The First Thing to Find Its Way Beyond the Retreat

I have always been a fabric person.

People who know me well will know that there are pieces of fabric everywhere in my home. Scarves, throws, blankets and textiles I have collected. Sometimes just a metre of something I loved and decided to drape over a chair.

I like colour and texture. I like things that feel good against the body. Things that soften a space and make it more inviting to lie down in.

I first became properly interested in sheepskins through the retreat and ceremony spaces I was spending time in. I spend a lot of time lying down on these occasions, and at some point I found myself on a sheepskin thinking, Well, where can I get my own one?

It turned out not to be that simple.

There were a few farms and very few suppliers, but most were not interested in selling one or two at a time. So I started finding and buying them myself.

First, they were for me. Then I began buying a few more and selling them through word of mouth.

There was no shop or formal launch. I had a few photographs, sent a few messages and carried sheepskins around in my car. People I knew through retreat, ritual and wellness spaces started buying them.

I felt it. I dealt it.

Then something funny started happening.

Someone would buy one and return shortly afterwards needing another. The first had been claimed by a child, a dog or a cat. Or it had moved permanently onto a favourite chair, and they now wanted one for somewhere else.

One became two, and people began sending their friends to me.

The sheepskins did not enter Sweetwater as a product idea. They were already part of how I lived.

I realised there was space for beautiful, carefully selected sheepskins at an accessible price. Most people were not going to spend their time finding the farms and suppliers themselves.

I was, because I genuinely loved doing it.

I still select every piece of stock myself. I look at the colour, texture, shine, weight and shape. I imagine where it might live and how it will feel. I buy and hold the stock personally, so I care about every skin I choose.

My own home is full of them. Across couches, under my desk, beside my bed and anywhere else that needs softening.

I once travelled from South Africa to Brazil for a vision quest carrying two sheepskins among all the equipment I thought would help me survive four days and nights on a mountain.

They were not nearly warm enough.

Somewhere high along a remote mountain pass, I came across a tiny shop with four extremely thick sheepskins hanging outside. They were not polished or luxurious. They looked more suited to the back of a horse than the floor of a beautiful home.

I bought one immediately.

That was the skin that kept me warm on the mountain. I still have it.

Sheepskins became the first objects to find their way beyond the retreat because they were already travelling with me. From gatherings into homes. From the floor to a favourite chair. From the person who bought one to the pet who promptly claimed it.

Warm, soft, soothing and designed by nature to protect a body.

The Sweetwater Atelier did not begin with a product strategy.

It began with something I loved, carried with me and could not stop telling people about.

They felt it too.