Aleksandra (Sasha) Azbel is the founder of Sashoonya, a sustainable textile studio based in Providence, Rhode Island. She specializes in natural dyes—grown, foraged, or sourced locally—to create accessories, apparel, home goods, wall hangings, and site-specific installations that celebrate the beauty and power of our coastline.

Sasha immigrated to the United States from Kazakhstan as a child and found a deep sense of belonging in nature. That connection deepened when she moved to Rhode Island for a Master’s degree in architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she fell in love with New England’s breathtaking shoreline. Encounters with natural dye traditions around the world, alongside Rhode Island’s legacy of industrial pollution from textile production, led her to explore the art of natural dyeing as a way of reconnecting with land, place, and identity.

Sasha work with plants, seaweed, and food waste to extract dyes that color silk, wool, and cotton for both art and fashion. She grows dye plants like indigo and marigold on a local farm, forages for algae along the coast, and collects organic waste from local businesses to create textiles marked by seaweed, moons, pearls, seeds, and sunsets. Her process includes steaming, immersion dyeing, block- and tie-resist, and dye painting, resulting in a growing visual language rooted in time, place, and care.

Sasha’s work reflects the beauty and joy we find in the ecosystems we inhabit—and the commitment of her practice to nurture and protect them.