Sasha Duerr: Natural colors and the convergence of slow food and slow fashion
Sasha Duerr (@sashaduerr) is an artist and designer who works with plant-based palettes, natural dyes, and place-based recipes. She is the founder of Permacouture Institute and the author of Natural Color and The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes.
Her latest book, Natural Palettes, is a collection of color palettes and short essays that connect colors with particular landscapes, the restorative qualities of medicinal plants, common garden flora, lifestyle experiences, food and floral waste, and the ecological benefits of using organic materials to create colors.
In this podcast episode, Sasha sheds light on how the creative industry's obsession with Pantone's colors of the year reflects our dominant culture; the potential of medicinal plants, when used as dyes on our clothing, to aid in our healing and wellness; and more.
To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Sasha, and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne.
Musical feature: Trust The Sun by American Dream by Raye Zaragoza
“There is so much uniqueness in plant-based color. Some of the [attributes] of natural dyes or natural color that the industry looks at with disdain are actually inherently what make them beautiful.”
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This is a conversation on Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne, a podcast and multimedia journal illuminating our paths towards ecological regeneration, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all. This preview has been edited for clarity. Subscribe to Green Dreamer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app, and support Green Dreamer on Patreon so we can keep the show going and accessible to a wider audience!
On going beyond artificially ideated Pantone colors:
"When you look at a Pantone swatch, you might say, ‘here's the forest fern color.’ But if you were to actually create a dye bath with forest fern, you'd end up with an amber-pink, which is fascinating.
The Pantone aspect is this surface swatching, whereas working with plant dyes and color becomes this visibility of an inner working that we, as humans, may not get to see right away."
On appreciating plant-based colors:
"There is so much uniqueness in plant-based color. Some of the [attributes] of natural dyes or natural color that the industry looks at with disdain are actually inherently what make them beautiful."
Final words of wisdom:
"Start where you are. It's amazing to see what can happen just from that point."
