El Rancho Capsule
A hot spot in the 40’s, the El Rancho Hotel embodies the Americana and was salvation for those who found them selves high rolling on the Vegas strip. The artwork on these patches symbolizes the intersection of the old world with modern culture and practices.
Sedge Freeman, founder of all intertwined patchworks, on his journey to creating his patches:
"Having worked on organic vegetable farms, I was aware of cotton's notorious reputation as one of the world’s most pesticide intensive crops. With the enthusiasm for organic foods having spread to fabrics, household linens and even mattresses, cotton balls and personal care items, I figured finding an organic patch online would be no problem. The search engines came up blank. I thought if I bought some organic thread, I could have the local embroidery shop sew me up some patches and pawn extras off on a few like-minded friends. Much to my surprise there was only one organic thread on the market and it only came in one color – a natural white.
It was no wonder no one was embroidering with organic thread - one color would certainly constrain design possibilities. This lead into a search for someone able to dye the thread. It didn’t make much sense to me to bathe a beautiful organic cotton with a hazardous synthetic dye made from fossil fuels. Thus began a reluctant attempt to learn the nuts and bolts of dyeing the natural way. It wasn’t long into that dark winter before the vibrant colors emerging from the dye pot lit up my face and won me over. The pursuit of hues that would withstand the intense demands of patches; fastness to washing, light and abrasion led to countless evenings of literature review and experimentation with my Ft. Collins apartment bathroom as laboratory. I had the opportunity to learn from a pair of master natural dyers, Mehmet Gergic from Konya, Turkey (thefeltmaker.com) and Cheryl Kolander of Portland, OR (aurorasilk.com). Over the course of a couple of years, I was able to develop a full spectrum of naturally dyed colors."
