You have mentioned the importance of connecting deeply with nature. How do envision the world if we could all be so connected with plants?

There are so many aspects and layers of this question. First of all, I believe that nature is a form of medicine for us. As soon as I step out into nature, I can feel my energy system being balanced, my stress and worries dissolve and I enter this deep state of grounding and connection with my essence. From there, I can hear my intuition clearly and I can let myself be guided to whichever plant is calling me. 

Working with botanical colors also opens up a questioning of how we use and consume our clothes. The natural colors are very vibrant, and I find something poetically beautiful in the mutability of the color, where it can change expression as it is used. Over time, the plant-dyed and printed textiles can be given new life by re-dyeing/printing them, supporting the idea of sustainability, slow fashion and the fact that things can have more than one life.

With that perspective I envision a world with more humans in balance, more humans connected deeply to their intuition and their purpose here on earth and more humans co-creating with nature in respectful ways.

What has your journey with plants taught you about yourself and human kind?

Actually I had to sit with the question in nature and the answer is that we have forgotten the balance between doing and being. Between inhaling and exhaling as a metaphor. We have been taught that productivity and growth is the only way to go, and that it must be at an endless and rapid pace- where everything is stretched to the limit in terms of resources on both the inner and outer planes. We have been taught from childhood that we need to be productive, that productivity is the only way to go, and if we pause, we'll be left behind or overtaken by the competitors. So we don't allow stillness and periods of pause or hibernation. We forget to exhale and if we take a look at nature's intelligent cycles, it shows us clearly that pauses between growth are important.

How do you find the balance between following the techniques and letting your creativity embrace experiment? 

That's a really good question. I think it's a dance between the two. The techniques are like the platform from which I go out and experiment. But in order to discover new things, I have to move away from the technique into unknown territory aka the experiment. The experiment can then influence the development of the technique and the cycle is closed - it really IS a dance.

What is the most important teaching you have received from the plants? 

The plants and their colors are WILDLY ALIVE AND VIBRANT, and have a soul of their own. They cannot and will not be controlled, and that has probably been the biggest lesson - to surrender and let go of control. When we are in a control state we often work from the brain, where we think we have the answers to EVERYTHING. When we are in that state we tend to shut down our intuition, our essence or the voice of the soul if you will. So we end up denying the part of us where our true wisdom is hidden. Most of us are trained to navigate a framework of right and wrong when it comes to learning. This means, for example, that it feels safe to follow recipes from a-z.

My thesis is that one of the things the plants and the natural colors teach us is to let go of control and start playing and experimenting. When we dare to play and experiment, we really open up our own creative power, and make room for something new to emerge.

Nature and the journey with the natural colors have shown me that there is something bigger than me, something I can't control. But I can interact with it, and I can co-create with it if I remember to listen to my intuitive guidance and be humble and respectful in the interaction. Through working with the plants and colors, I gain a relationship with nature and this also means an increased awareness of how to take care of it and show it respect. I feel on a deep level that I am a visitor when I am in nature. I don't own nature.

At the same time, nature is a very powerful mirror for us if we are open to it. I myself have become much more aware of the cycles of nature, how the different seasons affect the colors and how they are reflected in my own life too. It fascinates me deeply how nature repeatedly dissolves itself, gathers power back to the center, puts the sparks of new life into the seeds, goes into hibernation, transitioning into a new version in the next cycle. A super powerful mirror of our own life journey where we are constantly evolving, where parts of us "die" (we let go of something that is no longer needed) in order to arise in a new form.