Her dye work and products have been showcased and sold at Whole Foods lifestyle sections, London Fashion Week, Cooper Hewitt Museum, Barney’s, Smithsonian Folk Life Festival and Lake Eden Arts Festival.
In 2012, Bellos partnered with Mark Cooley to create Stony Creek Colors. Her current work involves coordinating natural dye production with specialty crops (i.e., indigo and black walnut) at three farms in Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. Cooley said Bellos “works with farmers and agricultural-waste industries on contract dye-growing, in-house and outsourced research on next-generation natural colorants, and industrial-scale colorant manufacturing.”
In 2013, Bellos was part of the PERC Enviropreneur Institute for her innovative work to diversify small farmers into industrial dyes as more sustainable value-added crops.
The Young Entrepreneur Award
This award recognizes young entrepreneurs (less than 40 years of age) operating in the broader textile industry. An entrepreneur is defined as a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and outcomes of the creation.
Related stories:
Posted April 20, 2015
SAVANNAH, Ga.. – Sarah Bellos, founder and president of Stony Creek Colors, is the recipient of the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists’ (AATCC’s) Young Entrepreneur Award.
Bellos received the Young Entrepreneur Award at the AATCC International Conference here last month.
Bellos was recognized for producing regionally sourced natural dye colorants and pigments for industrial use. By blending education and experience, she has developed "a complete agricultural supply chain to deliver reliable and safe bio-based dyes to the textile industry and to help fashion brands reduce hazardous chemical use."
After studying sustainable agriculture at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) at North Carolina State University in 2001, Bellos worked as a farm production manager at Dilmun Hill Organic Farm in 2002 while attending Cornell University. In 2005, Bellos began ASK Apparel, where she monitored the manufacturing of naturally dyed apparel and accessories for ASK Apparel brand (in-house) and external dye clients.
From 2007 through 2011, Bellos became a part-time volunteer farmer and coordinator of Nashville Urban Harvest, where she was the lead coordinator of a one-acre urban vegetable farm. In 2009, she co-founded Artisan Natural Dyeworks, where she operated and managed a garment dyehouse, dyeing custom piece goods for fashion designers and manufacturers.
AATCC International Conference
Bellos named AATCC’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Sarah Bellos of Stony Creek Colors receives the AATCC Young Entrepreneur Award from Georgia Tech's Fred Cook, organizing member of the Young Entrepreneur Award Committee.