About COCOON Natural Dye House

COCOON Natural Dye House was founded in 2020 by Rachael Smith. A passionate environmentalist, I saw an opportunity to champion sustainability through fully traceable & low impact but effective & affordable products. My range of sustainable homewares & accessories are hand dyed, made from organic hemp, UK peace silk and eco-tex linen, and sewn using my beautiful 1920’s hand crank sewing machine - in an attempt to use as little electricity as possible. Everything I create is sustainably sourced, recyclable & compostable, with the aim that my business makes as little impact on the environment as possible. I am also an advocate for hemp as a brilliantly sustainable yet underused fibre. The beauty of the centuries old practice of natural dyeing is that it is inherently low impact, traceable & sustainable. I make dye baths from locally foraged leaves and saved & donated avocado stones, dry onion skins and used coffee grinds. I love that I can get more life from something that would otherwise go to waste. I create patterns using shibori, which is an ancient Japanese dye resist technique of folding & binding the fabric before dyeing. The fabric is dyed in small batches so each piece that comes from the dye vat is unique. Read their story