With experience tending organic natural dye gardens nestled between rows of a family heritage orange grove in southern California, the urban sidewalks of Brooklyn New York, and in the tradition of an English community garden in London, Liz Spencer has devoted an artistic practice to her insatiable curiosity of coaxing color from plants.

She grew up watching the Carolina dogwoods bloom each spring, and their arrival each year signified the beginning of a new season of color and life. After time in the Carolinas, Massachusetts, Oregon & Washington states as well as the South of France & the UK, she now splits her time between Southern California and New York City teaching with the ambition to increase sustainable literacy & practices in the fashion and textiles industries.

She holds a BA from Linfield College & an MA from the famed sustainable fashion program at the London College of Fashion. She has taught fashion, sustainability, and natural dyeing at Parsons the New School and continually teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She was a venture fellow at the Brooklyn Fashion and Design Accelerator (BF+DA) and an intern in the inaugural year of the Sewing Seeds Program at The Textile Arts Center.

 
 

photos by Terri Bocko

Alongside years of experience foraging, growing & processing natural dye plants, Liz has also spent time fiber farming with sheep, alpacas, llamas and goats. This work taught her much about the importance of the links between a balanced environment, happy animals, thriving farmers & resilient local economies.

Liz is now finding a new rhythm by the ocean in Oceanside, CA.

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