Forging a rural career in sustainable textile design & education | Christi Johnson of Mixed Color & Stitch Wish in Sullivan County, NY
I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Christi Johnson, the textile artist, designer and educator behind Mixed Color and Stitch Wish in Sullivan County, New York. Christi left Los Angeles and a career in fashion design to learn the art of plant dyes at the Textile Arts Center in New York City. While she loved the community she found in New York, she yearned to reconnect with the natural world and have more space. Christi met her boyfriend at a dance class and shortly after they started dating he invited her to a friend's event in the Catskills. The moment she arrived, she knew she never wanted to leave. Christi and her boyfriend began their permanent move to Sullivan County first by housesitting a friend's place, then moving to a trailer on a farm and eventually saving enough money to buy a home. Christi brought her business Mixed Color with her and has evolved her practice and business model to be more inclusive and serve and inspire a wider customer base. Christi started Stitch Wish to make items that were more affordable and useful to her local community and to encourage people to experiment with embroidery and sewing. She runs her business out of her home studio space and grows a lot of the plants she uses in her dye baths. Christi story reminds me that we all can be more conscious consumers when it comes to our clothing. Instead of throwing things away or donating them, breathe new life into your garments. 84% of clothing ends up in landfills or incinerators, roughly 13 million tons of clothing is dumped every year in the U.S. Get creative with your clothes - sew them, dye them, alter them, make them uniquely yours. I encourage you to check out her online embroidery and clothing construction courses so you can feel more confident mending, making or altering your clothing. Christi's first book Mystical Stitches releasing in late June and is now available for preorder. You can follow Christi on Instagram @stitchwish @christijay @mixed_color You can find a link to Christi’s workshops, embroidery kits and photos of her designs on our blog by visiting urbanexodus.com.Support the showSign up for Apple Podcasts premium or our Patreon Membership for ad-free listening, rapid-fire guest interviews & our new mini-pod Ditch the City. urbanexodus.com | @theurbanexodus | buy the book