Sarah's Silks brings Waldorf-inspired magic to the Barlow
Founded 32 years ago, Sarah's Silks opened its first brick and mortar store this year
In February, Sarah’s Silks opened in the Barlow, just two doors down from Taylor Lane. This is the first brick-and-mortar storefront that Sarah’s Silks has occupied since its inception 32 years ago at the home of its founder Sarah Lee.
The story begins with Lee’s oldest son Josh who was only four when she first dyed a piece of silk green so that he could be Peter Pan. He could also be a turtle. He could also use the green silk as grass for his toy animals. From there, Lee was inspired by the endless possibilities her son could imagine into something as simple as a piece of cloth. So she dyed more silks more colors, and soon all the children in the neighborhood were playing with them. It was around this time that she experimented with dying a rainbow, which was a hit with the neighborhood and remains the most iconic pattern in the collection.
Inspired by Waldorf practices and informed by Waldorf teacher training, the philosophy behind the toys designed by Sarah’s Silks is one of open-endedness, curiosity and simplicity.
“In Waldorf kindergartens and preschools, they have a basket of rocks, shells, sticks, cloth, wood for building, so that everything is just a loose part, just a thing, but the child uses their imagination to make it into something,” Lee explained. “I like every toy to be able to be used in at least three ways by a child’s imagination.”
Sarah’s Silks products are versatile and made of natural materials: silk, wood, cotton and wool. They not only foster creativity, but they are accessible and sustainable. Many of her time-tested silk designs have stayed the same for 32 years.
Although Sarah’s Silks now sells toys to around 1,000 stores worldwide, for the majority of the business’s lifespan, it was run out of Lee’s home. Over the course of 20 years, Sarah’s Silks grew from a parenting tool and neighborhood gift to a collection of products distributed by toy stores all over the world.
Lee operated out of her home, until Josh, who has since grown into a technologically skilled adult, developed a website to connect Sarah’s Silks directly to customers.
Since creating a business-to-consumer platform, Sarah’s Silks has expanded from silks into dolls, costumes, tents, streamers, wooden figures and more. Lee works with manufacturers all over the world: family-owned silk factories in China, a doll-crafting cooperative in India, illustrators in Europe, wood carvers in California and even artists local to West County.
But her hope was always to have a physical store, and her dream location was the Barlow: “I love the community of the Barlow and the way the people who own the stores help each other and support each other. It just feels like it’s also a maker space…And Sebastopol is perfect because there are so many Waldorf schools here.”
The Sebastopol storefront is a light-filled fantasy world strewn with all kinds of handcrafted treasures. Everywhere one looks, toadstools, rainbows, magic and mythology abound.
The back of the store serves as a corporate office space. The operations team includes Jen Agnew and Jessie Hollibaugh, who work with Lee as product designers; Rowyn Milbrath, who directs purchasing; and Alma Hernandez, who manages the store.
When I visited, Hollibaugh was working on a design for a Moomin-themed silk, and Agnew was working on designs for a new collection of wooden dolls. Lee explained that the wooden figures are a relatively new development, led by her youngest son, Morgan.
Each of Lee’s sons plays an important role in the business: Josh and his wife run the website and marketing team; Noah works in the store and teaches chess to children outside on Wednesdays from 3 pm to 4 pm; and Morgan runs operations and finances. The family-oriented culture of Sarah’s Silks runs deep, from management to product design to engagement with the local community.
Lee’s vision for Sarah’s Silks not only includes providing materials for imaginative play to children in West County, but she also uses the storefront as a space for supporting local businesses and community crafting.
One community member whose craft has been supported by Sarah Lee is Kara Davey, a local artist who was looking to offer her handwork skills to more people. In this effort, she applied to work retail at Sarah’s Silks. Davey said, “Sarah was just so open about incorporating any gifts or passions that I had into the shop.”
Davey, who works primarily as a children’s educator, hosts story-puppet circle time on the first Thursday of the month at 10:30 am and needle-felting workshops every Sunday from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm, in addition to creating and selling her crafts at the store.
She offered a profound meditation on the possibilities of teaching with handcrafted objects made from natural materials: “I feel like children, whenever holding something that was handmade, seem to really respond and somehow notice the integrity within it, and perhaps the attention put into it, and then they seem to treat it with a little bit more respect. And it inspires them, I think, to see that this handful of batting was given a little bit of attention and imagination, and then could be created into something useful in play, and in story…My hope is that it encourages children to see that we have all of these materials accessible to us from the natural world.”
Sarah’s Silks is not only a beacon of color in the Barlow, but a family-owned space for people of all ages to imagine, play and create. Follow the flags sprouting from the planters. Their waves will welcome you in.
Sarah’s Silks is open 7 days a week from 10 am to 6 pm. The store is located at 6709 McKinley St. in the Barlow. On July 23 from 5 pm to 7 pm, Sarah’s Silks will host an open house for the Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce, open to the entire community.
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What a wonderful,informative and uplifting article. Thank you.
I still have the beautiful silks which I bought for our firstborn—who is 36–and which all three kids played with!