Seek Process: Story Embroidery

These products represent an idea I had years ago and really what I’ve always wanted Seek Collective to be about on some level. They themselves tell a story of how they are made and what made them. The blue and black are made from fabric created by first using natural dyes for the organic cotton yarn and then handloom weaving. The natural color is created from handloom weaving undyed organic cotton. The embroidery thread itself is naturally dyed organic cotton since I felt it. The buttons are corozo, which is a type of nut.

The start is where it always begins for me and Seek Collective: the sources. The blue color was achieved with one dip in the indigo vat. The black color came from first dyeing the fabric with myrobalan, which is a type of fruit, and a fermented mixture of jaggery and rusted metal.  Once the natural dyeing and weaving was underway for the fabric, I sketched out all the plants and metals used.

From there Barbar, our resident in house hand embroiderer extraordinaire, took to translating my artwork into embroidery on cloth. I want to take a moment here to speak to how wonderful Barbar is, not only for his incredible skill set but also because when I visit I always find him with his headphones on listening to music and he always flashes me the most wonderful smile.

Each shirt on the bottom of one side has embroidered words that tells you what the embroidery up top is of. On the back of the shirt “Seek” is embroidered because I believe the idea of seeking is important in life. You will go out into the world in these shirts essentially seeking out what each has in store for you.

These shirts are extraordinarily special garments to be worn, to ignite conversations about what goes into creating a garment, to make you feel good, and to be loved. They are unisex and meant for everyone and anyone. Please go out the world to spark conversations and dialogues over how your clothes were made 

Shop the Page shirts with story embroidery: here