While she doesn’t knit or crochet, Amy DuFault has discovered a sense of making by putting colour on cloth. She’s been a journalist for decades and now evolved into a regenerative thinker and storyteller about farming, history, food, and textiles. Based on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, USA, Amy is used to working from home unless travelling and everything still feels normal right now until she leaves the house or reads news about the pandemic. I was due to visit Amy for my Churchill Fellowship study tour, but we made do with this ARISING from Disruption #13 conversation as a Virtual Churchill until overseas travel becomes possible again.
Amy says DIY is arising. “Many people are gardening, they want to grow their own food, make face masks or do natural dyeing. Everybody is doing things. I am patching things, working on a denim jacket with patches sewn on and it spurs on all kinds of ideas. I’ve written about this in a ‘Foraging for Self’ article in Taproot magazine. I can’t knit, I can’t crochet but I can do natural dyeing. Putting colour to cloth, you can be proud of yourself. This is my form of making. Now I am making things, my shirt is dyed from madder root and most of my wardrobe is naturally dyed right now.”
Tips: I want to say slow down but I am having a hard time doing it. Read poems, drink coffee, listen to morning birdsong. It is important to keep moving our bodies, to be quiet, to stretch and listen, to realise we are not the only person going through something.
Changes: I am hoping regional supply will become more important to people. I hope we look at our communities as support systems – for emotional support, for food and for fibre. There may be a massive push, after being told you can’t, for crazy shopping and to live life in excess as a form of rebellion.
Listen to Amy DuFault in conversation below, or read notes at the bottom.
What Amy Du Fault said:
While she doesn’t knit or crochet, Amy du Fault has discovered a sense of making by putting colour on cloth. She’s been a journalist for decades and now evolved into a regenerative thinker and storyteller about farming, history, food, and textiles.
Based on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, Amy is used to working from home unless travelling and everything feels normal right now until she leaves the house or reads news about the pandemic.
She works for two companies – as sustainability director for Botanical Colors in Seattle and communications director for TS Designs in North Carolina – and has lots of side jobs. “I work remotely, so working from home is nothing new. But the speed at which I’m working, I don’t have any pause in my day, I eat and work, and then crash. I’ve been using regenerative storytelling in fresh and positive ways for both businesses.”
Botanical Colors does wholesale natural dyes to leading production houses in United States and shares information through Feedback Friday sessions. “People are always writing in questions about how to mordant, how to make colour fast and we used to have a Friday blog post to cover that. When coronavirus hit, we realised it would be exciting to do a Live Feedback Fridays on Zoom. The first started with 35 people, the next was 90, then 150. For Sasha Duerr’s talk, we have 300 people. It is incredible that so many want to listen to someone talk about natural dyes. It’s on once a week – it is our free give back. I do the social media, promoting what people are doing in backyards and home studios. Our retail sales of natural dyes have gone up as more people are at home and want to make something – and that is beautiful to see.”
DIY is arising. “Many people are gardening, they want to grow their own food, make face masks or do natural dyeing. Everybody is doing things. I am patching things, working on a denim jacket with patches sewn on and it spurs on all kinds of ideas. I’m thinking about a new project for people to send me patches, like a chain letter. I did this once with a t-shirt – an Eileen Fisher t-shirt I had been given. I sent it all over the country to 20 friends and it came back to me as a dress and had so much creativity all over it – turquoise sewn on, people’s zip code, Natalie Chanin did the whole side of it, pockets, epaulettes and African wax cloth added to make a skirt. I’m thinking I will ask friends to send me a patch to put on my jacket. I currently am soliciting friends to send me garments to natural dye … I scour and mordant it and do whatever effect they want me to do such as tie dye, single colour, flower printing … “
Since starting out on her own at 19, Amy became a vegetarian for 10 years because grains cost less than meat. “I started educating myself. My journey into this was in not having a lot of money to buy clothing, which made me aware of being frugal in what I was buying and thrifting. I had to make do. I wanted to have new clothes and good food, so I just had to learn how to make it or utilize it best. I’ve written about this in a ‘Foraging for Self’ article in Taproot magazine. I can’t knit, I can’t crochet but I can do natural dyeing. Putting colour to cloth, you can be proud of yourself. This is my form of making. Now I am making things, my shirt is dyed from madder root and most of my wardrobe is naturally dyed right now.”
“In terms of food, I compost and we are good at not wasting food. Right now I am able to grow dye plants myself using soil out of compost and chicken poop, so I don’t have to go to the garden store for anything. In terms of clothing, my husband and I go to Goodwill, which is like going to a museum where my husband will buy albums and I find templates for natural dyeing. That helps me with my practice and is why I’m soliciting friends to send me things to keep dyeing and creating.’’
“In terms of my closet – we are not going to events and conferences so we are wearing what is comfortable. That makes me look at my wardrobe and shoes differently. I look at it and think about if I had to live like this for the rest of my life, what would I do differently? I have a small closet and love everything in it.”
“I get daily poems from Paris Review and a daily poem from Poets.org and I start my day reading and dive into storytelling for my clients and for Southeastern New England Fibershed. Three of us started our fibershed, which is part of the main Fibershed in northern California, to work from farmer to finished product. We talk about making good soil, carbon farming and sequestration. It is really about ‘do you want good dirt’ and finding places for honest and supportive conversations. We have a fibershed producers’ directory now and I am starting to see little supply chains here. I am working with Rhode Island School of Design Natural Lab on a series called The Common Thread: what is the common thread between an extinct bug, a farmer growing fibre and an industrial designer? We are working on a format like Feedback Friday for that.”
Tips: I want to say slow down but I am having a hard time doing it. Read poems, drink coffee, listen to morning birdsong. It is important to keep moving our bodies, to be quiet, to stretch and listen, to realise we are not the only person going through something.
Changes: I am hoping regional supply will become more important to people. For masks and robes, cut-and-sew manufacturing businesses have been making PPE for hospital workers. It has been amazing to see them pivot their businesses to accommodate a regional supply chain. Farmers are killing it right now – the farm I go to for vegetables has sold out on their CSAs for the season. I hope we look at our communities as support systems – for emotional support, for food and for fibre. There may be a massive push, after being told you can’t, for crazy shopping and to live life in excess as a form of rebellion. I did the Tailor Project five years back – no new clothing, jewelry or shoes for a year and instead I worked with a tailor to revamp my clothes. The first day back, the only place I wanted to go was Goodwill. There is going to be a push to revisit excess. The way we gather for conferences, symposiums, I want to gather again, and see facial expressions and body language. I want those moments to come back and hope we can find those special places again. I intend to do things differently, I want to continue making as much food as I have, rather than going out, and maybe manage time better.