Outside and inside

I have been obsessed with dye plants native to North America. I also want to weave with North American fibers.

I started looking for yucca by the side of the highway, after Liz, my Lawrence, Kansas-based fiber teacher, taught me how to scrape off the green and make cordage from what's underneath.

On the car ride out of town, my stepfather mentioned there is a large yucca plant in our backyard.

I had been looking for it out there, and there it was. In the garden at home.

There is also a snake plant sitting next to our fireplace, full of fiber. It came from West Africa and has never been outside. There are cosmos and hibiscus in the backyard, excellent for dyeing.

What is actually out there, is in fact, in here.

Needle grass found in Colby, Kansas. It’s terrible for both dyeing and weaving.

The Color Landscape of a place

Inside certain plants, there is a color stickiness.

If you care to document the colors of a place.

It means what it meant at the Amazon Lodge, when someone gestured and out of nothing seen, there was a bird.

What does it mean that after a lifetime of looking at flowers, my stepfather picks up cosmos and sees that its petals might also tint washed-white wool.

Toxic red berries that previously didn't exist to us have a name. Pokeberries. They turn the pot a blood red.

We put the vinegar in first.

Pokeberries from Eudora, Kansas

Farm crown

You can wear a crown made from vines from your father's farm.
Why?
Because all of it is yours, too.

All the natural dyes from the plants.

All of the sumac leaves, goldenrods, osage oranges and black walnut.
In the words of David Whyte, everything is waiting for you.
Wear the crown.