Intertwining: A story of the living world through material form

Two makers, business-owners, mothers — artfully transmuting land-based raw materials into simple yet luxurious sustainable goods. Megan Bre Camp of Summer Solace and Alix Vasquez of Herderin showcase what can be created with materials grown from our local landscapes, made to nurture both the body and spirit. Summer Solace, through regenerative tallow-based holistic skin care products, soaps and candles, and Herderin through qualitative, Climate Beneficial ™ and organic clothing. At first glance it might not be easy to see the interconnectedness between these two makers, but as you begin to understand their stories, businesses, and deep values reflected in their products you will begin to see the intersectionality that lives right below the surface. 

One look at their work and you can feel the raw, innate beauty of the natural world embedded into every good — a true embodiment of the land itself. They are not only finding inspiration from the natural world but working with the natural gifts of the land and letting the materials speak for themselves; working not to completely alter the materials and producing something tangent to its origins, but really creating an extension of its original form. 

It is easy to look at Summer Solace and Herderin and know the depth and value both the maker and the made holds. Everything they use is locally-sourced, ethically-produced, and 100% natural and non-toxic. They are connected to the entire production process, knowing and recognizing the many hands it takes to create the final form. Their goods recognize and respect the slow journey it takes from an initial seed on a farm to the final manifestation. Every living thing holds a story of place, growth, and relationship. When creators like Megan and Alix work with earth-based materials, these stories are carried through to whatever it’s transformed into — be it food, medicine, textiles, bodycare — matching our own human stories of place, growth, and relationship.

Originally a sous chef at esteemed Bay Area restaurants, Megan Bre Camp of Summer Solace began creating high quality, holistic skincare products in 2014 working with regional ingredients, her most well-known being: tallow — the kidney fat of pasture-grazed cattle. Megan‘s tallow products deeply nourish our skin, the number one barrier and boundary to the external world and an incredibly important organ for our body. Her products are both functional and ritualistic in their nature and use, and her process of creating is of ancient origins that she learned through her Alaskan upbringing and indigenous heritage.

Summer Solace sources tallow from Stemple Creek Ranch, a Northern California-based grass fed beef operation that works to build soil health and draw down carbon through their regenerative farming practices. The specific structural and nutritional composition of organic grass-fed tallow makes it one of the most bioavailable natural moisturizers that exists. It mimics the skin’s natural barrier providing many vitamins and nutrients needed for your skin’s health — as Megan calls it, “skin food”.

"Eating organic, seasonally, and regionally is wise for sound health and nutrition. What we put on our skin should also reflect our local environment — its plants and animals that sequester carbon from the atmosphere and are grown and grazed on regenerative soil, just as our ancestors have." — Megan Bre Camp

Megan is a leader in the Slow Body Care Movement®. For a decade she has been advocating for high-quality, locally-produced, natural skin care products that come from healthy landscapes and supports regional farmers.

Alix Vasquez of Herderin designs from a deep intelligence of the human body, mind, and experience, offering qualitative clothing that utilizes somatic principles which she learned through her professional training as a sociologist. Alix not only creates clothing that beautifully adorns the body, but also supports our soft yet strong selves in a way that can move with the natural evolution of one’s life. She poses the questions to us all: How does your clothing make you feel? How can it support you physically and emotionally through your daily life? How can design and material bear witness to and reflect nature’s impermanent truth of our ever-changing personas and bodies?

“I want people to feel comforted. I want you to feel like you don’t always need to look in the mirror; I want you to feel esteemed and dignified in a deeper way that doesn’t mean you have to jeopardize your sense of self or identity. I want you to feel dignified because you feel good in your skin and know that is what truly matters.” — Alix Vasquez

Herderin’s values are felt in the design principles and also in the conscious sourcing of materials. As a small clothing design studio, Herderin’s goal is to “enrich bioregional health by creating a model for Climate Beneficial™ and regenerative fiber sourcing matched with ethical local manufacturing”. All clothing is made with 100% natural textiles, sourced from US fiber farms that support soil health and ecosystem regeneration, with simple modifications to the textile itself.

There is an interconnectedness amongst us all —

plant, animal, soil, sky;

Made from the same atoms and essence of the elements.

I am the breath of an autumn breeze,

the heartbeat of the earth’s core,

the elegant dance of season shifts and migratory birds.

May I coat myself in lush layers,

nourishing the deepest of my being,
and wrap my body in these earthly gifts,

 to remind me ‘I am home’.

As I tend to myself, I tend to all —

An intertwining of life without temporal bounds.

Every day we interact with the many forms of the material world to survive (and dare I say thrive). It is becoming rarer and rarer for these goods to make us feel good about using them. Plastics and petroleum-based products have penetrated the markets and blurred the lines, making it difficult to know what is healthy for us and what is harming us. Megan and Alix’s fierce passion and commitment to ethically-produced products that help heal and protect the land and our bodies is part of the antidote to this crisis. 

They are what we need more of. We live in a world that is industry-based, and not craft-based — where the creator and the created are intimately intertwined. We need more earth-based businesses and products that are high-quality, accessible, beneficial, and trustworthy. We — as consumers and everyday interactors with our environment — can make choices every day that can support the intricate web of land-based craftspeople, from farmers to makers. We need more Megans and Alix’s. Those that create beauty and nourishment amongst everyday necessities to keep us healthy. Makers who treasure sensorial experiences, the intricate textures found in natural materials, and rely on what is already present in our environment. Their energy and excitement for what they do is palpable, and the love they receive from their clients is inspirational. 

Megan and Alix are a part of a growing community and movement of people trying to localize their means of production, in food, medicine, bodycare, and textiles. They see this community as equally important to the system that they existed in. One such community is the Northern California Fibershed, an intimate yet extensive network of regional farmers, ranchers, ecologists, manufacturers, and makers, and also a non-profit leading a movement to regionalize natural fiber systems while protecting the health of our biosphere. 

You can find Summer Solace online at summersolacetallow.com, in various retail outlets, and in-person at Bay Area Farmers Markets. Follow Summer Solace on Instagram @summersolacetallow.

You can find Herderin online at herderin.com, pop-up artisan markets, and in person at Herderin stockists such as, General Store, Housework Store, Conifer Shop, Toxy Free, Burkelman, Pennyroyal, and others that will be listed online come November. Follow Herderin on Instagram @__herderin.