Slow Grown - Plants, Folklore and Natural Dyeing

By Ciara Callaghan

Women, witches, and healers throughout time have practiced dyeing out of necessity and joy, and passed down the sacred knowledge to their children. These women are honored through the pages of this zine - the women who taught us how to deliver our babies, to use herbs as medicines, to cook, spin, sew, and dye.

It features 8 dye recipes available to any forager, alongside their accompanying folklore. Including oak, apple, and elder, this zine will teach readers the basics of natural dyeing with local and readily available ingredients, thereby helping in saving the ancient practice of coloring cloth.

Ciara Callaghan is an artist based in the UK working primarily in textiles. Through her research and practice in dyeing, embroidery, and quilt-making, Ciara explores the role of heritage craft in contemporary culture, feminism and the interrelation between object and owner. She is interested in themes of place-making and belonging; the importance of hyper local colour and textile objects in relation to place.

Established in 2019 by Laura Moseley (she/they), Common Threads Press is a small press that specializes in radical histories of crafts and making. Based in Norwich, England, they publish zines, deliver workshops, and curate events that uplift the work of women, queer folk and POC through the histories of their creative work. Common Threads publications are written collaboratively with early-career researchers, students and academics from all around the world, who share a love and interest in craft histories.

Common Threads Press, 2022, softcover, 8 3/8 x  5 7/8 inches, 20 pages.