Natural dyeing has long been central to Sardinian weaving traditions—a practice rooted in the gathering of plants and natural materials to draw colour from the land itself. Historically, this was a deeply relational, collective process, shared among women. Though with the rise of synthetic dyes and the shift toward individual weaving production, many of those connections—between women, land, and craft—have begun to fade. Natural dyes reconnect weaving to its place of origin. The colours drawn from walnuts, oak galls, and clay (among other natural materials) reflect the unique ecology of the island, grounding wool from Sardinian sheep in the plants they graze among and the landscapes they move through.
Some weavers can even detect subtle colour differences in dye depending on the region where a plant was harvested—each hue acts as a map or a way of reading the land. To dye with natural materials is to enter into dialogue with the land. The resulting weavings are more than textiles; they become expressions of interdependence, memory, and care. This project, guided by the knowledge of women at Foghiles, explored those relationships. Through the act of harvesting, dyeing, and weaving, the stories of the local landscape began to emerge and the work unfolded as a conversation between people, plants, and place.