Liz Spencer of Dogwood Dyer on growing organic natural dye gardens to coax color from plants & acknowledging the cultural origins of dyestuffs along the way

<p class="" data-pm-slice="1 1 []">In episode 299, Kestrel welcomes Liz Spencer, the natural dye wizard behind Dogwood Dyer, to the show. With experience in both tending organic natural dye gardens and coaxing color from plants, <a href= "https://www.thedogwooddyer.com" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Liz</a> has devoted her artistic practice to discovering as much as possible about color that can come from plants.</p> <p><strong>“That’s sort of the pathway to understanding — is having the time to be intimate with one thing in particular like indigo or any dye plant, especially if you’re growing your color, or even growing your own fiber — is spending a whole year just getting it to where you have the raw material, and then starting the process of creating the color or creating the textile. It really affords you ample time to ask many questions, and to holistically get to know it.” -Liz</strong></p> <p class="" data-pm-slice="1 1 []">Something that’s super important to me within this conversation is cultural sustainability – and ensuring we are acknowledging and respecting the roots of cultural traditions and craft techniques that have origins within many Black and Brown Indigenous communities. </p> <p class="">As many of you have heard my guests and myself talk about over the years – the mainstream sustainability movement has done a lot of stealing and co-opting of knowledge and ideas, without crediting where these concepts originated. </p> <p class="">Ever since I read an article by Nathalie Peña in Katie Pruett’s Ethical Style Journal, I instantly think of these realities with regard to natural dye techniques. </p> <p class="">For example – the dusty pink color, also known as millennial pink – that has been trending for the last several years has origins in Mexican culture, with the color being derived from avocado pits. But rarely do we hear this origin story from natural dyers or folks using these techniques in the space today.</p> <p class="">This week’s guest has a voracious curiosity when it comes to all