I came to America from France and studied art at the University of South Carolina with a major in graphic design. I spent the next 20 years working in the corporate world, yet it was a trip to Japan to study the art of traditional indigo dyeing that opened my eyes on the world of textiles and natural dyes…and I never looked back. So nine years ago I switched careers and became a freelance artist and later a business owner growing the indigo plant, extracting the pigment and dyeing natural materials to create a line of home and fashion accessories.

I attribute the success of my business to an overall renewed interest in the magical color indigo natural dyeing and handmade crafts, and the story of heritage crops in South Carolina. Hundreds of species of plants grown around the world have been used to produce blue dye throughout history. The indigo we grow is the one that was grown in the 1700s in the Lowcountry and became a cash crop in South Carolina thanks in part to Eliza Lucas Pinckney, who grew indigo successfully on her family’s plantations with the labor and knowledge of enslaved people for the textile industry of Great Britain. There is so much history around indigo in our state, even our state flag is indigo blue, and it is still taught as a history lesson in schools to this day…and I’m excited to be part of its renaissance for a brighter future. 

I have been written about in a few magazines such as Turkey Red, Palmetto Bluff (“The Bluff”), Charleston Magazine, and The Furrow (John Deere). But it was one small article that came out in January of 2021 in Southern Living magazine that greatly increased the popularity of CHI design, reaching interested readers from all around North America. Then this article was followed by another collective article in Smithsonian magazine highlighting a growing community of growers, dyers and textile artists in the Lowcountry interested in raising awareness and bringing the indigo back.