Indigo Initiations from Seed to Cloth: The power of listening to plants with Justine Aldersey-Williams

The Plant Spirit Podcast with Sara Artemisia

#59 – Have you ever tried the ancient skill of listening to plants through your fingertips?
I loved connecting with botanical textile dyer Justine Aldersey-Williams on the initiatory journey she experienced while growing her own pair of jeans from seeds into cloth.
In this episode, Justine shares about her mythic field-to-fashion creation process and of being in a life of apprenticeship to the plants, specifically with the ancient indigo-blue plant called Woad. She offers wisdom on the global lore of Indigo and the sense of deep fulfillment that comes with reclaiming ancestral skills as a mindfulness practice. She also shares about the regenerative process of forming a local fibreshed and how the alchemy of working with natural textile dyes becomes an embodied experience of communication with the plants.
Justine Aldersey-Williams is a regenerative clothing activist, founder of the Northern England Fibreshed, and a botanical textile dyer and educator at The Wild Dyery. She recently made fashion history by producing the UK’s first pair of homegrown jeans - in the process capturing the imaginations of industry, media and consumers alike with her mythic field to fashion initiation story.
Her pioneering work intersects creativity, deep ecology and spirituality. As a lifelong meditator, Justine experiences clothing is an interface between our personal and planetary bodies that needs re-sanctifying. Her practice involves connecting to traditional wisdom and natural lore through the matrilineal textile crafts that transform seeds into cloth.
Nicknamed Woadica, she’s helping develop the commercial upscale of organic British indigo from the heritage plant source Woad with her soon to launch company Homegrown Colour. Her intent is to help fashion manufacturers divest from fossil fuels in favour of our botanical wisdom keepers so everyone can wear clothing that’s regenerating ecology, economy and society.
Find Justine at: https://naturalfabricdyeing.com/
On IG: https://www.instagram.com/thewilddyery/

For more info visit Sara's website at: https://www.multidimensionalnature.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/multidimensional.nature/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saraartemisia.ms/
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/plantspiritherbalism
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@saraartemisia
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Etsy: https://www.plantspiritdesigns.com
Learn how to communicate with plant consciousness in the free workshop on How to Learn Plant Language: https://www.learnplantlanguage.com/