5.5a Bella Gonshorovitz, 'Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear'

Prompted by Nature

Action point: Earth Hero app. Download the app via your app store or go to their website for more information: https://www.earthhero.org/app/

A little apology for the tardiness of this episode. I was hit by a car whilst cycling to work last Thursday and it pushed everything back a bit. I’m ok with thankfully just bumps and bruises to recover from and the only thing that broke was my helmet - thank goodness for helmets!

I was thrilled to have been included in a list of the 7 best nature podcasts for wildlife enthusiasts on www.bestpodcasts.co.uk

Onto todays’ episode…

Bella Gonshorvitz is a multidisciplinary fashion practitioner, author, natural dyer and allotment plot grower. Her debut book ‘Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear – From seed to style the sustainable way’ was published this year by DK/Penguin Random House. The book captures her miniature circular economy process through the prism of five crops: grow-your-own and foraging advice; vegan recipes for the harvest; instructions to creating natural dye from the cooking waste and full-size patterns with sewing instructions to creating your own Onion dress, Nettle duster, Rhubarb bolero, Blackberry shirtdress and Cabbage shorts.

In this episode we discuss:

• How the book came about
• Her work in clothing design and (truly) sustainable fashion
• Making gowns for hospital staff during COVID
• The magic behind the book
• The importance of emotional connection with the clothes that we wear
• Connecting with the soil
• Community and unlikely friendships
• Composting as a creative process
• Tips for natural dye newbies

Bella’s book, as well as the book she mentions, Wild Colour by Jenny Dean, is available in the Prompted by Nature bookshop over on bookshop.org . Buying through bookshop.org is a great way of supporting the podcast as for ever order I get a little kick back, which helps me to create more of these episodes and lot more free content for you to enjoy!

Bella’s website is www.bellagonshorowitz.com and you can find her @bellagonshorovitz on social media.

A few episodes that would link well with this one:

1.11a Heal Rewilding, Jan Stannard

1.14a Supporting Local Economies through Land-Based Crafts, Karen Collins

2.4a Creative Sustainability and the Joy of Buying Less, Erica Purvis

2.10a Marchelle Farrell, My Garden, My Teacher

3.1a The Plant Scientist, Rebecca Lazarou

3.4a Holistic Sustainability, Grace Hull

3.5a The Timeless Wisdom of Plants, Barbara Wilkinson

Remember you can find me on www.promptedbynature.co.uk on Instagram @prompted.by.nature, where I’m currently adding more prompts and extracts of my own writing.

Happy listening!

Helen x