17 June 2025
01:17:13
Jane Gray
OVERVIEW:
Jane Gray, known as the Nettle Lady, shared her journey from Brighton to Cornwall, highlighting her transformation from a stay-at-home mother to a university graduate and nettle weaver. She discussed her challenges, including a tumour diagnosis and the loss of her great friend, Howard. Jane emphasised the health and sustainability benefits of nettles, including their use in textiles and teas. She founded Nettle Revolution, promoting natural fibres and sustainable practices. Jane also mentioned her involvement in the Golden Zones project and her son's gratitude journaling app, which has positively impacted her outlook. She advocates for using nettles for their numerous health and environmental benefits.TOPICS
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Jane Gray, known as the nettle lady, is a visionary, an artist, weaver, and founder of the nettle
revolution. What if the weed stinging your ankles on a country walk could clothe your back, heal your gut, and
change your perspective on aging, grief, and the planet. Her work with Nettles
brought her national recognition, including a Theopathus Small Business Sunday Award,
but it's her gentle approach to healing, creativity, and sustainability that really stands
out. This conversation will take us from grief to growth, sting to strength, and show how nature can shape us if we let
it. Hi, I'm Curly Steve and we're searching for a greener room. Hi Jane, welcome to the show. Hi Curly.
Nice to see you. So, thank you so much for coming in. Um, let's rewind. Let's start at the very beginning. Tell me a
little bit about your uh where did you come from? What was your journey? Oh my goodness, Curly. Thanks for having me.
This is just such a a privilege and I'm really excited to be here. I um started 66 years ago actually in
Brighton and uh my parents were about 20 when um they had me and um my father was a little bit concerned at the time. He
was a signw writer. So he um took us all to Manchester to make some money and um um that's where my life began. And um I
grew up in Manchester. Um have a little bit of a northern twang in my accent. And then eventually my father having
made some money wanted to live back by the sea but didn't go back to Brighton. He came to Cornwall. And by then I was
married and I had four children. And um I had a fabulous time being a mother, stay-at-home mother. And
uh initially we lived um in St Ives um top of St Ives on a farm that my father bought and I lived in a caravan
and surrounded uh by fields and we had so many different animals and we grew our own veg and I think that's my first
immersion into nature was in Stant Ives on the farm with the wind swirling around and all those animals and my kids
loved it. What an amazing place to grow up. I mean, being in Cornwall as a as a youth is is such a a pleasure, isn't it?
Yeah. Yeah. Such a natural place to be. Awesome. So, tell what happened from there. Well, living in a caravan wasn't
my ideal situation because literally the caravan was put in a field and it had no facilities, no
electricity. I had no washing machine. We didn't have running water. Uh we didn't have lights. We had those mantels
that you lit. Yeah. And um gas the little gas lamps. It was all very very simple which my husband loved. Okay. But
for me with two children initially in uh the first second one was in nappies and I had territorial in nappies. I wasn't I
was struggling without a washing machine. So I did start saying please can we get a house which wasn't very
viable at the time because he was still trying to build a business to enable us to have the funds to buy a house.
Eventually that happened and we moved to Hail where there was a bit more space for us and more affordable at the time
into a house into a house. Okay, cool. Yeah. So um yeah, my children went to school in Hail and I had two more
children and uh I eventually then moved to Upton Towers nearer to the beach and I can walk every day straight out to the
beach and it's just fabulous. A beautiful area there. Yeah. Wonderful. So um forward on a few years there and
uh you decided to uh well tell me the story of um what got you to uh to university.
Ah so a few lifech changing situations occurred. One of
them was me deciding I had a voice uh or well I wanted one. Um, and having been a stay-at-home mother for
uh, well, up till 2000, I don't know how old I was then. I'm trying to work it out.
Um, I had been, well, a mom. Mhm. It's a fabulous job. I, you know, recommend it to everybody, but, um, I didn't go to
work at that time. I wanted to give my children my full attention and um and also my background history of the way I
was raised um was a kind of different kind of life that I found or felt I needed to move on
from. So it was a religious background and um I just
felt I needed to grow and living the life that I was raised in and I'd married into I couldn't do that. It it
just wasn't feeling it wasn't sitting right with me. um I started feeling depressed in that
situation and I didn't want to live a life where um I was stuck. So unfortunately I
decided to leave that religion which meant I got divorced and that kind of changed a lot of things especially for
the children. It was a a period of deep reflection and um I was I went I went to work for Barclay's Bank. I did a period
working for Barclay's Bank. I didn't know I was dyslexic sick then. So that was fun. Mhm. Um I didn't lose money. So
this was sorry just was this after divorce or before divorce that you started working with after. So I got
divorced around 2000 and then about 2003 I was working for Barclays. And this is when you started feeling that you found
your voice. This is me looking for my voice. Okay. I was searching for my voice. So So just uh we we won't dwell
on it, but the the religion was one that uh the the female side is is kept relatively quiet.
The female side is kept in its place. Right. Okay. So yeah, my my um relationship with my
husband was um I would prov he would uh provide for the meals and I would make the meals and uh I used to cook whole
who wholesomely. So I would be baking and making cake and putting lovely meals on the table every day and I would be
looking after him and um he would just go to work. Well, not just but he would go to work and that was how it was. So
where where was your creativity at this stage? Were you able I was a knitter. Oh yeah, I um made things constantly. Um I
was a huge knitter. Clothes and stuff or Yeah, I knitted everything. I I would knit the children's school uniforms. I
would knit my clothes. Um I would make um dresses for myself. Um I didn't attempt to make boys trousers because
they put the knees out too quickly and I would spend ages making them and they would wreck them. So that that didn't
happen. Um at that time money was quite hard. Um money was quite hard to come by and my husband was a window cleaner. So,
I would get up at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings and be down the car boots looking for um clothing for my children.
And we used to ek out the pennies that way. Yeah. And um I lived a frugal life on the farm
and on the farm without the uh facilities to you have a washing machine, handwashing in literally
um uh old baths that were put there in the field for the animals to drink from. I would be there washing my hair
sometimes or um washing out the nappers and then and that's tough with with the old Terry nappies, isn't it? very tough
especially in the winter. Yeah, I did have enough of it. I did I I did get to the point of breaking point and I said
to my husband, you know, we need a house. Yeah. So, so fast forward back to um uh to you got
divorced. You started finding I I needed to earn money. Yeah. So, I I didn't know who she was at the time. Um this this
lady. So I um I was just taking jobs that I could um you know apply for and that was local. So I um first of all
work for bar clays but all the time I at that time because I started this new uh path of looking for who I was. I started
attending um evening courses um at Penworth College and I learned to become a masseuse. Um I did teacher training
whilst I was working and after the Barclay's bank um that didn't really work out having
found out I was dyslexic. They put me through you know the program so it was official. Um I um I went into care work.
So I worked for a number of companies but MENAP was the main one. And um obviously I empathize with people.
I'm a people person. I love working with people. Um but I I knew I didn't want to stay
uh as a carer. And at that time, MENAP was going through a difficult period in the department I was working and it made
me quite ill. So I ended up feeling some paralysis down my left side and I was having
blurred vision and headaches and went to the doctors and uh they said I had a tumor
so on my brain just under the brain and a dear friend at that time said to me look don't go back to MENAP when you're
come through this operation. let's find you an art gallery that you've always
wanted. So he was uh very kindly um encouraging me because obviously I was quite
frightened. A tumor on the brain you start thinking all sorts and also they did mention the C word. So they didn't
know what it was until they till the day that they um opened things up and had a look.
Fortunately, all went well and it was keyhole surgery up through my nose and after that
um Howard did keep his promise and while I was recuperating from and having some time
off work to um recover from the bleed that was going on after the operation, um we went to St Ives and we looked
around and we found a beautiful venue for me to have as a gallery. And I didn't really know what I
was going to be doing in this place, but I was already making textile pictures from
um pieces of fabric that would have ended up in landfill. So, I was already um starting to look at
sustainability and how I might promote it. And in 2008 my first grandchild was born. So that was quite significant
because I felt I needed to start leading the way and setting setting an example in this field of sustainability.
Excellent. So just um can you tell us who Howard is? Howard was a lovely gentleman who was reaching
retirement and he was a lecturer at Halum University and he moved to Cornwall to
retire and he was working on various projects in hail one one of them was save our sands and he worked for um as a
volunteer for different departments and that's where I met him and you became great friends. we became friends. Um we
started going to the Minak Theater for picnics and watching shows and just um hanging out. And um he said to me that
he was looking forward to his pension and he told me how much he'd accumulated and it was a substantial
amount. and he joked with me saying, "Well, if you married me and anything ever
happened to me, you know, you'd inherit my pension because um the way it works, pensions die with the person if they're
single." So, I just giggled. And uh we set up this lovely business in St Ives and he would sit in
the gallery and sell my work and I would be at home making it. Amazing. So at that
time chickens came into my life. Okay. So chickens was my first point of making. Um they inspired me to create
these pictures of chickens. And the first two chickens that came into my life were because on
an estate near where I was living, um, people had moved and left these chickens in the back garden. And my
daughter knew I was quite keen on having chickens and her f and my daughter's friend had said, "Tell your mom that
these chickens will pass away because there's nobody caring for them." So, they needed rescuing. Go rescue them.
And those chickens rescued me right back. That's brilliant. I love that. Yeah,
they did. They were so Well, after we settled them into their new home, I had quickly had to have a home built for
them. Um, they had the free range of my garden. They became so humorous. They became so loving. They were they were so
funny. They'd be hopping around chasing flies and doing all sorts of funny little antics and, you know, dusting
themselves. They chickens love to be clean. and they created a little hollow in my lawn, but you know, I'll let them
keep it. And um they would be dusting their feathers. And so my research started around
uh what do chickens need? And you know um it led me it led me into the area which became very sad which
was how chickens are kept for industrial purposes. So I went down that rabbit hole quite deeply and
became aware of the adaptations or modifying of chickens in the very early embryionic
stage or before that even how they um create chickens to put on more flesh for meat and how these poor chickens
grow very rapidly. ly putting on the meat and then they can't hold their weight and then they fall over in the
barns and they get ulcerated bodies and other chickens peck them because they become vulnerable and all these kind of
things started affecting me and I I was getting rather sad about what I was seeing and so my chickens became even um
more relevant because I wanted to get a message out to the public that
chickens are sentient beings. They have feelings. They know their uh GPS position on the planet. They're
intelligent. They have a hierarchy. Um, and and so by getting that message out, I wanted people to think if they're
going to eat chicken and enjoy it, please give thanks for the life of that chicken that
produced it, don't just go down to those big places that produce a lot of chicken and sell it cheaply and enjoy that um
quick fast food without appreciating the life and maybe some trauma that that chicken had to go through to produce
that meat for you. Plus the way they farm get the chickens um producing eggs. It was cruel back in the day confining
them to small cages. I think it still is now to to an extent, isn't it? But yeah, they they they try to change
legislation. There's periods of my time when I was you doing all this work that I used to
keep an eye on all that. Um so moving on to uh to nettles. Yes. Um you've made us a lovely uh cup of tea of
of nettle tea today. Yeah. Enjoy. And it's nettles mints. So, I love nettles as nettles is, but when I make my cups
of tea to encourage other people to start drinking nettles, I suggest um putting a little bit of mint in because
people are familiar with mint. So, um something they recognize, but at the back, the undertone of the mint is the
nettles with with its huge benefits. And I So, before we go any further, that that is super fresh. It's tasty. It's
It's a really nice cup of tea. I've never had nettle tea before. Oh, wonderful. Um, so that's really special.
What What about the the tea nettle tea that you can buy sort of off the shelf? Obviously, it's not as fresh, but is
that still Yeah. So, Clipper Clipper do a very nice organic nettle tea in a tea bag. Um, I
recommend having nettles whichever way you can choose to have it. So obviously in some places where nettles are not
growing freely and you can't just go and pick them city areas you know if you can purchase nettle um dry nettle you can
buy it in loose like you would buy loose tea you can buy dried nettle um you can buy it in a tea bag form but best of all
is going out picking it yourself and you know it immerses you in the nature and you can learn so much by just looking
where the nettles is growing. So let's let's go to where your nettle journey came from because this is fascinating.
You went to university at the age of late 50s. Late 50s and you went to Felmouth University. I did. And let's
let's let's go with that journey. Okay. So just picking up from the chickens. So I was creating all this wonderful work.
I thought it was wonderful, but it must have been because it was selling. So, um, a lady in Birmingham actually, she
filled her whole solicitor's office with all my work. She invited me to go there. It was literally walls like this, just
full of my work. She would purchase it. What was this? This was artwork. This was all the sustainable textiles. I
would stitch the pictures of chickens. I would have a sewing machine and because my eyes are not brilliant, I would do a
zigzag stitch um rather than a running stitch. So these pictures became very lively, very flamboyant and these
chickens used to get up to all sorts. I I would I would create their legs and you know they would be doing all sorts
and they became pictures with telling stories within the pictures and um at that point of of having a couple
of years of success with the chickens my friend passed away. Ah this your friend Howard? Yeah my friend Howard right it
was very unexpected and he hadn't even drawn his first pension. Um, and it was tragic and it just took the wind right
out of my sales. My business was gone. Howard was gone and I was lost again. I was just picking up at that point. This
was 2015. So, I'd had 15 years of creating Jane and getting this funky, fun,
lively person going. you know, I was just getting somewhere and and and looking to the future to
have a financial some financial stability when um we no longer had Howard and I just was taken back so
abruptly that um the grief and the shock I just didn't know what to do with myself and
so obviously I didn't want to go back to where I had been with working for um somebody else because I was now um
entrepreneurial, you know, I was I I was keen to create. Um also at that time I did get a patent under my belt. I
created something else, but that's another story. Um so I was busy working on that project.
Um and I had met somebody on a catwalk. We were doing a um charitable fashion um evening to raise money. I can't
remember the cause, sorry, but it was down at the Queen's Hotel in Penzance. And I was paired up with a lady that I
didn't know. And our nurse were a little bit, you know, all over the place that evening. We had to they'd put a raised
um runway or what do you call it? Um you know, for for us to walk. The catwalk. The catwalk. It was raised and I could
see all these people kind of looking up, you know, to where we'd be walking. It was a bit nerve-wracking. So, you were
modeling, were you? I was modeling clothes. Yeah. So, for a for a a shop, um, it was called McKay's in Penzance at
the time. I think they've gone from Penzance now. So, I was paired up with a lady called an was at university and she
was a little bit older than me. So when she told me she was a student, I was like, "Student at your age? Wow. How did
you become a student? Sure. You just phoned them up." Yeah. So that that was it really. So I um we we had our evening
and I said, "Oh, I'd really like to talk to you some more about your experience at Farmouth University." She did
journalism. So um I met up with her for a coffee some days later. I was ke this was probably springtime and obviously
with university looming for September I was keen to go if I could and I I'd had a quick look online at the courses and I
thought well when people came into my gallery and said to me oh these pictures are amazing how uh where did you do your
design art degree I would always sort of say well I don't have a degree and there was just something about um my
confidence that got knocked a little. I don't know why imposter syndrome. Well, it was really so at that point I thought
this is an opportunity to underpin all that I've been doing with a degree and um I met an and she said oh
I'll help you you know let's have a look online and we'll get the phone number of Falmouth uni and she was keen for me to
go. So she was leaving before I started so I never actually got to see her there but um I applied I got in and the rest
is history. I finished in lockdown though that was a bit of a bummer because at the end of your three years
you have a graduation celebration and exhibition of your work which for me didn't happen. Ah okay. So, so just
while you were at university, uh, tell me the story of, um, how you found nettles. So, yes, that's where it
all began. That's where it all began. That's where the the nettle revolution began. It did. I didn't call it that
till after uni when um I decided I needed a website. So, yeah, a bit of brainstorming for Nettle Revolution. But
at university I studied textile design. And um you had three options. You could print, embroider or weave. And
I went to university wanting to become a weaver because whilst I was working on getting a prototype and a patent for a
vehicle to get my grandchildren to the beach over the sandunes, which wasn't a push chair with little wheels. This was
a mono vehicle. I had to go to meet people. I had meetings um with uh with um Oxford
Innovation and they enabled me they had they they backed me with some funding and they enabled me to get a prototype
made. It was made in wood. It's in my back garden still all these years later. Um and I had to walk through the weave
department. Isn't it funny? life. So, I had to walk walk through the weave department to get to this guy's office
to talk about what the um prototype was going to look like, how much it was going to cost, how long it would take,
and all these kind of things. And I would see uh out of hours um probably during the holidays,
all these looms stood in rows like soldiers. It was amazing. And I thought, do you know what? I'm getting weaving
looms. Weaving looms. Traditional looms. Yeah. And I thought, I would love love love to um know how to operate one of
those machines. They're made of wood. They look so natural. This is history. You know, this is how people made our
cloth. And it was all turnurning around in my head. So getting an opportunity to go to university meant that I was now
going to be able to learn how to operate one of these machines and it was just a dream come true. It was just as simple
as that. It was magic. So you so you learned how to use them the machine and then and then they said to you, you've
got to choose a a a material or a a a fiber to use. Well, that's how it works. So all our clothing
um has is is a fabric and back in the day it would be natural fabric because
that's what we would grow and so that was what was used. It's unfortunate that plastic came onto the scene and years
down the line we've got polyester and various other artificial uh fabrics
which I wanted to get away from because now I'm thinking sustainably. I'm looking for a greener room. I want
everybody to um know uh the things that I was learning. So I started looking at natural fibers, started my research. I
came across flax and cotton and linen, silk um and
wool and eventually nettles. Um for the people who are vegan and um you know like me, you know, I I care about
animals deeply. I didn't want to touch silk because they actually use the the cocoon of the silk worm um and
they plunge it into boiling water to process the silk and the little uh silkworm inside gets boiled alive and
it's not a nice process. So I I I didn't want to go that route. So a few of my colleagues at the time were
um researching flax. So I decided I did something different and I
came across nettles. Um I had nothing I had no knowledge on anything um about the fiber
of nettles but once I started digging a little I could see that there was a big story to be had. So I went that way that
that route and it was amazing. It opened up a a whole new world. Who would have believed it? But once I started
researching nettles, I came across Nettles for Textiles, which was a face which is a Facebook group um a growing
rapidly growing Facebook page now. Um run by a few people, but Alan Brown was on uh on there and Jillian Eden, I have
her book here somewhere. Um I got hold of Alan Brown. I contacted
him and said that I was writing a dissertation all about nettle fiber and could I ask him a few questions to
include in the dissertation. So we kind of grew a friendship from there and at that
time I was just loving all the history of the nettles. So I have a book here called a natural history of nettles. uh
lots of uh information in that yellow book here that I was able to use in my dissertation and uh and I ended up kind
of going online um using the universities um
search engines and finding different books and um well whilst I'm doing all this Alan
Brown not that I knew directly at that time was going through a very tragic time of his wife becoming sick with
cancer and he was trying to cope with all this um going for long walks with his lovely dog Bonnie into Brighton
Woods. It's coincidence that he was living in Brighton and that's where I'm from. So it was a lovely connection. Um
and he was looking at the nettles wondering about a story that he had in his head and Christian Anderson about
some swans. These these swans had these the swans were had been um the brothers of a young woman. Um but they'd had a a
spell cast upon them and they'd become swans. And this young woman wanted her brother's back. So she had to seek um
the wicked person who'd cast the spell. And the person said, this is the story in Hans Christian Anerson, um that if
she wanted her brothers back, she would have to go into a graveyard and weave nettle jackets for them.
And that interest in Alan Brown's head was, well, I wonder how you can do that. You know, how is this a true story?
What's this all about? Um, he he then um spent a lot of time gathering nettles when the stems are about five or six
foot long and returning home with them. And he started teaching himself how to get the fiber out. So, while he's
teaching himself to do this, he has a friend called Dylan. And he says to Dylan, "On the Facebook page, I've been
talking about creating these fibers." And people are showing interest. So, could you do a little bit of filming?
You know, perhaps just catch me, you know, breaking them and so I can show people how they might have a go. So, he
starts, so Dylan starts making small films of him doing that. And then the process when you're
breaking open your nettle fiber, you get your your lengths of fibers out, but then you have to process those. You have
to ply those fibers to make them stronger. So that's so that's so first you get a single fiber and then you have
to ply it into like a string. So you know if I pulled I can pull easily pull out one of my hairs, you know, it'll
just I can pull that out. But then if I get a little bundle Yeah. you know this almost impossible. Yeah. Yeah. That's
right. I mean so you're looking at strength there. You're looking at strength. So it's called plying. So um
um Allan had to learn how to spin. And then he had to learn how to take the yarn he'd created to make a
fabric because during this process he thought I wonder how I can make a cloth you know and he's also doing the
research. uh looking at ancestral fabrics. So I was very curious about all this. Um, and at that point over a
number of years of me watching his progress and him watching my progress, um, I
discovered that, um, they they they'd created quite a lot of, uh, information, filmed it, and
decided they could probably put a small film together about the whole process. And in the meantime, his wife did pass
away. Yeah. So in the story it's about uh grief. It's about the love of the land. It's about historical relevance to
the history of the land. It's about how our ancestors used to create cloth from our land. And it's h and it's all about
where we will end up eventually. M it's about our how fragile our life is how strong we can make it while we're here
but then how fragile it can become will become and how then compostable you
know the things that we make from nettles my nettle scarves you know the the cloth that I
make I can lay that in my garden and over a period of time it will just decompost back and become soil the
creatures in the soil, the bacterial elements and insects will eat it and so it's not
going to sit there like plastic for 100 years not or more. So, so the whole story for me, the background story is
promote natural materials um so that we're saving our planet from these plastics. And now I have eight
grandchildren. My story has become I've become more determined to get this story across and some of the grandchildren too
young to understand what I'm doing. But there'll come a day when they'll think, "Oh, that's why grandma was weaving and
that's why she had those strange looking scars wrapped around." They'll take this forward as well, won't they? Hopefully,
potentially hopefully um I will have imparted knowledge. Yeah, for sure. and history
and even if they don't take it forward the legacy that I leave that I hope to leave in the work that I'm doing will um
sustain some future. So you graduated university, you've found nettles, you've uh you've met several people on your
journey of researching nettles and you've created is this when you've created uh the nettle revolution.
So yes, having left uni, had a studio built to house all my looms that I'd acquired. Um so my son-in-law built the
studio during lockdown cuz he was a builder, couldn't work. So that was fortuitous in that respect. So I have a
lovely studio. Um I wanted to run workshops on how to weave and um talk about
nettles. Uh but nobody in Cornwall feels um basically they didn't want to pay me to teach them. Um it was quite hard to
earn a money um showing people the skills of setting up a loom and weaving.
Um, so I was looking for other opportunities to earn a living. Mhm. Um so I I thought I need a website and
during that period oh one interesting thing that happened whilst I was still at university on my graduation day I was
given this book and it's a book that was just being handed out to all graduates and I thought it looks like a really
interesting book and actually I'm gifting you this book. Oh wow. It's um from um Creative Uprising by George
Harwick. Yep. So George Hardwick. Um Thank you. Yeah. At that time I thought he was in Glastonbury because there's
lots of references of him being sound engineer at Glastonbury um music festivals and things like that.
And there's a reference in there to Ed Sheeran because he was working with George was working with Ed and Ed was
quite young and he was getting under George's feet while George was putting out all the you know sound equipment and
everything. And anyway, I read the book and it's got just some great information in there and I wanted to thank George
because it moved me this book. It taught me there's a quote in there. It taught me something very powerful. It said it's
there's a quote in there um that says that um let nature shape you into a force of nature.
And I thought well that's exactly what's happening to me. You know I am becoming a force of nature. I can I just stop you
there? Let me just um just just hear that slowly. Let nature Let the force of nature force of nature
shape you into a force of nature. Yeah, that's beautiful, isn't it? It is. Yeah. Sorry to interrupt you there. Carry on.
So, I I really resonated with that phrase and the name of the gentleman is in that
book. It's Malister. I sorry, I've forgotten his name exactly. That's okay. We'll have a look at that later.
Um, but I said to George, "Would he mind me pinching that quote?" He said, "I'm I'm sure he wouldn't." So, um, at that
time, so so I wanted to thank, um, George for this great publication and, um, I went on LinkedIn to look for him
and I sent him a private message to say, "I've read your book. It's amazing." And um next thing I know he's phoning me and
said, "Let's meet." Amazing. And um he happened to be at the launch pad at Felmouth at the time. So he was on my
doorstep. I couldn't believe it. And he'd teamed up with Mike Turner and they were setting up a business called The
Greater Life for People over 50. Um so that there is this period or this um misconception really that uh we get
to a retirement age and we're done. Yeah. And I knew that you're only just getting
started. Well, exactly. I knew that I was just getting to the point where I was building something. So there was no
way I would be wanting to retire. And Mike Turner is is obviously a similar age and he he is just building a new
business so he's not going to be wanting to retire. So this is this is how the nettle revolution was born. Yeah. So I
got together with these guys to find out what they were doing and being over 50 they decided that they could interview
me in various ways. I I could help them um by feed giving feedback and so that they would know how they could take
their a business forward which would appeal to people over the age of 50. and we formed a a little founding group
and we would meet every Sunday on Zoom and there was a few of us by now and we would all um brainstorm their new
business which was in alignment with what what I was doing now because I wanted to grow Nettle
Revolution. So they helped me by um creating a website for me and brainstorming names. You know I was
coming up with all sorts of nettle um con you know uh phrases with nettles in it. Anyway, we settled for nettle
revolution and on the 3rd of January just a few years ago the website was born. The name was bought and born and
and I am I became little revolution. I'm loving it. Brilliant. So, tell me what what what
does nettle revolution look like? What does it do? Well, I take the sting out of nettles. I love that. That's what I
do. And that's a that's a um a metaphor for life, right? So, you've taken the sting out of your life. So, let me show
you. And you've taken the sting out of your life and used something that that would normally
sting you for something so valuable. and um you know and creative etc etc. Exactly. So there's usually two sides to
things, isn't there? Yeah. An upside and a downside, a bad side and a good side. A dark side and a light side. And that's
how I see the nettles. So the nettles are magical. They really, really are magical. If anybody can watch the nettle
film, the sorry the nettle dress fil um they will appreciate the magic behind nettles because in that film it's
captured perfectly. So I in my research was discovering the magic of nettles. They are mystical. They are
strong, resilient, powerful, energetic, lively, nutritionally rich. They're they're
abundant in fiber. They're abundant in producing life for creatures um that need a habitat.
Um there's just so much I could probably spend hours just talking about the nettle. So, I like to think of nettle as
a metaphor and that my life to this point has had quite a few knocks and some stings and you know the pain that
you feel if you get stung by a nettle accidentally when you're just brushing through them and you're totally not
expecting you. It does take your breath away sometimes and you do say ouch or worse. And kids do cry if they fall off
their bike and get stung. Um but for me now uh I embrace those stings. I I look at any obstacle in my
pathway as a opportunity to grow, a learning experience, a learning experience. And I also have learned so
much from the nettle. Um, in as much as I am careful how I use my words because like the
nettle, the nettle can harm and it can also heal. And it's like a two-edged sword. And our words are the
same. Our words can harm or heal. And over this period of learning about nettles, I've got deeper and deeper into
becoming a creative force of nature. And something happened along the way whereby my son approached me and
said, "Mom, could you please trial this um website for me, this
um program that I've developed?" And I said, "Yes, of course. And what is it?" and he said to me back in October, "I've
created an app for J for gratitude journaling." And I thought, "Well, that's right up my street. That's
amazing. I wonder where all that came from because it it was a bit like my my son was working from home because
postcoid he was still working from home at that time. And his home was much like your office here, you know, in the other
room. It was just full of screens and coding and he was coding and uh creating and
I looked at his um gratitude journaling app. It's called say thank say say thanks.ai AI. And it gave me a prompt
each day and I would think about the prompt and then respond and then it would respond back
saying, you know, you're on the right path or think about it from this aspect or that angle. And over the last six
months, it's rewired my whole brain. I'm not saying it's done yet, but it's rewiring my whole brain to remove all
the negativity from my past. All that harmful toxic stuff that maybe I'd stored and revisited from time to time.
I don't want to do that anymore. So, I want to just be uplifted by the nettle and I I I want to just stay on
the positive side of life and for every obstacle that comes my way, I'm just going to be looking at the
positives and take everything as a learning opportunity and so that I can move forward and teach people what I'm
learning myself. So you this is amazing stuff. You've you've you've taken nettles and you've
taken affirmations and um and you've you've healed yourself uh or you're healing yourself with them. And this is
nature, right? This is nature, right? This is about as nature as it comes. So, so the other aspect of
this is whilst I was researching nettles as a fiber, I was being inundated with
nettles for the health bi benefits that I could be rewarded with by embracing nutritional nettles in my life and in my
diet. So, not only am I weaving with them to make clothing now, I'm also creating teas, um, chopping them up
and putting them in my stews, um, using them in in all sorts of way, making nettle balm. I'm doing all sorts
of things with them now. Um, and the nutritional benefits are just vast. M and I realized although my
website Nettle Revolution was created to be a show case for my scarves to sell scarves and I have been selling nettle
scarves um I wanted to add in there all the um extra information to help improve
people's lives in a physical well-being kind of way. Amazing. and tell us about um Theopathus
and uh is it small business Sunday? So along the way I'm looking for ways to grow and
expand and years ago when I had my chickens I came across Theopites's small business Sunday and I would every Sunday
I would write my little um Twitter text and pitch to him with my about chickens. I would make it humorous. I would make
it sad. I would make it any which way to try and appeal to him. Did it for years and I I I didn't hear back from him, but
I tried. And so the first time I did that, well, it occurred to me I could start again with the
nettles. And uh the first time I did it, the following day I get a message from Theopo Pitus that I'm a winner. I
was like, I just couldn't believe it. This is with Nettle Revolution. Yeah. Amazing. So, I messaged him on Twitter
because you you can pitch to him on Sundays between a certain period of time and then on the Monday he picks
um it was three winners back in those days. It's more now because he's expanded to Instagram and LinkedIn, but
it was just Twitter then which is now X and um yeah 8:00 he reveals the winners. So
when you become a a winner um it's less than 1% of people that have actually submitted a pitch to him. So
it's a big deal. M and I had said that I'm now um creating scarves from stinging nettles.
And I my my little tagline that I believe won it for me was the um bit where I do say I take the sting out of
the nettles because I think it was punchy enough to get his attention. So what that meant was I get to um go and
meet him uh receive an award and each year now we have a big celebration which is held I've been to two now um I won
two years ago um it was Birmingham at the IC and uh he brings in wonderful
speakers. So last year was Stacy Solomon um and this year and others and this year oh sorry Maxine Laceby she's she's
been amazing um mentor to me and Maxine particularly um came on Zoom and helped me with uh
promoting ways of promoting my nettle bomb because I wanted to um scale up because uh at the time Theo said at this
event, "How are you going to scale up your business?" And I knew I couldn't scale up by weaving
scarves. It's not fast enough. Um so I decided to make Nettlebomb and the wonderful Maxine Lace was one of his
keynote speakers of the day and she was humbled enough to spend time mentoring me on Zoom. That was a wonderful
experience. She Maxine Laceby owns Absolute Collagen. It's huge. I've met her actually. Wonderful. I believe.
Yeah. Yeah. She's just become a grandma conference last year. She's lovely. Um so we connected on um socials.
Um, in the meantime, I met a GP down in Marazion, uh, which has taken me on a little bit
of a trajectory, um, away from the nettle bomb, um, because we started looking at ways
of using Nettle Revolution to help heal people um, and and prevent them from needing to
go to uh the doctor's surgery because it's so hard to get appointments at the moment. So, the lady Helen Angel that I
met, she's uh a current GP. So, we're planning to have um have Helen on the show at some stage. Wonderful. Solve is
an SEO and web design agency that builds highquality sustainable websites and strategies to help businesses grow
online. They're also BC Corp, meaning they're a business for good, making a positive
impact while driving real results. As a special offer for our listeners, Solve is offering a free website audit and
consultation. Just mention searching for a greener room to claim yours. So, yeah, we're hoping to get
Helen on the show at some stage. This actually leads us nicely into your um the evidence that you uh you've brought
along with you this time. So, we've asked you to bring along five bits of evidence and uh for a bit of fun, what
we're going to do is we're going to give you a minute to talk about each one if you can if you can last that long. Alex
over there has got a dinner bell and he's going to be timing. So, at a minute he's going to ring the dinner bell. So,
the first one, this is going back to uh to Helen. Um, Live to 100, Secrets of the Blue Zones. It's a Netflix film by
Dan Bha. Is that how you say it? Bner. There we go. Oh. Um, yes. So,
I was um busy with Nettle Revolution, building it up and taking myself off for walks because that's when I can do my
thinking. And I kept bumping into a a woman on the beach. And uh one particular time uh talking to her and
she said um oh there's a lady you need to meet called Dr. Helen Angel. She's very much aligned with what you're
telling me. Um you may have you know be able to do something together. And so I went to meet Helen and yes, we hit it
off and we are setting up the golden zones which is um an even greater uh project than the blue zones because
we're creating it here in Cornwall and we are the golden ladies the and and and it's been established on the golden
mile. Go on, carry on for a minute. The golden mile in Marazion was um initially um known for um it's seaweed and the
farmers used to collect it to put on their fields as a way of fertilizing it and making cornal much more uh fertile
and sustainable. So what's what actually uh is the golden zone? So, what we want to do is help people uh stay well, be
become fitter, and and and live longer by becoming aware of what they're eating and um eating better. And that's based
on the Blue Zone. It is. Excellent. Okay. So, the next one, you've got one minute to talk about The Nettle Dress,
which is a film by Dylan Howitt and Alan Brown. So Alan Brown is the creator of the nettle dress and um he's
done a fabulous um he's created a fabulous film which is all about um the
natural fiber of nettles and how you can take it straight from the land, process it with your own hands and turn it into
a beautiful soft fabric that he then cut and created a dress for his and our beautiful daughter and uh she's wearing
it in the film and um he just tells the whole story of why he did it and um it's just inspirational. It's it's it's it's
changing it's changing the way we see nettles and the future of the planet. It's so powerful.
I actually um I actually watched the trailer last night and it looks like a beautiful film. It's a beautiful look
forward to seeing that. So, you now have one minute to talk about 101 uses for stinging nettles by Pierce Warren. Oh,
I've got that one here. So, in this little book, um it talks about the the benefits of using nettles in your diet.
So, for instance, um they help with eczema. They um produce shinier hair, beautiful skin, um help with sore
throat, sore mouths, um gout. Um there's recipes in this book about nettle pies, how to make nettle cream nettle. So, my
grandma used to make a pudding called um Renee. Uh is it what it's called? Renee. Anyway, it was a it was a lovely milky
pudding and she used to use a renet in this pudding and this book tells you that you can use nettles instead of the
renet that she used to use. There you go. Wonderful. So, interestingly interested in the the eczema thing. Is
that a balm that you put on the XMO or is that a drink that you both? So um obviously if you have any conditions
it's good to have to work from the inside and to also apply it on the outside. The sometimes people are
applying lots of lotions and potions to the skin but actually they're not thinking about the stories that they're
telling themselves and if they're living in a kind of negative world that's producing a biochemistry in your system.
So, you're not going to be getting better until you change the thoughts that you're So, so you're talking about
the thoughts that you're having plus what you're putting into your body plus what you're putting outside your body.
That's the way to live a long life. That makes absolute sense, doesn't it? That makes absolute sense. The next one,
you've got a minute to talk about. Nettle. Now, this is a type of nettle, I understand.
Nettle di doica. Did I say ica dioica? Ertica do
dioica doica by Amanda Clenner. Oh um I Oh so yes that's that book. Um so I do dioica is the um Latin name for
nettle. There are actually other nettles um that grow in different places uh of the world, but our British version is
the erica dioa and it means two houses and it means fire because when you get stung it burns and you need two plants,
you need a male and a female to um cross-pollinate to um produce. And um in her book she she employs other um
authors and there's people in there talking about the use. So how to make shampoos, soaps, um food from nettles. I
love that book. Um it's very useful. And these these are things that anyone can do. Anyone can do it. Just follow a
recipe like you would you know make an apple pie. You you can actually download things from the internet. And
there we go. Wonderful. Wonderful. So the the the your fifth book is A Natural History of
Nettles by Keith GR Wheeler. Well, this was a book that I used um to get a lot of information from for my dissertation.
And um interesting information in that book, the history of nettles. Um going back 5,000 years, um it was found in
tombs. um people had been embarmed using nettles and it was highly priced. So it was actually brought in 6,000 miles in
some cases to dress the person who'd passed away. Um soldiers would um icicate themselves uh during war periods
which meant taking off their shirt and um beating themselves with the nettles to stimulate their circulation because
they may have been standing around for long periods in very cold weather. So it would heat up their body and stimulate
them and get the blood flowing and they may have had cramps in their feet or um they couldn't get their feet warm. So it
would help warm their bodies up. Wow, that's incredible. So, that's that's five books that or five um five bits of
media there that are very worth having a look at. Now, we're going to uh go through your top tips. And once again,
you have one minute to talk about drinking a daily nettle infusion. Yeah, let's all try and get three cups of
nettles into our system each day um to help purify our blood, to help rid ourselves of allergies,
um to feel more alive, to boost your um immune system, to support your kidneys and liver, to detox. Um we're producing
negative thoughts 90% of the time, and that produces toxins in our body. Nettles helps flush it through. It will
help you go to the bathroom more regularly because it's um flushing those waste materials out of your system.
Perfect timing. Practicing this, aren't I? Um just before we go any further, tell us how we make a cup of nettle tea.
So, uh go pick your nettles from um a nice clean patch where no dogs have been or car pollutions. Um I take the top
four inches of a plant. So, here's an example. Um, you know, you just need the top two
two layers of uh leaves. Pop them in a mug or a teapot or a jug. Put your hot water on top and wait at least 20
minutes for some of the nutrition to come filter through from the plant. And you can then um top it up with more hot
water or drink it as it is. You can add rosemary, mints, sage. Um, you can flavor it with chamomile. You can flavor
it however you like. As long as you drink it, it's really good uh healthy natural free medicine. And um I advise
it every day. Every day. So, uh, eat nettles in season. Go eat nettles in season. So, they're in season a lot of
the year. So, we they're growing now. They're low to the ground now. Start picking them. So, uh, what is the
season? Nettles start growing um about March time. You see them springing up. In fact, because we're a mild climate
here in Cornwall, they don't actually stop. Okay? But they'll start springing up noticeably in March. And um you know,
they're well, you know, they're probably a foot high at the moment, April time. And then they'll grow to six foot, five
or six foot depending on shade and light. um the opportunity um they'll grow, you know, five or six
foot. Um and you can carry on picking the tops off them right through to the summer. But once they start producing
little necklaces, they they kind of the flowers hang down from the leaves. Then you um can stop picking them. Then I
heard it's not true, but I wouldn't like to um say for sure that uh this is when the plant may change and become a little
u intolerant to some people um creating some um I can't remember the name of the um crystals that are formed in the
body. Yeah. But um at that point the seeds are forming and I collect the seeds and then I keep
the seeds all winter. One spoonful, two spoonfuls of seeds on your breakfast cereal in the morning or in a smoothie.
Um are like a caffeine lift. Ah full of nutrients and uh another boost for your immune system during winter. Amazing.
And the roots are very important to use. So you can use all the plant. The roots are um very useful especially to men to
support the prostate. Um, so you would wash the roots and then chop them up and put them into vodka, let them sit there
for a few weeks and then you can take a little bit of that um liquid, add it to water and have it as a tincture to help
um support um yeah your body. Amazing. So uh the next one is choose natural fibers.
I try hard to choose natural fibers. Um, there are some shops I would never shop at. Um, and I'm wearing this jacket
because it is bought recently from I had a little break. We took my grandson. He had a little op and we took him away to
recuperate. We stayed in Xmouth and I walked to Budley Solstitton one afternoon because I needed some time out
on my own. And I I saw a a um a shop which was, you know, time around again or second time around again. And I saw
this jacket and I thought, "Oh, that looks like um a jacket I could wear, you know, for in years." Yeah. And and it
has a Jagger label in it. Okay. So, I asked AI to identify the period of this vintage jacket, and it said 19 um 80s.
1980s. So, it's quite an old jacket, and it's pure wool. Amazing. So, um while we're there, you you we spoke earlier
about your scarfs and you said that you use a mix of nettle and linen. I didn't know what linen is. Tell us what linen
is. So linen comes from linseed. Um it grows like flax and um nettles. Um and it's a beautiful cloth. It makes a
beautiful cloth and it's well known for being produced in Ireland. It's a very strong material. A
lot of people are put off wearing it because it creases quite a lot. But these days, which isn't a good great
thing, but they do mix um synthetic fibers with it to make it, you know, but when you weave pure linen in with
nettles, it makes a a super strong and uh and soft material. I don't tend to uh weave with just nettles because when you
put your uh fiber onto a loom, you put it under pressure. There's a tension that you
have to create to get the cloth to stabilize as you're weaving. And I find it breaks a lot because my um yarn is
handspun and um because it's not done by machine, it has imperfections, weak weak weak places and and it it regularly
snaps. So I buy dead stock linen. Do you want to know what dead stock is? Absolutely. So um because I work in
sustain sustainability and I'm a waste not want kind of girl. I hate waste. So when mills close around the world and in
England we've lost a lot of um almost all of them mills there is a chap in Manchester who will go and
collect the um dead stock. So sometimes the place closed down. They're waiting for developers to come in to decide what
the building's going to become. And these um cones of linen can be sitting on machines for a number of years and
get dusty and dirty. Then they can't be sold. So kind of it would they would end up in
um landfill if there wasn't somebody like me that would would doesn't mind buying them in that state and I um I use
them. Amazing. In my work. Amazing. So um this one's we've already sort of gone into which is practice out uh outdoor
gratitude. Yeah. So we've talked about um your son's app and and how you use gratitude but tell us about practicing
outdoor gratitude. Uh I did a workshop on Friday as it happens um and it was about sensing
nature. So, we were into Hiddi and we um walked in nature, had a good old close look at all the beautiful shapes,
colors, scents, sights, and we collected things and then we came back and we made twoy moosees from what we collected. I
remember you telling me about tousy moosees the other day. Now, tell us what a tousy moosey is. It's a posie. Uhhuh.
And the moosey bit, the tusy bits, posy and the mousy bit is back in the plague. Um they used to wrap moss around the
bottom of the stems to keep them um moist to give the posie a little bit more longevity. During the plague,
ladies used to pick roses, honeysuckle and lavender from the gardens and then walk through the
unsanitated is it unsanitated? Is unsanitated a word? streets streets uh with these poses
under their nose um later became nose gaze because they gave a heavenly scent to the nose while they were walking
along. Queen Victoria reinvented them almost 200 years later. She um created um she gave flowers names uh meaning. So
we like have uh roses are indicative of love and maybe a lily is more representative of grief. Um and and
flowers all had meaning and young ladies back in the day would be given a posy from a gentleman and she'd be able to go
home, get out her book of meanings for flowers and look to see whether he had an intention just to go for a walk with
her or whether he was proposing marriage. Bring bring that one back. And then I decided to reinvent them in a
sustainable way almost 200 years later again. um and looking at nature from a sustainable way and seeing how we
can create beautiful things from hedros, things that have died like dried campion, things that have gone to seed,
but also adding in beautiful um herbs from gardens like lavender and um rosemary and sage and scented elements.
And then the last one here you've got is share the nettle story with someone you love. So I I just want to get out there
and talk to people about nettles now and spread the word of they're free and don't spray them with pesticides. You're
killing a habitat. You're destroying nature. Um you're actually um putting a dampener on a food that is so beneficial
to your health. So make your tea, chop them up and create use them like a spinach, you know, chop them up and add
them to other vegetables. Just soautay them and um just add them into smoothies and just take them however you can
because they are there. Um they they also say that they have a sting. It's a thought. It's just a myth
because who knows? But they they believe that the sting is to prevent animals from eating them so that they are left
for us because they are so beneficial and nourishing for us human people. Brilliant. Well, that's that's a lovely
way to bring that to an end. Um and we've just got one more question for you. um which is uh what can people do
today to make a better tomorrow and help us find a greener room. Well, I would say what I said earlier,
let the force of nature shape you into a force of nature. Let's all look at nature as a gift
and appreciate it for what it is. I did a project at university called moanai which is a Japanese word for do not
waste what nature has provided and they also say in Japanese give gratitude to nature. Amazing. How can people get hold
of you? Have a website called Nettle Revolution funny enough. Have um an Instagram
account Jane Grey Nettleweaver. I have I'm on Facebook. They can phone me any which way. I'm
here to be of service. I want to share um with the world the benefits of using Nettles.
Jane, thank you so much. I could chat to you all day. Thank you so much for coming in today and um so lovely to see
you. Thank you. Thanks for having me. That's it for this episode of Searching for a Green Room. We'd love to hear your
thoughts. Let us know what you think, who you'd like to hear from, any topics you want us to cover. Drop us a comment.
Don't forget to like and subscribe so you never miss an episode. See you next time.
The Chat
The Guest: Jane Gray – The Nettle Lady
Artist, Weaver, Founder of Nettle Revolution
The Chat
From Caravan to Creativity
Jane began her life in Brighton before moving to Manchester, then Cornwall. A mother of four, she lived off-grid in a caravan and later in a house in Hayle, fully immersed in frugal living, animals, and nature. Her early creativity was expressed through knitting, mending, and making clothes from scratch, driven by necessity.
Breaking Free and Finding Voice
After leaving a restrictive religious community and divorcing in her forties, Jane began working at Barclays Bank before being diagnosed with dyslexia. A period of illness and a brain tumour forced a turning point, leading her towards a more creative and autonomous path.
Art, Chickens and Textiles
Post-recovery, she launched a successful art gallery in St Ives with the help of a close friend. Inspired by rescued chickens and her sustainable values, she began making and selling whimsical textile art, particularly her now-beloved chickens.
Loss, University and the Nettle Thread
Following the unexpected death of her friend and business partner, Jane channelled her grief into growth. Encouraged by a new acquaintance, she applied to Falmouth University in her late 50s to study textile design. There, she discovered the magic of nettles, both as a fibre and a metaphor for life.
The Birth of Nettle Revolution
Drawn to the history, strength and sustainability of nettles, Jane began weaving them into fabric. Post-graduation, she launched Nettle Revolution with support from The Greater Life community. Her work now encompasses education, wellbeing, creativity, and natural health, with nettles at the centre.
Healing, Scarves, and a Studio in Cornwall
Jane now creates handwoven nettle and linen scarves from her home studio. She blends natural materials, deadstock linen, and storytelling into each piece. She also uses nettles in her diet and remedies, advocating for them as a healing force.
Recognition and New Directions
Her work earned her a Theo Paphitis Small Business Sunday Award. She now collaborates with a local GP to explore how nettles and natural health might reduce reliance on overstretched health services. This includes a project based on the ‘Blue Zones’ longevity concept, reimagined in Cornwall as ‘Golden Zones’.
Jane’s Top Achievable Tips
Drink three cups of nettle infusion daily
Eat nettles in season (use like spinach)
Choose natural fibres whenever possible
Practise outdoor gratitude (walks, tousy-mousies, noticing nature)
Share the nettle story with someone you love
Jane’s Evidence
Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones (Netflix documentary by Dan Buettner)
The Nettle Dress (Film by Dylan Howitt and Alan Brown)
101 Uses for Stinging Nettles by Piers Warren
Urtica Dioica by Amanda Edmiston
A Natural History of Nettles by Keith G.R. Wheeler
What One Thing Can We Do Today to Make a Better Tomorrow?
“Let the force of nature shape you into a force of nature.”
Contact Details
Website: nettlerevolution.co.ukInstagram: @janegreynettleweaverFacebook: Jane GrayPhone: Available on request
