Allysun West: Medicinal Plant Dyer

While many people focus on the mental healing that plants offer, artist Allysun West focuses on the physical healing properties as well with her medicinally dyed clothing. 

“Most every plant has medicinal benefits to it and with the color also comes the medicinal benefits into the fabric.”

Although Allysun only started learning about medicinal dyes in the past few years, the practice has actually been around for thousands of years. 

“I thought I had created this huge, new discovery...Healing with medicinal dyes from plants originated in India and is a branch of Ayurvedic medicine called Ayurvastra, which means ‘life clothing’.”

Learning about this dyeing process was vital for Allysun, her own health inspiring her to pursue alternatives to the harsher synthetic dyes. 

“When I went to school, I was working with synthetic dyes a lot, and my autoimmune disorder was having so many outbreaks...so I was asking my teachers, ‘Can we use natural dyes? Can we learn this process?’”

Allysun strives to make her business as eco-friendly as possible, either using thrifted clothing to repurpose or making her own clothing from scratch to dye, both using all-natural materials.

“The whole piece of clothing...once it's done being worn and loved, can go into the compost bin, and go back into the earth because every part of it is made from something from the earth.”

Even though her autoimmune disorder is a struggle that Allysun has to endure, she is thankful that it has led her to an art form that she loves. 

“The whole process of having a health issue has actually been like a blessing to lead me to this life of being able to create with natural dyes. Finding that as a healing alternative has just been like a hidden gem.”

Visit Allysun’s website for more information.

Check out her Etsy and Instagram too!

A film by Juliette Sutherland.