Lynne Gavin is a natural dye resource: an advocate for natural color, teaching classes, and growing dye plants. Lynne sells one of a kind pieces of apparel both up cycled and new, homewares and accessories, each hand dyed and constructed in Richmond, Vermont. Lynne's specialties include botanically printed textiles, indigo shibori to plant dyed cottons, silks, wool and linen.

The origin story
of my practice.

A first love of mine has always been growing and working with plants. I’ve had a deep connection to plants from an early age, when I started weeding and tending to an elderly neighbor’s garden in my early adolescent years. Then I went on to growing veggie starts in our family basement under lights as a teenager and planting gardens at my parents home until I moved out. I went on to plant and grow vegetables, herbs, both culinary and medicinal, edibles and perennials, along with growing various indoor plants throughout my adult life.

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For many years while my kids were growing up I made all natural soap, using botanicals and medicinal plants, selling at our local farmers market. I still make soap, but only a limited amount. In 2012 I was looking for a part time job. As fate would have it, we belonged to a CSA at a local organic farm and nursery, Arcana Greenhouses and Gardens and at that time they needed help working with perennial plants. I’m very thankful to have had a job working with plants that afforded me the flexibility to be at home as needed. It also fostered my love and knowledge of plants and importance of growing organically from seed to harvest. I have always been supported in my natural dyeing journey at Arcana. 

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I became interested in natural dyeing after my daughter, Annamarie completed an internship in Chiang Rai, Thailand through the Mae Fah Luang Foundation. She came home with beautiful hand woven and natural dyed textiles I couldn’t help but love. She also had signed up shortly after coming home in 2018, to receive Japanese indigo plant cuttings from Graham Keegan at the generator space in Burlington, When they were ready to be picked up, she was out of town so I went to pick them up for her! 💙💙💙 We planted them in a garden box at Arcana. I didn’t know much about growing or harvesting Japanese indigo for pigment extraction, but I was eager to learn. I found the Facebook group, Indigo Pigment Extraction Methods founded by Brit Boles and began to learn how to extract indigo. I became hooked and now I love 💙 everything about indigo.

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My love for botanical printing came after when I became enamored with Jennifer Johnson's printed silk scarves. I’ve learned the art of botanical printing from many hours of practice and online workshops. A continued learning process. 

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I’ve been practicing some sort of fiber arts from my early teens thru adulthood. From needle work to weaving to knitting and sewing. As you can see from my post I have many interests and have a hard time focusing on just one aspect of my craft!

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I’m an introvert by nature. Born in the height of summer and I feel my best in summer. I do enjoy meeting and talking to people about plants, natural dyeing, botanical printing and fiber arts. I consider myself a maker and crafter. Not an artist per se, though I do make wearable art. I enjoy the process of making and crafting new textiles and plant related projects. I’m not a social media enthusiast so sharing this is energetically difficult, exhausting and time consuming. I’d rather be spending the time and energy on a project! I’m always too absorbed in my projects to remember to take process photos! I hope to get better at this.
 

I do greatly appreciate the inspiration, creativity, and support of the natural dyeing community. And to Liz Spencer, The Dogwood Dyer, for her Year in Natural Dyes monthly subscription. I always learn something new and find inspiration! ❤️❤️❤️

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Thank you for joining me on my continuous journey of learning, creating and sharing. 💙