The process of getting linen from flax is an arduous one. Yet, I’ve found beauty and satisfaction in the toil it takes to produce a piece of cloth without the use of industrial equipment and/or the exploitation of labor and resources. As Emma so perfectly said it, "it has led to a reverence for and connection to the cloth." This deepened bond between myself as a designer, Emma as a farmer helping me harvest flax, and the earth's bounty serves to remind me how important zero waste design is to the kitchen garden series.

Zero waste design is about taking the time to see beauty in every inch of cloth in front of me. My designs are inspired by the shapes I find in the world, with all of their swirling lines, sensuous shapes, and organic colors. I bring these ideas to my work table and experiment until the contours are organized and laid out on the materials before me. Then I look again at the spaces in between, those empty areas that remain among the contours, and find more inspiration, until all that is left of the fabric I laid out is just the tiniest bit of scrap to become worm food and decompose into earth again. 

The challenge of minimizing waste for any given piece is to not compromise important construction details or the elegance of the drape. For example, when I designed my cross back aprons, perfecting the form and function led to unexpected ways to use all the linen . I chose to add a side seam and to make the strap and the facing one long piece from the back hemline all the way over the shoulder with only one point of attachment at the front. Not the easiest method or the most efficient use of fabric, but I chose it because it hangs more elegantly on different bodies and is ultimately more durable and long wearing. As I figured out the apron design, I let the spaces left behind from my cuts, inspire more designs for other products. My minimalist tea towels emerged from the remaining edges, where I can cut right up to the raw edge and embrace its unfinished beauty. The fabric left behind from cutting the straps yields the perfect rectangle to attach to a shirtsleeve for our signature towels. Lastly, before sweeping the remaining scraps into the compost bin, I can make a handful of tea bags. The small leftover pieces will ultimately break down in the compost and regenerate the soil for the next crop of flax for linen.

Great design is about form and function, and zero waste is about re-imagining our place in relationship to materials. By working more carefully with the resources we have on hand, we can acknowledge all of the efforts taken by the planet and people to bring products we love into the world. When we place our goods into this vigilant perspective, something awakens in us. We are called to find beauty in the whole of what we can hold in our hands, to waste nothing, to respect everything, and to work to be part of the solution.