Hi Everyone,

I am mailing the patch and mirror awards tomorrow, so if you are getting one of those and don't receive it after a week or so, please let me know.

I am still in the process of making the totes and scarves, so thanks for your patience on those. I hope to get them out in the next 4 weeks. I'll let you know when they ship.

I've been busy dying the fabrics for the After School Matters high school program, and they turned out great. I'll post some pics of their work when they are finished.

And I'll be moving my whole natural dye operation to the west coast in a few months! I've accepted a faculty position at the Art Institute of California in LA. It will be a perfect compliment for my natural dye business in many ways.

Thanks again!

Jane

Hi Everyone!

Thanks to all of you who pledged towards this dream. We did it!

The funding cycle will be over tonight at midnight, but I have already reached my goal with your incredible support.

I am guessing that I will have all of your email addresses after the funding cycle ends so I can start to talk to all of you about the gifts. I have already dyed the patches and they look great. I'm in the process of sampling some totes for you to choose from, and am sewing the scarves and rest of the totes. I am excited to be able to give back and send out the items.

For those of you that I get to dye something custom, start dreaming and let me know! Some examples are duvet covers, pillow covers, shower curtains, a few yards of fabric for your own garment or project...

In my life, I've been continuing to dye for Frei Designs in Chicago, have heard from several other amazing designers that I'm hoping to sample and do production for, have been playing and experimenting with dye to learn more and more about this craft, will be dying the shibori and yardage for the Chicago teen fashion class and have been really happy.

Thank you so much again! I'll be in touch later this week.

Big heart and xo to all of you,

Jane

Hi Everyone!

I can't believe that my goal is 98% complete! I am so grateful and thankful to all the support.

This week I taught an After School Matters class downtown. This program is run by the city and it's for Chicago high school students interested in the arts. They get to choose between music, pottery, fashion, painting and a whole bunch of other classes to learn real skills and try it out. They also get paid for their time in the class!

I taught a group of 21 students in the fashion class. Each student received some yardage of undyed, 100% cotton. They then designed their own textiles using Shibori pattern methods. We will naturally dye the fabric next week either purple or charcoal grey--their choice. They will make their garments and have a fashion show at the Museum of Contemporary Art with their shibori/naturally dyed textiles in April!

They were a great group of kids. Many of them didn't even take their 15 minute break because they were having so much fun. I can't wait to see what they make.

I have also been busy making as many color swatches as I can for prospective clients. It's been a really fun process that I'm learning tons from.

Thanks again!! This is so exciting.

Jane

Hello!
It's been a great time for natural dyes and my project recently. Kickstarter has been a pretty amazing platform to not only raise money for this project, but to also get the word out to other designers who have been looking for something like this. Yay! Thanks Kickstarter!

Coming up...

I will be teaching a natural dye class to twenty budding teenage fashion designers through the After School Matters Program in Chicago in the next few weeks. They are going to learn the importance of natural dye, along with some Shibori techniques to create patterns. We will then dye their fabrics for their next project. Fun!

I also want to update everyone about Maresa Patterson's dress for her StellaLove line. The dress we created fabrics for is named elizabeth on the stellalove.com website. You can also see it here!

We did two colors, logwood grey and a charcoal, that she mixed into a two-tone dress. It's really wearable but also totally unique. I love the big pockets. Check her out!

Thanks so much to everyone who has pledged to this project. I can't believe the support!

xo,
Jane

Here are Annie's dresses dipped in Indigo and drying. They look beautiful!

She'll be sewing in the zippers and finishing the arm holes this week, steaming them and then off they go to stores around the country.

Next on deck is Maresa Patterson's new project stellalove.com. She is making gorgeous dresses with our fabrics dyed in logwood grey, pomegranate, walnuts and myrobalan. I'll post pics later this week!

xo,
Jane

Thank you to everyone who has already pledged for my project. I can't believe it and am so honored to receive your help and support. I can't wait to return the favor by giving back.

I also wanted to say that I just picked up an order last night for indigo dyed dresses for Frei Designs.
http://www.freidesigns.com/index.html

Annie, designer of Frei, makes beautiful, urban and stylish garments and owns the really quite amazing boutique, Workshop, at 18th and Halsted in Chicago. Stop by if you get a chance. I'll be dropping off the indigo dresses later this week and will post a pic soon.

Indigo is one of my favorite dyes. The dye bath is a bright yellow/green color. After the fabric has been immersed, it comes out of the bath yellow and slowly starts to turn blue through oxidation. It's like watching a magic show, or a photographic process. The fabric is dipped many times, say 12 times, over as many days to achieve a dark blue color. It's beautiful.

Thanks again and I'll be updating as we go!

Jane