Fleece Artist was established in 1978, just next door to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design to supply fellow textile artists with natural fibres. Over time our customers demanded better colours than were commercially available so we took to dyeing these ourselves. Today, we are a small family run company dedicated to dyeing sustainable and ethically fibres such as Blue Face Leicester, fine Kid Mohair, Merino and other fuzzy beasts.
We work primarily with small family run mills close to the farms where these animals thrive and grow the best coats. Often it’s less than 200km to the mill. Most of our yarns are certified Oeko-Tex 100 or GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard). We have yet to certify our own micro-scale dye work with a global certification agency, but we endeavor to follow the safe and sustainable practices in every way possible. We also often partner with social agencies for knitting for a cause fundraising including the Canadian Red Cross and Shelterbox Canada.
Other than just considering sustainability and animal welfare, we are committed to providing a safe, inclusive and dynamic workplace for our small but mighty team. Our dye artists are fine art school grads with an eye for colour and skilled hands for working with fibre. We dye our yarns entirely by hand in tiny batches, just enough for a single sweater at a time, taking care that our yarns are not just pleasing to our taste, but to yours.Our goal is to always think beyond just the colour, to showcase the natural qualities of the yarn and thus enlivening your hand made projects.