

I discovered hemp fabric and fell in love with how durable and eco-friendly it was. Growing up I was a total tomboy, I never considered or cared about what I wore until maybe junior year of high school. Why clothes? And why handmade natural clothes? Little did I know I'd be hooked on enduro racing! After watching my boyfriend race cross country every week when we lived in Steamboat in 2014, I decided that the whole racing thing probably wasn't my cup of tea. My knee surgery has inspired me to race my bike, push my body harder, and strive to be stronger everyday - so I can continue to do all the things I love so much that ask a lot from my body. It wasn't until then that I decided I wanted to race bikes and be on a competitive level once again. I was off the bike for about a year after my knee surgery because I was in between bikes (trying to save up for a new one) but putting the work in on a trainer while I rehabbed my knee.

So I've been mountain biking for about 8 years. I got my first bike in 2013 - it was an orange Santa Cruz Juliana. I started really mountain biking shortly after meeting him. Thanks to my boyfriend Jesse, I am now as obsessed with mountain biking as he is. At the end of one of our projects in Curt Gowdy State Park near Laramie, the UW outdoor program let our crew take out a fleet of rental mountain bikes out to ride the trails we had just worked on. I worked for the Wyoming Conservation Corps in the summer of 2012 and the majority of the projects my crew was responsible for was building and maintaining IMBA trails throughout the state of Wyoming. My brother and I would ride these trails that connected our neighborhood to another nearby neighborhood that went around a lake, but not much other than for random adventures. I grew up riding bikes as a child, but not ever seriously. Colors and textures are very therapeutic and I love working with fibers to create wearable art. I never planned to start my own clothing business after learning to sew and working for someone else, but it's become something that I really love to do. What started as work soon turned into a passion. I was an apprentice for a year working in Nevada City, and the natural progression of life led me a separate way. There I learned the basic fundamentals of garment construction and natural dyeing.
#DYING LIGHT TRAINER RUN BOY HOW TO#
I was in between seasonal work and a friend who ran a handmade clothing business asked if I wanted to learn how to sew because she needed help. I started sewing in 2016 when I was living in my VW bus in Nevada City, CA. I always loved doing various art projects with her, and art class in school - but never really had a creative outlet that I really vibed with until I started sewing.

Growing up my mother had a handmade jewelry business she ran from home, and I remember making jewelry with her as a child. I have always been an athlete, but not always an artist. What is your background with materials / sewing / making things? And, I had the chance to try some of her clothing pieces for myself.

Curious to know more about her clothing projects, I caught up with Morgan with some questions. I'm always intrigued to see someone doing their own thing, and maybe even more so when that someone is busting out miles with a relentless smile and looking more fashionable than the rest of us. She's done a variety of seasonal jobs, lived seasonally in a '98 Vanagon for five years, and much more, most recently starting her clothing brand, Seam of Life. Eventually, competition fell by the wayside and she pursued her sports mainly for fun, picking up mountain biking along the way when she met her boyfriend, Jesse. Originally from Michigan, Morgan grew up riding horses and snowboarding competitively, and she chased her competitive side out west when she was 17, living in Wyoming, California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado over the next decade or so. I met Morgan at the Trans-Cascadia enduro race last fall, where she trooped through the course wearing clothes she'd made herself every day, stopping from time to time to point out a plant, type of lichen, or other piece of the natural world that could be used medicinally, or - more relevantly - for dyeing fabrics. Morgan Kurz is a 28-year-old artist and mountain biker who runs a one-woman shop currently based in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where she handmakes mountain bike clothing from wool, hemp, and other natural fibers. Photo: Nate Johnson, courtesy of Trans Cascadia Morgan Kurz at the Trans Cascadia wearing a collection of her handmade pieces.
