Story by Caroline Spurgin, photography by Alycia Lang. Full Belly is a farm of divine splendor. As the name suggests, it is a wholesome place, pregnant with happiness, abundance and good health. Walking down the long rows of bright produce bursting from well cultivated soil, the iniquity of our world seems to dissipate and is replaced […]
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A lifelong love of fiber arts
Photography by Paige Green Colleen Simon has enjoyed an interest in fiber arts for as long as she can remember. She learned to knit as a child growing up in Minnesota, and recalls with fondness how she was intrigued by the spinning wheel in her mom’s attic. Today she owns a richly colored flock of ten ewes (CVM, CVM-Romeldale, […]
Read MoreSonrisa Family Farms — The New Kids on the Block
By Caroline Spurgin / Photos by Alycia Lang Lisa Colorado is one of those people with such tangible conviction it all but glints in the sun. She is an activist, philosopher, academic, wife, mother, permaculturist and, most recently, small-time rancher. She has five Angora goats and two Romney sheep, together comprising her fiber program which is in […]
Read MoreAma Wertz — Weaving without Limits
Story by Jess Daniels / photos by Alycia Lang In an ecosystem, a limiting factor puts pressure on a population, eventually leading to adaptation. For Fibershed artisan and weaver Ama Wertz, limiting her materials to Fibershed-sourced yarns and natural dyes has been a welcome pressure that fuels her design process and builds community. Many tapestry […]
Read MoreWelcome to the Borderlands
Story by Caroline Spurgin, photography by Alycia Lang. The air at Mimi Luebbermann’s farm hums with organic magic. We arrive at Windrush Farm under a rainbow relinquished by the early morning showers that left the earth damp and the air fresh. Purpled mustard greens poke up out of the grass around stoops and sidewalks, opalescent […]
Read MoreCooperatives & the Next Clothing Industry
Text and photographs by Jess Daniels, unless otherwise credited. Three simple words: Made In _________. This phrase, adorning nearly every item of clothing in our closets, is a frustratingly simple explanation of garment manufacturing. In fact, the sweater I’m wearing as I type this offers multilingual instructions for washing and drying, but offers nothing about […]
Read MoreKentucky Hemp
Thanks to grants from Patagonia’s Environmental Grants program and the Blackie Foundation, Fibershed has been in collaboration with various organizations to support the raw plant processing and cloth creation processes for this historic project. On June 1st of 2014, the fields of Eastern Kentucky became the site of a healing return of veterans and an […]
Read MoreFrom Sheep to Shop
Photos by Paige Green Jackie Post is living the fiber lover’s dream at her farm in Vacaville, California, where she settled around four years ago with her husband Leonard, who works as a scientist, but grew up on a farm in Michigan and raised sheep in 4H. The flock consists of 18 sheep of varying breeds (Shetland, Jacob, Navajo-Churro, Karakul, Herdwick and […]
Read MoreFibershed’s Colorado Hemp Research Project
Fiber systems are best designed to minimize detrimental impacts on the biosphere, and to enhance ecosystem function where possible. Fibershed has chosen to research the use of industrial hemp as a fiber crop because it fits both of these criteria. Background Fibershed worked during the summer and fall of 2013 to prepare for a 2014 research crop in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. […]
Read MoreBarinaga Ranch — Inspired by Ancestral Traditions
Overlooking Tomales Bay, in the hills above the small town of Marshall, lies Barinaga Ranch. This special place in the Marin countryside grew out of a vision inspired by Basque ancestors and plenty of hard work by Fibershed producer member Marcia Barinaga and her husband Corey Goodman, a neuroscientist and biotech entrepreneur. The Barinaga family […]
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