Montana Fibershed - Connecting Montana Folks with Montana Fiber!

The concept of a “fibershed,” a term coined by Rebecca Burgess, and popularized in her 2019 book* of the same name, has spread all over the U.S. and the world. Like a watershed, which defines a catchment and drainage area for a given landscape, a fibershed is a geographically-defined area in which natural fiber resources are produced and then used by the people living within its boundaries. Montana Fibershed seeks to educate Montanans on the benefits of a place-based, local fiber system. A parallel concept to the local foods movement, this local cloth movement highlights the origins of our fiber and clothing. Just like our food, our natural-fiber clothing also comes from the land. We are working to connect our fiber producers, the farmers and ranchers, to our local designers, makers, businesses, and other end-users of Montana-raised natural fiber, and in so doing, to bolster the Montana textile economy and its supply chains, and to promote regenerative agricultural practices for healthy soils and a more balanced ecosystem across our great state.
*Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy, by Rebecca Burgess, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2019.

About the presenters:

Barb French is a maker with a life-long devotion to natural fibers who learned to sew and knit from her mother at a young age. MT Fibershed encompasses all of Barb’s interests, from the love of fiber and fashion, to the sustainable growth of Montana’s textile industry and the fascinating subject of regenerative agriculture within the fiber economy.

Helen Harris is a professional artist whose medium includes weaving, stitching, dyeing & mineral pigment painting. She holds BFA & MA degrees in Textile Design/Weaving/Mixed Media Art, from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL.

Registration Link: https://tinyurl.com/mtfibershed