Katrina Rodabaugh feels incredibly grateful for the one-acre of land in upstate New York that has become the whole world for her husband and two children as a place of shelter, nourishment and learning during this time of pandemic.
Her journey to this place was meandering. After agitating for an environmental studies major, working in art organisations in big cities, studying creative writing and beginning her slow fashion awakening, Katrina moved cross country to now be homesteading in the Hudson Valley where her work and life are holistically cocooned.
What began as a personal project called Make Mend Thrift in 2013 has evolved into an inspirational career of making, writing and teaching others about mending, slow fashion and sustainable living by sharing her values, experience and skills documented in her book Mending Matters.
“I am this hybrid of having informal training in fibre arts and folk art heritage from land-based practices a couple of generations ago … through to conceptual and community-based art … and now homesteading. It is this funny space of being from the urban world and the rural world as well.”
“It is meaningful and touching to work with the plants and the seasons, and expand my knowledge of plants that I can identify, and expand their uses, their place in the ecosystem … I am interested in the triple power plants – plants that are edible, medicinal and dye plants.’’
Her creative projects just now are ones she can pick up and put down, that can be interrupted around children. ‘’I can grab my knitting while doing home schooling and knit a few rows. Mending and plant dyes are good too. We are turning to the garden a lot, prepping our garden for spring, starting our seeds, pruning our trees.
Tips: There is just something really important and beautiful about a daily rhythm is, whether it is meditation, exercise, or creative practice – whatever that thing is we can show up to on a daily basis and see how it changes, that can really be meaningful and truly transformative. So I walk, I garden and I stitch, then I’m on the computer, then I’m trying to help my children.
Changes: My worry is there will be such an economic crisis, the focus will return to building the economy by any means necessary. The model of profit over people is how we got to this mess environmentally to begin with, by forgetting our limitations and core values of taking care of people and the planet. On the other hand, the incredible interest in baking, gardening, raising chickens, homesteading and handcrafting is powerful and meaningful for people, and I hope it has staying power because it is so important to sustainability.
Find out more about Katrina here, read full transcript below.
Full transcript of what Katrina Rodabaugh said: