Today we’d like to introduce you to Leslie Kelly Shockley.
Hi Leslie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My goal is to create products that help reduce everyday waste. I started Tea With Iris in 2010 and have been making products from upcycled and organic materials that encourage sustainable living.
The products have evolved over the years based on my life and what people need…I get a lot of feedback from my customers at the farmer’s markets I sell at. I started when my daughter was two years old so I was making dresses from vintage linens, bibs from recycled materials and unique picnic blankets from vintage tablecloths since we spend a lot of our time outside.
I moved on to sourcing certified organic cotton and hemp to create goods that replace disposables such as my Everyday Organic Napkins, Dishtowels, Market Bags. In the past year, I switched my focus to making organic cotton face masks and also came up with reusable cleaning products that replace petroleum-based disposable products such as sponges, wet and dry mops. We have three dogs so I was determined to figure out a design to easily pick up the fur. My Everyday Organic Dry Mop & Wet Mop fits on the standard Swiffer and you are able to use it over and over which means less waste sent to the landfill.
Products also come about when I have piles of the same shaped fabric scrap in my studio. I never throw away any fabric because I know it will eventually spark an idea. I made so many organic face masks since March of 2020 that I had boxes of vibrant fabric scraps of the same shape. This is how the Organic Scrap Mat came about. And all of the smallest organic scraps get stuffed into my Everyday Organic Scrubby which replaces synthetic, disposable sponges. Most of my products can be composted at the end of its life since they are made using organic materials. This is so important to me because I want to be part of the solution and nourish our air, water and soil.
My work is inspired by a childhood spent in the open Coachella Valley desert with the surrounding mountains as my playground. While studying biology at California State University Fullerton and working with the California State Parks habitat restoration program during college, I learned the value of native vegetation in our arid environment. This is why I incorporate native plant prints and organic materials in my products – their beauty inspires awareness and environmental stewardship.
While working and living in Southeast Asia as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I became aware of how important it is to live in tune with Earth’s natural resources. Life in a rural island community taught me how important it is to deal directly with the waste that we create.
After returning to the Coachella Valley and becoming a mother, I became even more proactive in living a healthy lifestyle, “walking the talk”, and helping my daughter grow her own love and respect for the environment.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s never a smooth road but it’s so worth it owning your own business. The ability to come up with an idea that your care about and run with it is the biggest motivation to jump out of bed in the morning. I think the biggest struggle is managing your time and making sure you stay focused with your overall goal and not get sidetracked with too many ideas that it’s not feasible to accomplish.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
The focus of my business is always about living in tune with your natural environment. And to provide simple ways to reduce everyday waste. I make sure that the organic fabric that I use is third-party certified so that there isn’t any doubt in what you are buying. Customers can contact me anytime for the certificates. I encourage this because everything we buy has a consequence; it either ends up in a landfill or can be composted and return to the soil. Materials matter and how the cotton was grown matters. When you choose organic cotton, you are choosing to support a farm that doesn’t use pesticides and is nourishing the environment. The past few years, I have been collecting plant waste at the end of the farmer’s markets that I sell at. I use the avocado pits from the farm that grows the avocados and makes guacamole on site and I collect the carrot greens from the farm that sells them and removes them for their customers. I take these home and boil them in my dye pots to use as natural fabric dyes. I also use the plants that I grow in my garden. And what is so great is the community collaboration in my natural dye endeavor. Many friends and customers now save their avocado seeds for me and drop them off at my studio and at my farmer’s market stand so it is a group effort in reducing food waste and using it for natural dyes. You can see some of my natural dyes on the organic bandanas, bags, clothing and hair accessories. Another way I reduce waste is by collaborating with like-minded businesses. My latest collaboration is with my friends at Las Lilas Coffee. I use the burlap from their coffee sacks to incorporate into the design of my Organic Market Bag to make it durable. I also use their burlap for the rough side of my Everyday Organic Scrubby which makes it easy to wash dishes and it’s washable and compostable at the end of its life.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I grew up in an area of Palm Desert that was homestead land. The desert was our playground; my sisters and I would make the hills around our home our “castles”. We would hike and ride our horses in the surrounding mountains. I think growing up there made me want to work towards protecting nature and live in tune with it. This is why my company namesake is our desert tortoise named Iris whom we adopted from The Living Desert Reserve. She is symbolic of this area and her species needs to be protected.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.teawithiris.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teawithiris/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teawithiris
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/teawithiris
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ewtrG3gJQ5S9vn-XDiJqA
Image Credits:
Profile picture taken by my daughter Elle Shockley
