Hey there, I'm Mary Ann! So glad you've found my podcast! I love this earth, French-pressed coffee, dark chocolate, and dancing to Classic Funk. I sew, knit, and mend clothing for adults and children (age five and under), and curate experiences that connect people to the natural world. You can expect a new episode each Tuesday with stories on fashion and style, education and history, and where they intersect with sustainability and the environment, politics and policy, and the economy. Some episodes will feature interviews with activists, sustainability professionals, models, and so much more!
What does that mean? For me, it means keeping Mother Nature "front of mind" in every way possible. In this regard, though, the fast fashion industry is working against us to make us feel like we're missing out on the latest athleisure, holiday, and everyday wear. Stay strong! Buy less. Buy better. Learn to repair what you already have. Making the simple mends on our clothing will lead to ensuring that we repair other things: the handle that broke off our favorite coffee mug; relationships; our communities; and our democracy. Check out your local "Buy Nothing" group at www.buynothingproject.org or on facebook https://www.facebook.com/BuyNothingProject/ Their motto is "Buy Nothing. Give Freely. Share creatively." They offer members a way to give and receive, share, lend, and express gratitude through a worldwide network of micro-local gift economies in which the true wealth "is the web of connections formed between people who are real-life neighbors". Post anything you'd like to give away, lend, or share in the Buy Nothing community group. Ask for anything you'd like to receive for free or borrow. Keep it legal. Keep it civil. You can join one group only, the group where you live, so you can literally "give where you live." This is what builds community. In these groups there is no buying or selling, no trades or bartering, no soliciting for cash. They're an adult-only, hyper-local gift economy, not a charity or community bulletin board.
Thank you for joining me! One year ago, in December 2019, I wondered if I could make a successful creative business, focused on my creative ideas designed to satisfy my passion for made-by-hand and raise awareness about the impact our clothing choices have on the environment. I am pleased to say that I just came off of three days of intimacy on the internet where I made a connection and three sales to people I have never met! I was challenged by my mentor, Cathy Heller, to make an offer for Small Business Saturday through Cyber Monday and three beautiful souls, two of whom I have only met through Instagram and Facebook -- and one I haven't met at all! I'm delighted! and thrilled to have reached a goal built on an open heart and an inquisitive mind. The LIVE Online Workshop I mentioned can be found here: https://www.freshcercle.com/ Just scroll past the picture of me and my About and you will see a featured image that links to the silk scarf offer. Register before midnight, Saturday, December 5 (East Coast Time) so that I can mail you the prepared scarf and PDF instructions (you will need to supply your own fresh or dried flowers). Featured image is the Great Arlington Meadow, as seen from the Minuteman Bikeway in Lexington.
It's Thanksgiving Week and there is so much to be grateful for! This year, we'll be having dessert together with loved ones over Zoom. This is the first year I'll be participating in the busiest shopping season of the year as a small business owner...but all of the frenzy surrounding it doesn't feel good...I'm trying to be gentle with myself. I know I'll be out in the local conservation areas for extended walks this Friday -- aka, Green Friday! We have got to change our collective mindset around consumerism and materialism. How do we do that? People are talking about our multiple crises: The Pandemic. Racial Injustices. Climate Crisis. Epic Unemployment. Affordable Housing. Food Insecurity. Wealth Insecurity. A Democracy in Tatters. And, they're saying that we need to wake up and new systems need to come of this. How do we do that? I mentioned my featured guest post on Mary Ruth Shields' blog on United Sewing and Design. You can read it here (DM me on IG to let me know your thoughts): https://unitedsewinganddesign.com/2020/11/10/combating-the-exploitation-of-people-and-our-environment-by-the-apparel-industry/
My mentor, Cathy Heller, asked me to talk a little bit about why I started my business. So, I started that thought here and moved into discussing a little more from Fibershed, the book by Rebecca Burgess. This time I ponder some of the questions asked in the chapter entitled, "Soil-to-Soil Clothing and the Carbon Cycle": Are we wearing clothing from the fossil carbon pool or are we wearing clothing grown in the soil? Does our clothing return to the pool from which it came? Can we compost our clothes? If not, then we need to be asking ourselves, "Why not"? Why are we not as demanding about the clothing that we put on our body as we are about the food we put in it?
When last we met, our national election was just underway. We now have a new President-elect in Joe Biden and a new Vice President-elect in Kamala Harris. This bodes well for our country as we look forward to working with the administration in advocating for the laws, regulations, and policies we need to protect our environment and reverse climate change, repair racial injustices, and address the pandemic and economic inequality. Our democracy is in tatters and we need to mend our relationship with it, as well as learn to mend our clothes. This episode considers chapter one of Rebecca Burgess' book "The Cost of Our Clothes". Like the Slow Food Movement that preceded it, the Fibershed Movement began small; there are now more than fifty fibersheds across North America, the UK, Europe, and Australia. From my own perspective: Buy Less (overconsumption is unsustainable) Buy Better Quality Make it Last (fewer machine washings and dryings) Learn to Mend (sew on the button, repair the tear) Make (learn to sew, knit, refashion) Organize (question the laws, regulations, policies; demand greater transparency) Several links mentioned in this episode: Joe Biden's "Plan for Climate Change and Environmental Justice": https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/ (See also the administration's new transition website: https://buildbackbetter.com/) Ellen MacArthur Foundation: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/ Elizabeth Cline's recent article on Atmos, "The Twilight of the Ethical Consumer": https://atmos.earth/ethical-consumerism/ Fair Wages for garment workers, globally (sign the petition): https://payupfashion.com/ Greenpeace fact sheet, "Timeout for Fast Fashion", 2016: https://wayback.archive-it.org/9650/20200401053856/http://p3-raw.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/briefings/toxics/2016/Fact-Sheet-Timeout-for-fast-fashion.pdf
Part I of a several-part series about Fibershed the book, the movement, the non-profit! I also discuss key elements of the must-see documentary "Kiss the Ground" currently streaming on Netflix. Check out the KTG trailer and more HERE. Lots more about Fibershed HERE. More from Fibershed next time: The Cost of Our Clothes. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. ~ Rumi #fibershed #carbonsinks #ecofashion
A lot of high energy in this week through next Tuesday, November 3, election day! I know I'll be wearing my mask, and not just for Halloween! I gave a shout out to @thecreeptastics on Instagram -- check it out! Wherever you go and whatever you decide to do for Halloween, stay safe and be well. Oh! Debuting some new music by Will Collante -- he's over on Instagram, too. DM to let me know what you think! Enjoy!
You've probably noticed more and more eco-friendly fashion sprouting up... and, while it's great to see, there are brands out there taking advantage of the eco-trend by throwing around words like "sustainable wardrobes" or "ethical fashion" or "eco-friendly". As consumers, it's up to each of us to get in the habit of looking up a brand's website and sleuthing around to see what they're really "about". There are also many brands and products that are being completely transparent! Do you know which is which?
Do you remember the closing scene in The Blues Brothers? The band is playing "Jailhouse Rock" back in the prison and on the back wall is painted, "It's Never Too Late to Mend"! I was reminded of this when my daughter and I watched a CoVid-friendly outdoor showing of the movie over Labor Day weekend. We all need to be more aware of the impact our clothing choices have on the environment, so learn to mend!
What's ethically made fashion? This painting, "Eight Figures" (1935) by American painter Lew Davis (1910-1979), gives some clues about what it is not. Photo of the painting taken by yours truly from a collection of American painters at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Slow Stitch is the title of a book by Claire Wellesley Smith. I received it as a gift in 2015 and it laid a foundation for the concept of fibershed.
This is the episode where I introduce the idea of "fibershed", the name of the latest book by Rebecca Burgess. Much more to come on this hopeful and optimistic topic!
The episode I recorded at the conclusion of my 5-Day Eco-Fashion Challenge failed to upload properly, so I recorded this and am adding it in!
A small but engaged group has joined me for the beginning of my 5-day eco-fashion challenge that began yesterday. It's noticeably chilly most mornings and evenings, but sunny and warm most afternoons. We're in transition here in New England: it's no longer Summer and not quite Fall. The leaves are steadily turning colors, though -- I'll take some pictures and post them on Instagram -- follow me there, and on Facebook, too @freshcercle.
Even before the calendar marks the beginning of Autumn next week, we already know something is underway. One senses a subtle shift in mood: the angle and quality of light and diminishing daylight betrays the warm summer temperatures. It is no longer Summer, yet, it is not quite Fall. I noted that some of the trees had given way to this shift with changing leaves, in evidence since August. It's the time of year when personal reflection comes more easily and naturally for me, too; I reflect on personal goals, hopes, dreams. In this episode I referenced Rainer Maria Rilke's series of poems called The Book of Hours, its title coming from the book from which monks chant the canonical hours. Here's one of my best -loved excerpts: I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may not complete this last one but I give my life to it. I circle around God, around the primordial tower. I've been circling for thousands of years and I still don't know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song? I also referenced Thomas Merton and The Seven Storey Mountain, written during his first years at Gethsemani and is a moving, spiritual autobiographical account of Merton's search for faith. Merton has written numerous moving works, including poems. This one, which alludes to the canonical "time of day" is from his book of essays and poems, No Man is an Island: There must be a time of day when the man who makes plans forgets his plans, and acts as if he had no plans at all There must be a time of day when the man who has to speak falls very silent. And his mind forms no more propositions, and he asks himself: Did they have a meaning? There must be a time when the man of prayer goes to pray as if it were the first time in his life he had ever prayed, when the man of resolutions puts his resolutions aside as if they had all been broken, and he learns a different wisdom: Distinguishing the sun from the moon, the stars from the darkness, the sea from the dryland, and the night sky from the shoulder of a hill.
Did you know that the average American throws away 80 pounds of clothing each year? It's not donated or repurposed, or even sold, but tossed in the trash, destined for a landfill. I'm no expert in these matters, but I am learning to make better choices! The world needs a lot right now and we all need to be more aware of the impact our clothing choices have on the environment. Join me for a FREE Fall for Fall Eco-Fashion 5-Day Challenge -- sign up here: www.freshcercle.com
Well, I jumped in and started talking! Intro to a little about me and where the title of the podcast comes from.
Hello! It's Mary Ann Stewart, an eco-fashion designer living in Massachusetts. I'm launching a podcast in the middle of a global pandemic because I've wanted to do one for years, and because we must get serious about our clothing choices and the impact they have on the environment. You can expect new episodes to drop at least once a week on Tuesdays with stories about fashion and style, education in history, and where they intersect with sustainability and the environment, politics and policy, and the economy. Some episodes will be interviews with people from a range of industries: Sewists and Activists, Makers and Dyers, Architects and Farmers and So. Much. More! I look forward to all that is to come and I want you to join me! Join the Bold and Brazen Facebook Page. Subscribe on Apple and Spotify, or wherever you listen, and follow me for updates on Instagram @FreshCercle. Fresh Cercle: a passion for creativity and the environment.
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
