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This listing is for one handcrafted Nettle Exfoliation Cloth from The heART of Ritual.

I made eight of these last Autumn (as part of the ritual bathing box) and they flew out the door immediately. As I busy my hands with plant fibres each Spring, and I have been so impressed with my own nettle exfoliation cloth (which I use daily, sometimes twice daily, especially during the summer months), I decided to make a few more of these gorgeous exfoliating cloths for this season's offerings too!

 

ABOUT

My love affair with Nettle is no secret. I honour this deep kinship in many creative and ritual ways that go far beyond the scope of my work as a medical herbalist. I have to say that I absolutely loved the challenge this particular 'project' presented for me - the intention was great, the idea was good, and I knew the fibres would be perfect for textiles in general, but quite honestly, when I began making these back in 2020 I just wasn't sure if I could pull this particular idea off. I wondered how durable the fibres would be when used as a face cloth, how harsh it would be on my (ultra sensitive) skin, how long it would take to make one using our native traditional hand skills, or if indeed, the whole thing would fall apart after one wash! I wanted to give it a go though, and curiosity got the better of me as it always does! I knew this would be a nice 'slow textiles project' to do during what was a rather chaotic time worldwide, but for me it was more of a two year conversation/meditation/ritual with the Nettle oversoul on clarity, healthy boundaries, rootedness, nourishment, renewal, the womb, and obedience (to Self), all of which was deeply poignant and greatly needed. So I started, and told myself I would see how it goes. Throughout the pandemic (and pretty much constant home lockdowns), I gathered the nettle fibres from our own little garden, and two years later I had enough to begin carding, drop spinning, and knitting the prototype. It took fifteen hours from start to finish to make my first one, and it was a delicious learning curve through which I got to observe what worked and what did not. There was such a great sense of achievement when I held the cloth in my hand for the first time, and testing it out on my face was...all I can say is that it was truly special. Immediately I wanted to make some for the shop as they needed to be experienced and shared. So yes, this was an absolute adventure in going slow with nettle. And here they are, for those who feel drawn!

 

GENERAL CARE

Personally, I rinse this cloth in room temperature water and exfoliate my skin gently and in circular motions, rinsing as needed. When I am finished using it, I rinse it thoroughly, and simply hang it over the wall mounted towel heater in the bathroom where it dries out quickly between uses. I have used it like this for almost three years and am astounded at how durable it is. I have tested it by washing it in the washing machine at 30°c, and this works fine, but I recommend rinsing it between uses in the way that I have described above. I have also used it in the bath and shower, wrapping it around one of my soaps as a body exfoliator, and this works a treat too, however I have found that the soap is not necessary really in order for it to exfoliate. Please ensure it can dry between uses and not that it is left scrunched up in a heap as these are plant fibers and if left wet for long periods of time, they risk degrading. Common sense really! ;-)

Wild Nettle Exfoliation Cloth (100% handcrafted and natural)

€22.00Price
Tax Included
Quantity
Only 7 left in stock
  • Please use common sense and do not use this exfoliator cloth on broken skin, sensitive/delicate and/or injured areas.

    Please note that our products are not a substitute for any medical treatment or advice you may currently be receiving. The information presented is intended for informational, research, and energetic purposes only, and it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any dis-ease. Persons with health related issues should consult a medical professional for assistance.

    Topical ritual products are not intended for consumption and as with all natural products, a skin 'patch test’ is recommended beforehand to see if you have any unique sensitivities. Discontinue use if a rash occurs. Our topical ritual products should not be applied to broken skin, sensitive skin, or mucus membranes. Please ensure you wash your hands thoroughly after applying to the skin.

    This listing is for one portion of the aforementioned product only and does not include any other decorative items photographed. These photographs are for illustrative purposes only.

    All titles, concept, description, text, and images © 2023 Niamh Criostail & The heART of Ritual. All rights reserved.

OUR SHOP IS CURRENTLY CLOSED, BUT WE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOMING YOU AGAIN SHORTLY.

Our Autumn 2025 shop opening took place from 6pm on September 7th until 6pm on September 14th
 All times are listed in CEST. Orders begin shipping from 22 September, fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis. Made-to-order pieces dispatch from 6 October onward, unless noted otherwise. All orders are shipped from Europe.

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WINTER 2025 COLLECTION: 

Full details of each season’s collection are shared exclusively through our seasonal newsletter. This missive carries the deeper ground of the season – its energies, themes, and archetypes. Shared only four times a year, it offers original long-form writings on the mythic, elemental, and archetypal ground of the season within Irish cosmology and the Celtic Wheel of the Year, along with the creative soil from which each collection emerges. Readers also receive early access and a members-only preview of these handcrafted, ephemeral offerings.

 

Click HERE to receive our newsletter each season.

SEASONAL OVERVIEW

Season • Winter

Element • Earth

Direction • North

Archetype • Elder Archetype

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THE FRAMEWORK FOR THIS COLLECTION

Our Winter/Earth Element Collection arrives into the season of Samhain – that threshold between the last new moon of the dying Celtic year in October, astronomical Samhain, and the first new moon of the year to come in November. It is here that endings and beginnings lie folded together – a dreamtime of moons that leads us into the deepest dark – asking us to walk slowly, to walk in Earth time. 

 

This is not the hurried clock-time of the everyday. It is slow time – deep time – recorded in bedrock and fault-line, in layers pressed through clay and shale. As the earth keeps her history in stone and strata, so we carry memory in bone. The land is our larger body – marrow and mountain, clay and skin, each carrying memory. To enter this season is to enter those depths, to map again the contour lines of the inner ground, to feel where the body holds fractures, pressure, weight-bearing, release. The work is slow. The work is old. Stone remembers, and so do we. Our bodies are cairns of remembrance.

Between Samhain and Solstice we are pilgrims moving through inner hollows and chambers of the soul. It is sanctuary time, a time of reverence and devotion, where prayer is not passive but visceral and embodied – where we kneel not before idols but within the tabernacle of our own being. The ember of light is entrusted to us here, and it must be guarded with care – fanned in trust, sheltered in hope, nourished with care, until it kindles to flame and warmth.

Samhain is also the season of surrender. To grieve what has passed in the twelve months gone. To honour ancestors, yes, but also to lay down the burdens of the year, the losses and thresholds crossed, the shocks and griefs that linger. As leaves return to soil, so sorrow returns to earth, darkening into humus that feeds what will come. In the body, this work is felt in the earth element – in the musculoskeletal frame, in the gut’s deep work of breaking down and letting go. To release is to create space, and to hold is to become heavy. The earth teaches us this balance, for she both receives and yields in the same breath.

 

This is the annual pilgrimage to the soul’s inner shrine – beyond one life, beyond one line of ancestry. It is the thread that connects us with stone and to soil, with grandmother and grandfather, with all who came before and all who will come after. In this time-out-of-time we reweave ourselves into that thread, into the north, into the slow, enduring rhythm of earth itself. And from that ground – from a living tapestry of blood and bone and surrender – the Solstice light is born again. A flame at the heart of winter.

REFERENCES THROUGHOUT THIS COLLECTION

Focus for the Winter collection is the element of Earth, Embodied Ritual & Green Prayer, Illuminating the Dark & the Inner Hearth, Chakras of the Root, Knees/Elbows, Feet/Hands and Earth Star, Physical WellBEing, the Musculoskeletal System, the Digestive System & Intestinal Health, Death, Grief Processing & Trauma Composting, Vulnerability & Surrender, The Pilgrim & the Inner Journey, Protection, Connection & Roots, Hibernation & Radical Rest, Cultivating Sanctuary & Stillness, Conscious Nourishment & Nurturance, and of course, Earth Rituals for the Head, Heart and Hands.

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