dyeing are so similar… The desire to go and look at natural materials and to see how they work and how they function in terms of colour upon fiber and then making something… They’re all passion projects of this connection that’s almost indescribable that you feel compelled to do.” — Kristine Vejar

In this episode, we talk about:

• 1:24 How Kristine got into natural dyeing and created A Verb for Keeping Warm
• 9:26 Describing the set up of the studio at A Verb for Keeping Warm in Oakland, California
• 11:42 Felicia asks Kristine how she learned natural dyeing
• 13:29 Discussing the difficulty of doing natural dyeing on a large scale and the issues that come with natural dyes like colour consistency
• 19:57 Felicia and Kristine chat about Kristine’s book: The Modern Natural Dyer and the challenges that came with creating it
• 27:57 Felicia asks Kristine what she learned on her trips to Iceland, Indonesia, Oaxaca, and Japan
• 34:16 What Kristine plans to do with all her natural dyeing research
• 36:38 Discussing the “universal truth” of makers around the world
• 39:33 Kristine discusses the keynote address she gave in June 2017 at the Flag and Wool Fiber Festival
• 44:08 Felicia and Kristine discuss what the value of the things we make
• 47:35 Where to find Kristine online
• 49:25 Felicia’s final notes and podcast giveaway!

Links and Things

Here’s where to find Kristine online:

• Website: www.averbforkeepingwarm.com – Sign up for the monthly newsletter to keep up with all the happenings at Verb!
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/avfkw
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/avfkw
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/avfkw
• Creativebug: www.creativebug.com/instructors/a-verb-for-keeping-warm

Podcast Giveaway!

Win all 6 patterns from Holidays with SweetGeorgia Vol.3! Simply enter your info here and we’ll enter you in the giveaway and also subscribe you to our SweetGeorgia updates, so you won’t miss out on any of our updates! Happy Holidays from our family to yours.

Please Join us Online at the Newly-Launched School of SweetGeorgia!

If you’d like to try your hand at dyeing yarn, consider checking out Dyeing Intentional Colour: a class in the essentials of precision immersion dyeing with acid dyes featured on the School of SweetGeorgia website!

Thanks for Listening!

Thank you so much for joining me this episode! If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your fellow knitting friends. And if you like what I’m doing here, please leave a rating and review on iTunes for the show. I read each and every email and bit of feedback, whether it’s on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, so I welcome your comments.

Thank you so much Kristine for joining us on the show!

Music Credits:

The Young and Beautiful – by Ivory Hours
Fallin’ – by Jetty Rae (on Noise Trade)

Click to subscribe on iTunes

Subscribe on Stitcher Radio