Shy Sisters Make Masks

Hello everyone,

First, we are sending our love and thoughts to everyone during this scary time.  Everything is changing every day, and we made the difficult decision to take a little time away from Shy Natives the past 30+ days. Even though we had the extra time, sewing and designing lingerie and building our Kickstarter campaign just did not feel right given the circumstances. We took a much needed pause. 

Instead of lingerie, Madi and our mama started sewing masks together - our Shy mask project. We are donating masks to Native American Reservations, healthcare workers, high risk individuals and elders. Our first donation went to our Northern Cheyenne Tribe. Madi and our mom have been able to knock out up to 50 masks on a good day. They would leave the Shy Natives studio with aching backs and sore fingers. Our mom would then drive 2.5 hours home, and return the next day to help Madi knock out more masks. It has been a productive and exhausting month, and we have proudly donated hundreds of masks. 

The masks are not meant to be fashionable or bold or even cultural. They do the job. They protect. They defend. They are made of 100% cotton, are washable, and have a pocket for a filter. Our mom has been collecting fabrics through donation and scavenging. This explains the cat fabric, the super hero fabric and our favorite: the Mary j camo. Our father has asthma, and we gifted him a batman mask. Definitely not our preferred fabric choices, but it does the job and some humor helps sometimes (thanks mom.) Here is Madi rocking her latest mask outside her Oakland studio:

Since we get many requests for people wanting to help this little project or buy their own mask, we decided to sell some masks in order to continue our donation efforts. You can find our whimsical patterned masks for sale on our online shop. We do not intend on profiting off the masks we sell. All the funds go to shipping out more masks and purchasing more materials. We are also selling handmade polymer clay earrings to also help cover the costs and keep Shy Natives afloat. We will keep you all updated as we make progress, and let you know once we resume lingerie. We had planned to launch by summer, but it looks like everything in 2020 is getting pushed back. We hope everyone understands and we thank you for your continued patience. 

If you or a loved one needs a donated mask, please reach out to us info@shynatives.com or shoot us a DM on Instagram. We would love to help you. 

Thank you to everyone following this journey, supporting what we do, and keeping us motivated. We are just two women running all this, and we are learning as we go. We are so thankful for our family in this time, both our mom and sister Bailey have been incredibly helpful and wonderful. We are so proud of everyone stepping up and protecting our Indigenous communities. Thank you for reading. Stay safe beauties. Love to you,

Jordan and Madi of Shy Natives 

 (Love you mom!)