From the studio No.42

It's July and the dye garden is bursting with fecundity - of both plants and ideas.

Here’s a very short video of part of the regenerative natural dye, food and medicine garden, it forms a part of the forest garden.

Do you see it as chaotic and overgrown?

Or ABUNDANT?

This garden is full of flora and fauna. Full of dye, medicine and food plants. Here is a list of some of the plants in the video:

Budlia - colour

Rosa rugosa - food, medicine

Fennel - food, medicine, colour

Marshmallow - medicine

Sweet cicily - food

Tansy - colour, medicine

Mugwort - medicine

Elecampane - medicine

Evening primrose - food, medicine

Jostaberry - food

Comfrey - colour, food, medicine

Willow - food

Crab apple - food

It also has deep mineral accumulators and nitrogen fixers. Creating the edge of a forest garden. An edible forest.

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY! - FASHION SHOW 17th AUGUST

And a little head’s up. SARAH POLAND is taking part in a fashion show during Aberjazz Jazz n Blues Festival 2025, at the beautiful venue Ffwrn in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire.

There will be cheese and wine tastings with Feral Pig Wine , DJ’s spinning vinyl and fashion shows from SARAH POLAND, and Jolette Le Roux.

I’ll send more about tickets and details next week when I get the poster.

And there are so many more events to come to let you know about…LONDON, BRIGHTON, OXFORD.

Thank you for following my journey,

My best,

Sarah x

From the studio No.41

The Serpentine Gallery Summer Party is THE event on the art calendar. 

Photographer and film maker Mark Lebon, known for his boundary breaking fashion photography in the 1980's and 90's, wears a commissioned SARAH POLAND kilt to the Serpentine Gallery Summer Party 2025.

I met Mark originally back in 1998 when I was a stylist's assistant on a fashion shoot for iD magazine. We shot at Marks's super cool West London studio. 

I met up with him again last year and gave a gift of a natural dyed piece of artwork. He commissioned me to make it into a kilt, non-conforming and deconstructed of course, I painted it, natural dyed it, made sock flashes and a kilt pin badge using off-cuts and thread-ends. He wore it this summer to both the opening event of Serpentine Gallery Summer Party AND Graces Mews Gallery launch (founded by his son, photographer Tyrone Lebon) in South London .

I’ve got an exciting collaboration happening with Mark too.

All will be revealed in time…

My best,

Sarah x

From the studio No.40

A SHORT INTRODUCTORY VIDEO ABOUT SARAH POLAND, A NATURAL DYED, LIMITED EDITION, UK MADE CLOTHING BRAND.

PLUS A DIP INTO THE REGENERATIVE DYE GARDEN.

The why and what SARAH POLAND Art | Fashion is about and what it stands for as a clothing brand with sustainability and ethics at its core, with zero waste, circular design principles.

It takes time to refine and articulate what a brand is about.

YouTube introductory video

YouTube introductory video

From looking after the soil and the people who tend it, to growing crops for textiles, to natural dyeing with no toxic waste, ethically manufacturing in the UK, to the wearer and the life of the garment with the possibility reinvigorate by offering a repair and re-dye service, to its end-of-life composted back into the soil to support healthy new growth.

Circular design.

Zero waste.

Non toxic.

No over production.

Hand crafted.

Made with care and quality in the UK.

Chic, wearable, fashion conscious natural dyed clothing.

See also:

Meet The Designer

Thank you for following my journey,

My best,

Sarah x

From the studio No.38

In the studio, this year for me is all about getting out there - gaining visibility, collaboration and well, just keeping on keeping on.

This month and probably next month too, will be a creative time. For many years I’ve wanted to create my own wardrobe, wear mostly my own designs.

You could call it a capsule collection, perhaps a mini collection, I’m just going to call it a wardrobe for now.

I’ve been working on the website this month too and have added a new page WHAT IS NATURAL DYE.

So if you’d like to know more about what they are, where they come from, a little history and some images of the plants, dye extracts and natural dyed cloth, click the link.

My mission this year is to get better at creating blogs and write about the wonderful qualities and beauty of natural dyes - it’s all about visibility and letting people know what I’m up to.

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But for now, here’s a bit of fun with some contact sheets. I tried each jacket on…on top of the other, size 8 to 16…I couldn’t quite fit the 16 on too!

The background painting was made during an artist residency at G.S. Artists in 2019. Made using oak gall ink on raw cotton canvas, 3x4m, painted with a soft house broom and a child’s broom.

During the residency my 1.5 year old daughter would often join me, and I would put inks on her tricycle to make her own paintings, and create mine with her BRRM BRRMING around.

Perhaps they were mother and daughter brooms too?

My best,

Sarah x

From the studio No. 37

We’ve come to the end of the year again and I’d like to wish you a Merry Christmas on this shortest day, from deepest darkest drizzly West Wales.

It is the Winter Solstice - Embrace the dark and carry the light.

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It’s been a great year in the SARAH POLAND studio, not without it’s hurdles and losses. I’ve worked hard on building a natural dyed clothing brand and am looking forward to next year - I have a few exciting projects in the pipeline, including a natural dye collaboration and plan to get out and show at various events, including the Frome Independent Market.

I’d love to see you out there somewhere.

Building my website, brand and getting the Ande Bomber ready to launch have been some highlights.

The website has lots of new pages to view - Why I Natural Dye Clothing, Why I Make Clothes In The UK, Zero Waste and Meet The Designer. I also have Archive pages of paintings and prints from over the years.

Exhibition wise it was really exciting to get in to the Royal Scottish Academy AND sell my painting (below). The VAS 100 (Visual Arts Scotland) centenary exhibition did look fantastic in the hallowed halls of the RSA.

Prosodic Chapters Of Immanent Silence.

Oak gall ink on traditional gesso on birch ply panel.

60 x 91cm.

There’s so much to do to start a business, it isn’t just make some stuff and sell it to a shop anymore! To sell online you need all sorts of things in place, a website, branding (plus a rebrand, thanks J.D. Sports!), a privacy policy, a returns policy, product pages, selling paypoint, good photography, GDPR…the list goes on…and on. Put on the spot, I can’t even remember half of it. Responsible, ethical sourcing is BIG.

As I mentioned before, the hurdle to rebrand away from SONNET by Sarah Poland, because of JD Sports’ interference, has taken up some time. I am glad to have fully embraced the change and am going with simply my name, SARAH POLAND. I now have a new logo, garment label and event sign. The website merge with my artist site will take some time, it’s tricky - trying not to over complicate it.

Any thoughts are most welcome.

Here is my new branding:

My time mentoring on the year long course at Newlyn School of Art this year was so fun, finding myself working beside old peers from my time in Cornwall was a joy and taking part in their tutors exhibition an honour.

Fashion On Earth, Bristol Cathedral with Sustainable Fashion Week UK was a blast and what a deadline to work towards! Thanks to Sustainable Studio in Cardiff and St. John’s Hall in Bath for giving me space.

Thanks too to Helen Manley-Jones at Yr Oriel in Newport, Pembrokeshire for always showing my work.

A new gallery who has taken on my Moon Drawing, photographic and oak gall work, is Tides Gallery in Swansea and their new showcase space, Tides Uplands.

Here are some glimpses from throughout the year.

Thank you for following my journey.

Wishing you a warm winter holiday filled with love and friendship.

Keep in touch, my best,

Sarah x

Inspired by 1950s coffee culture (think Beat Generation), 90s London + an inner rock chick fused with the colours of natural dyes.

Coffee bar, intimate gig + cocktail cool, with quality + sustainability at its core.

From the studio No. 35

I have been taking steps to potentially collaborate with an innovative bio-colour brand based in London, with the aim of working towards involving them in natural dye production for the garments. They use both natural dyes (plants), have pioneered microbial colour and are able to scale up to dye longer lengths. We got as far as sampling colours on the fabrics that I am using, but I realised a few weeks ago that they weren’t going to make the deadline for me to be able get the fabric sent off to the manufacturer to make my jackets in time for Fashion On Earth at Bristol Cathedral. Yikes!

However, commissioning natural dyes are costly and their lead time can be weeks or even months to dye the fabrics. The process of natural dyeing is both time consuming and the raw materials cost so much more than what we are used to with petro-chemical based dyes. So for now, as I build SARAH POLAND, the dye work will be done from my studio.

I’ve spent the last two weeks working 14 hour days to get this done in time, dyeing lengths of corduroy and rib. It’s been intense and heavy work too, lifting 1.5m of wet chunky corduroy and moving around heavy pots of water. I invested in another big stainless steel dye pot so it can be heated with gas outdoors - setting up the dye studio for mid-scale production is a step-by-step process, planning infrastructure and equipment.

When creating artwork dye irregularities doesn’t matter so much as it adds visual texture, plus I paint on top of the dyed canvas. But a mark in the wrong place on a garment can look like an unwanted stain. It’s one reason people combine tie-dye or batik with natural dye, the blemishes become disguised. But I want to create a different look than we are used to with natural dye - it’s a challenge to create an even colour - something more chic, by using interesting colour combinations (I’m a colour geek) and beautiful planet conscious fabrics. And let’s face it, there are after all, enough tie-dyers out there.

It’s all worked out and the fabric, grades (different size patterns) and trims have gone off to the manufacturer. It hasn’t been without hiccups, trip ups and hurdles though. One hiccup, was that I dyed 4 lengths of fabric (6m) and discovered that the new 100 litre dye pot that I had invested in, had several small rust spots. It was an expensive pot and when it arrived it wasn’t the quality I was hoping for, but with time short I gave it a go.

When ferrous sulphate (iron rust) mixes with tannin (inherent in certain plant colours) it changes the colour - this created unwanted spots and I had to start again with new dye extract and to heat up a new vat of hot water. I have had a refund on the pot and will use the fabric elsewhere but when time was short and a risk of not having enough fabric, it did ad an extra stress! The fabric won’t be wasted though, at a later date I’ll dip it in a dye pot again and modify the colour.

If you’d like to follow my journey to create a natural dyed clothing brand in the UK and hear about product drops, events and exhibitions you can sign up here: subscribe

Inspired by 1950s coffee culture (think Beat Generation), 90s London + an inner rock chick fused with the colours of natural dyes.

Coffee bar, intimate gig + cocktail cool, with quality + sustainability at its core.

From the studio No.33

So…I’ve got some news…an update from the previous excitement!

I’ve had a logo made to my design, a sign, woven clothing labels, business cards and bought domain names for SONNET by Sarah Poland.

However, in a David and Goliath scenario, I’ve been pressured into changing my natural dyed clothing brand name (before it’s even launched).

We hear about insecure, avaricious big companies working to squeeze out independents, putting pressure on them in some way with their big buck budgets.

Well, they object to my use of the word sonnet in the name SONNET by Sarah Poland.

It’s JD Sports. They have an in-house, fast fashion, sports wear line who use virgin plastic (polyester) and high production.

It’s called Sonneti.

They’re not using the word sonnet and there are no similarities between our brands or our ideas.

Yet they are able to set out a list of restrictions. However, I refuse to adhere to this bullying tactic.

I’ve had to take down my SONNET by Sarah Poland website and social media accounts …or they might get heavy.

It’s a pain and has cost me a lot development time and money, including buying domain names, woven garment labels, a sign, plus I hired a graphic designer to make the logo to my specification.

So I’ve rebranded to just my name, and I’m getting used to it already. I will see that there is a silver lining, and with both websites merging on to sarahpoland.com, art and fashion will be in the same place.

As an artist and designer, my painting and clothing design do relate to each other, and they both use colours extracted from plants, so perhaps it is for the better and the story continues...

SARAH POLAND - Natural dyed, UK made, limited edition clothing, will embody slow fashion at it’s best.

Inspired by 1950s coffee culture (think Beat Generation), 90s London, an inner rock chick fused with the colours of natural dyes.

Coffee bar, intimate gig + cocktail cool, with quality + sustainability at its core.

From the studio No.32

I’ve got some exciting news about a new project that I’ve been focused on developing over the last 4 months. If you saw my solo exhibition in 2023 (either in the real or on my video tour), you will have spotted an area showing a few pieces from a mini clothing collection, natural dyed with botanical colour, with prints inspired by the art work. I am creating sustainable, ethical, designed, sourced and manufactured in the UK, clothing brand, SONNET by Sarah Poland.

If you'd like to follow my journey to create SONNET by Sarah Poland, receive product launch and pop-up invitations plus find out why the logo is like it is, you can sign-up on the website. www.sonnetbysarahpoland.com

You can also follow me on social media: Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook, Youtube, all sonnetbysarahpoland (now @sarahpolandstudio and sarah-poland)

Sunrise at the Do Lectures 2022.

I visited National Weaving recently, a label weaving factory which happens to be close to me here in West Wales. It was amazing and Very Noisy. They have many machines which weave names tapes, luggage straps, brand labels and badges and printed labels, each operated by a person (wearing ear defenders), they even have a vintage machine graveyard for spare parts and relics to one day restore.

I took a few videos of the looms which I’ll post next time, I’m currently on a weekend away at the Secret Dyery in Oxfordshire, learning about botanical ink screen printing with the wonderful Kate Turnbull - more on that next time too! I also visited a manufacturer in London last week to meet and talk over making a sample with them before production. It's pretty exciting And nerve-wracking!

Please help spread the news and if you know someone who might be interested, let them know.

My best,

Sarah

Studio journal 4

I've got a little box of watercolour tubes that I've had sitting around for a few years. My father-in-law gave them to me, his father was a painter. I, or perhaps they, have been waiting for the right time.

I've found it difficult to get motivation moving these last two weeks. It is far from a usual problem. Perhaps there's the overwhelm of moving house and trying to clear a pathway into my studio where things have been strewn amidst the chaos. Plus the bliss of finally being in a house and wanting to slack out on the sofa.

I did something I've often done when I don't know how to get started. I went to the sea. I packed my special off-piste snowboarding rucksack - used for day long adventures. It helps me to create intention of letting go and exploring what comes up. Off to find a wild, windswept, isolated beach I did.

I packed a little portable set of watercolours. Perhaps the time is right now to explore watercolour but…note to self to not drift too far into the allure of what they can do - the pooling, the reticulation - not make 'watercolour paintings' per se but to use them in my own way. For this, they seem a good quick sketching tool.

The morning started with a thick freezing fog at home, the journey to the sea opened out and the long steep walk down brought a pool of sunshine to where I positioned my belongings on a flat boulder.

The day was beautiful.

The sea was calm, small waves dolloped the shoreline dragging pebbles away with them. Such a beautiful sounds that makes you sit very still and Listen. Out at sea cloud was low and colours were limited to gorgeous greys and aqua of the small cresting waves.

By the end of the day I was watching the freezing fog roll in and envelop the beach.

Play the above video to watch waves dolloping onto the shore in fog.

Thank you for reading this. If you would like to follow this studio journal and sign-up to my newsletter for exhibition updates, inspiration and available work you can sign up at sarahpoland.co.uk/subscribe I send it out some Sunday’s at 11am.

And do please reach out through the contact form if you have any questions.

Studio journal 3

Souvenance

I think the poet is the last person who is still speaking the truth when no one else dares to. I think the poet is the first person to begin the shaping and visioning of the new forms and the new consciousness when no one else has begun to sense it; I think these are two of the most essential human functions’ ______________________________________ Diane Di Prima, _____________Beat Poet (August 6, 1934 – October 25, 2020)

And so too the painter.

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Diane Di Prima was a poet and writer of the American Beat Generation.

Back in 2002 I went to Western Canada to meet a great friend of mine, to snowboard as she finished her season and to travel together up the West coast. We stopped a night or two in Tofino, B.C. I wasn’t sure at the time why I didn’t join her on a whale watching boat trip, but I drifted into a lovely bookshop, sat on the floor to browse a shelf and came across this wonderful book. Actually, it pretty much jumped out at me.

Some years prior, on a U.S. trip, someone I met recommended Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. Another great book for that time in my life and it turned out, took the same route that I did. That was my introduction to the Beat Generation and so finding this book focusing on the Women was very exciting.

They are the reason I drink coffee - Coffee And Writing Go Together.

For me, a coffee taps into this culture and also our European cafe culture, particularly of the 50’s and 60’s. I Love the B&W photographs from these era’s, the starkness, the contrasts.

One of my favourite poems ever is Rant by Diane Di Prima - it is in this book. I also discovered Jay DeFeo and her incredible work The Rose, a 2,300 lb. painting which she spent eight years making.

The Beats in turn lead me to Patti Smith, punk poet, writer, rock musician’s thoughts and writing.

So this was the reason I missed the whale watching!

Jay DeFeo working on The Rose, 1958–66,
in her Fillmore Street studio, NYC 1960. Photo: Burt Glinn.

I’ve just gotta squeeze in a favourite photo…one of British painter Sandra Blow who lived in St. Ives for many years. I love Roger Mayne’s images of the artists there. The other Michael Gaca, director of Belgrave St. Ives took of me at Carn Galva after a bush fire in 2006. It was in my 2006 exhibition at the gallery Tuath (click for catalogue).

Sandra Blow (1925-2006) in her studio 1959 by Roger Mayne (1929-2014)

Sarah Poland 2006 by Michael Gaca

Studio journal 2

Every now and then I think about my journey, how I got to here, now, where I started, what the story is.

We all have a story, one unique to us.

I always have a story behind a particular piece of work or a series.

My first exposure to abstract modern art wasn’t until I was 17. Growing up in the Highlands of Scotland there wasn’t much. I went alone to the Inverness Museum once, determined to see some art – I saw a stuffed polecat, stags head and a dusty ptarmigan among other objects. It wasn’t what I was looking for, besides, I’d seen some in the wild.

Joan Eardley - Catterline in Winter (1963)

Mum had a poster of Joan Eardley’s Catterline In WInter 1963 on the wall. I would often stare at it, be in it, feel it.

It definitely helped kindle my love of bleak Northern landscapes, coast and falling snow, besides growing up in the foothills of the Cairngorm Mountains.

It's Funny How Oak Trees Look Pink In Snow No.2 (2018)

My school history of art lessons used B&W photocopies of... the Impressionists. Paintings which I subsequently learnt are huge, are all about colour, colour harmonies, brush marks, feeling, joy. Obviously none of these qualities came across in the photocopies.

My first Real exposure to modern art was at the Tate Gallery, now Tate Britain. Again, thanks to my mum, she took me down to London on an art trip just before my school exams. And thank goodness she did, for it sparked a drive that got me into one of our countries best art schools, Edinburgh College of Art.

I remember going around the National Gallery and the Tate. I remember at the end of our day at Tate peeking through a tiny window in a door, not unlike a medieval arrow slit. Straining to see as much as possible and begging my mum to pay for me to go in - the rest of the vast gallery was free to enter but this was a temporary touring exhibition and was typically expensive.

She did. Bless her.

What I saw in 1993 was an exhibition by American painter Robert Ryman. Known as the ‘painter of white paintings’, he is one of the foremost abstract artists of his generation. The influence that this one exhibition had was so profound it still resonates deeply today.

And he predominantly used white paint and little else!

Robert Ryman - Untitled (1962)

Robert Ryman - Untitled (1965)

Robert Ryman - Classico 5 (1968)

Studio Journal 1

I’ve been making oak gall ink since I discovered it’s possibility in 2010 and last year I started to broaden my palette. These particular works include eucalyptus leaf, avocado skin, ivy berry and oak gall ink. I have chosen these because they rank as the most permanent of natural colours and also because they feature either in my garden, my kitchen or are native wild plants (sustainably picked of course).

Avocado skin ink on Hannemule paper.

Ivy berry ink on Hannemule paper

These works are part of a series of small work on etching paper titled Boundaries. Using ecological botanical inks which I make by hand, I then make the image using monotype and drawing techniques.

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I am selling this work from my website as part of the Artist Support Pledge initiative. I'm aiming to post 5 small works every week.

Artist Support Pledge was started by artist Matthew Burrows @matthewburrowsstudio to help support artists through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The concept is simple, post images of your work to sell for no more than £200 each. Anyone can buy the work. Every time the artist generates £1000 of sales, they pledge to buy another artist’s work for £200 using the #artistsupportpledge hashtag.

Head to my purchase page for details on each piece