TheSalvageHeart

Welcome to The Salvage Heart!

You can visit me here on Etsy www.etsy.com/shop/thesalvageheart or pop by my website www.thesalvageheart.com

My name is Nadia Kuhl, I am the owner, founder and creator behind the designs here at The Salvage Heart. I began creating wearable art several years ago when I started shopping around for the perfect pair of long fringe earrings. I shopped and shopped but nothing aligned with the idea in my head of a beautiful pair of wild forest woman fringes and feathers that I saw in my minds eye. So I set out to create a pair for myself! You can follow my journey here - www.instagram.com/thesalvageheart

I am a mama of two, a homeschooler, homesteader (watch for pics of my chickens and goats in my Instagram feed!) and my family and I live in a tiny house in the forest on Quadra Island. One of my favorite past times is to frequent thrift stores as I am an eco warrior (on many fronts) but especially when it comes to limiting my use of fast fashion and reducing my consumption of new textiles. At the beginning of my maker journey I looked into purchasing new leather for use in my projects, but found it really difficult to find ethically produced leathers. So I began to search for preloved jackets, skirts and other leather clothing items in thrift shops. The amount of clothing items that end up in second hand shops is overwhelming! And the percentage of these that don't sell and end up in land fills in increasingly large.
I had found my leather source!

I began to search for and purchase preloved items and found that the deconstruction of each item was a process that I loved! I take each piece, slowly separate the leather from the lining. I save the linings for other sewing and art projects. I remove the buttons and zippers for future use and pare things down, with very little waste, into useable pieces of colorful leather that will get turned into a fabulous set of wings! One of the things I especially love about upcycling clothing items is that it keeps the design process fresh, once a leather is used up, I am onto to the next texture and color!

My favorite part of selling my work, is watching each wild woman find their wings! From extra tiny, to extra long and flowing, each set of my wings are carefully crafted, hand cut and hand painted without a die cut, by me in my tiny forest studio!
I love hearing from you! Send me a message with questions or requests!

With love,
xo Nadia

www.thesalvageheart.com
www.etsy.com/shop/thesalvageheart