Thistle Farms - Part Two

A couple of weeks ago I took my visiting teachers to Thistle Farms.  Thistle Farms is a social enterprise, where the residents of Magdalene House make and sell natural bath and body products to help fund Magdalene House.  (I took this product picture in my house - more about that another day.)

You 'get to' wear this very fashionable head ware when you tour the room where they make the bath and body products.  I'm not much of a bath and body product kind of gal - those are the stores that I NEVER go into at the mall.  I have to say, though, that I really like their products.  The lotion is thick and creamy, but doesn't leave your hands feeling greasy after applying it.

 

The first time I toured Thistle Farms I got goosebumps about everything that goes on there.  In addition to making bath and body products, they make paper!  I went crazy over the paper making room.  At first they used their handmade paper to make boxes for their lavender healing oils.  In addition to the boxes, they now use their paper to make cards, journals and bookmarks.  They even sell sheets of their handmade paper for all you scrappers and card makers out there!

Here's a thistle farmer showing off a journal.  I spent the morning with her, sewing signatures (groups of pages) into the journal covers.

These are the materials used to make the journals - copier paper for the signatures and hemp cord to sew the signatures into the journal covers.  The journals were for a special order and are not available online yet.

This thistle farmer spent the morning packaging up sheets of thistle paper to be sold to you.

Here are the bookmarks.  There are step-by-step directions on how to paint a thistle onto the bookmarks.  

You don't have to be a professional sewer or bookbinder or paper maker or painter to volunteer at Thistle Farms.  Everyone there is learning and growing together.  Contact me if you want to go sometime.  I'd be more than happy thrilled to take you!

Note:  All the thistle farmers (residents and volunteers) gave me their permission to post their photos.