
~ Elegance from nature, Beauty through kindness ~
The Lesser Bear is a socially conscious textile company that uses natural, foraged and grown dye materials to create beautiful ribbons, twines and table linens, while simultaneously doing its part to engage through acts of kindness and generosity.

Each ribbon is made by hand in the Lesser Bear Studtio, with care and creativity

Each color is created through an extensive process of testing with botanical dyes and foraged and homegrown plants. Most of our colors are create with flowers and plants grown in our home garden, or at our native plant orchard and wildflower prairie. The colors in The Lesser Bear's collection are made up of years worth of experimenting and research to create the perfect shades, sometimes taking days or even weeks to create one batch of ribbon.

Much of the beauty of natural dyes is the painterly quality they imbue on the fabric. Like a snowflake, each ribbon is unique in its own beauty. Each spool contains subtle color variations and may contain marking from the plant materials used in the dying process, phenomena which it true to the natural dying process and adds to the delicate and exquisite uniqueness of the ribbon.
Many of our ribbon’s patterns are created using the imprints of plants and the colors are created by shifting the pH or combining different plants to mix new and beautiful colors.



All ribbons, quilts and table linens are hand made by Kate in her studio.
Kate has a degree in jewelry design and a Masters in Fine and Decorative Arts. She worked for many years in the Jewelry Department at Sotheby’s in London surrounded by some of the world’s most elegant jewelry, before turning her focus to textiles. She brings an appreciation of the finest craftsmanship and artistic creativity to all of her designs in both ribbons and naturally dyed quilts and table linens.
As well as running The Lesser Bear, Kate is also a high school jewelry teacher, and is in the process of establishing a native fruit and nut orchard, native wildflower prairie and managing a 30+ forest for optimal carbon capture, in Southeastern Ohio. The orchard, forest and prairie will be available soon for photography sessions, intimate events and educational sessions on native plants and natural dyeing.
