Discuss: How Did Your Business Get Started?

When I interviewed Julie Sinden about her natural dyeing kits, she told me how the idea – and the entire The Love of Colour brand and product line — came to be: recognizing a need, developing a product to fit that need, and then building on that. Now, alongside the original indigo kit, she offers a whole range of natural dyeing supplies: a range of all-in-one kits plus ingredients, fabric, yarn, stencils, and a selection of seeds so shoppers can grow their own natural dye plants.

While The Love of Colour is relatively new, Julie has been in business for much longer. Her popular line of boiled wool hats and accessories, sold under the brand Julie Sinden Handmade, started 15 years ago almost by happenstance. “I did a studio tour one time, and I had a bunch of different naturally dyed things for sale,” she says. “I had also done a couple of things out of boiled wool. And the 10 boiled wool hats I had sold in 10 minutes. So I started making more, and one thing led to another, and then suddenly, I was a boiled wool hat maker.”