About Freemartin Fiber Workshop

Freemartin Fiber Workshop is an experimental practice in crafting for community. Under the Freemartin maker's mark, Morgan creates clothing and practical items from local plants and animals, starting with a triadic gift-giving relationship: the fiber-bearing plant or animal who gives the gift of their materials; the maker, who tends to the fiber-giver in order to make these objects; and the recipient, who is offered a physical reminder of the things we owe to each other and to the world.

Though Freemartin Fiber Workshop was initially started as a bartering practice, Morgan is now most interested in exploring economies that operate through shared responsibility, rather than explicit mutual exchange. They make things for community members who offer their own gifts, whether the recipient is Morgan themself or the community at large.

Freemartin Fiber Workshop was inspired by many individuals, communities, and species who are named on the Gratitudes page. Morgan maintains a library of books that have also inspired this project, which can be found on LibraryThing.

Regarding the name

Freemartin Fiber Workshop was created after Morgan had the honor of meeting and shearing Dandelion, a Finsheep cared for first by Austin [name] of Oak Shadows Farm, and now by Taylor Hartson of [name] farm. Dandelion is a freemartin: an intersex sheep who was assigned female at birth (to use a human term) and later developed masculinized physical and social characteristics due to elevated testosterone exposure in utero. Morgan is not intersex, but as a similarly short, transsexual, fur-bearing creature themself, they were so moved by the experience of shearing a trans sheep alongside two trans farmers, they dove headfirst into research while simultaneously processing Dandelion's beautiful fleece. Learning about the precious and valued non-reproductive social role that freemartins hold in a flock, Morgan was inspired to shift their creative practice into one that would celebrate the gifts of their transgressive siblings.