If you give a creative woman a sheep, next she’ll need to figure out what to do with the wool. Nancy Zeller and her husband bought two Romeldale/CVM sheep in 2000 with the intention of expanding the endangered breed. This specialty wool breed produces a fine wool, similar to merino, which is ideal for wearing close to the skin. Zeller would have the wool milled, sometimes blending it with alpaca or silk.

“It’s so soft,” said Zeller.

In 2005, Zeller took a small natural dyeing workshop at Adams Farm in Vermont. The students collected goldenrod and fern and made their dye baths over an outdoor wood fire. Zeller was hooked. She went home to apply her new knowledge to her abundance of wool at home. That same year, she started Long Ridge Natural Dyes, initially becoming a retailer for the Earthues Natural Dyes Company. She also continued her education, mentoring under owner and Master Dyer Michele Wipplinger.

Zeller, who received her BA in Art from the University of New Hampshire has since traveled and studied with mentors from all over the world to improve her craft. Today, Long Ridge Natural Dyes offers natural dyes, mordants, inks, and fibers, sourced both from her farm and from dependable and fair-trade sources from all over the world. Zeller grows and collects local woad, marigolds, black walnut and onion skins. She says that there are lots of locally available yellow hues but that reds and blues are more difficult to come by, so she now independently works with growers and foragers from all over the world. Zeller also offers many instructional resources on her website as well as offers in-person workshops on her bucolic 127 acre farm in Westmoreland.

August 3-5, 2023, Zeller is hosting a 3-day workshop with Portland, Oregon, artist Carolyn Sweeney of Strata Ink. Sweeny will lead participants through the process of foraging for pigment materials from the surrounding land and processing these raw materials into watercolors, inks and crayons. Registration is available through the website, longridgefarm.com.

The workshop’s focus on foraging reinforces the participants’ relationship with their local landscape. Botanical dyeing is a process that can be intensely regional, but it is also a process that is globally connected, not only by historical trade routes but also by the processes used and shared by artisans all over the world.

In 2014, Zeller visited a friend in Rwanda. Meeting women there in need of a self-sufficient income inspired Zeller to try to skill share. She had recently completed a class in botanical printing or eco-dying using leaves and plants to make colorful fabric prints. Her hunch was that this was an accessible craft that could be commercially profitable, and she returned to assist a group of 35 women in expanding their color line of naturally dyed yarns and fabrics.

In the beginning, Zeller solicited donations from friends to support the project but in 2016, the collaboration in Rwanda officially became a non-profit, Rwanda-one4one. Zeller feels grateful to the support of Gina Goff and other mentors who helped guide her through the complicated process of starting a non-profit and who formed the initial board of directors.

“I wanted to become a non-profit, but I had no idea how to do it,” said Zeller. The all volunteer board is a small group of diverse dedicated women. Zeller is always on the look out for others who might want to contribute their talents to the board.

The heart of the non-profit remains true to its origins, educating and supporting women in natural dyeing so they can support their families. The project known as Umva means to listen in Kinyarwanda, the Rwandan language. Umva scarfs and wraps, both in wool and silk, can be purchased from the Rwanda-one4one website. Profits go directly to the makers while charitable donations fuel the educational and entrepreneurial mission of the organization.

This April, Rwanda-one4one with the help of it’s on the ground partners will open up a studio space in Musanze, a busy travel destination near popular lodges that cater to viewing silver-back gorillas. Five dyers will work and stock the studio space nestled among other art, music and food venues. Selling on the ground in Rwanda will open up more outlets for the textiles, says Zeller, who has been in talks with other studios attached to lodges that are willing to sell Umva products once they have established a brick and mortar within Rwanda.

Zeller won’t have to worry about her sheep anymore when she is away on her annual month-long trip to Rwanda, the last of her herd passed away in February of 2022. But Zeller still retains important traits of being a shepherdess, looking out for her herd, a group of female artisans the world over. She is also a careful observer of her surroundings, moving over the land, with an eye towards its valuable resources underfoot. On a walk this past winter, she discovered a pool of ochre water near a stream. Carrying it home, she waited patiently, straining the iron rich mineral deposit and grinding it into a red-brown pigment. It is the very same kind used on cave walls by early humans. Zeller’s pigment will probably be made into a crayon, another story telling tool in her box.

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