OUR STORY
Dyed and Gone to Heaven is a family-run handmade art and apparel project rooted in festival culture, psychedelic expression, old-school craftsmanship, and the belief that the things we surround ourselves with should still carry the energy of the human hands that made them.
Born in Central Florida as a collaborative project between mother and son duo Melanie Campbell and Zac Campbell (Habit of Research Agency Media Group), Dyed and Gone to Heaven was created as both a creative outlet and a return to something real: handmade wearable art, organic craftsmanship, and authentic community connection in an increasingly mass-manufactured world.
Our work exists somewhere between a traveling festival booth, an old hippie craft shop, an art studio, and a family tradition passed through generations. Every piece we create carries influences from decades of jam band parking lots, deadhead culture, electronic music festivals, DIY artistry, handmade Americana, psychedelic design, and the kind of counterculture spaces where creativity still matters more than trends.
We specialize primarily in one-of-a-kind and small-batch hand-dyed clothing and wearable art, alongside laser engraved woodwork, customized instruments, handcrafted home decor, crystals and gemstones, wire wrapping, and other handmade goods designed to bring more color, warmth, individuality, and soul into everyday life. Wherever possible, we prioritize natural materials, durable craftsmanship, intentional design, and small-scale production over disposable trends and factory-made aesthetics.
Dyed and Gone to Heaven was also born from frustration with what festival culture has increasingly become: cheaply manufactured fast fashion, synthetic materials, mass-produced accessories, and products designed more for algorithms than for human expression. Too much of modern rave and festival fashion feels disconnected from the handmade, community-driven spirit that originally defined these scenes. We believe festival culture deserves better. We believe art should feel personal. We believe the things people wear to transformative experiences should themselves carry meaning, energy, and craftsmanship.
At its core, this project is deeply rooted in legacy and family tradition. Melanie learned many of the crafting skills behind this project from her own mother, Karen, who owned and operated a hippie craft shop throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. After a lifetime spent immersed in music, travel, art, and the extended family of the jam band and festival world, Dyed and Gone to Heaven became a way to continue participating in the culture she loves while passing those traditions into a new generation.
For Melanie, the project is also deeply personal. While living with and surviving stage 4 lung and brain cancer, creating art has become a way to remain connected to community, creativity, movement, and purpose. What began as conversations between mother and son about art, craftsmanship, fashion, and festival culture slowly evolved into a shared mission: to build something hopeful, handmade, colorful, rebellious, and alive.
As a sister brand to Delete Clothing Co., Dyed and Gone to Heaven represents the more organic and psychedelic counterpart within the broader Research Agency ecosystem. Where Delete explores darker aesthetics, industrial textures, monochrome palettes, and geometric futurism, Dyed and Gone to Heaven embraces color, imperfection, nature, handcrafted artistry, and human warmth.
Most of our work will live where we feel most at home: out in the real world, traveling festival to festival throughout Central Florida and beyond, meeting people face to face beneath canopies, string lights, lasers, sunsets, campfires, and sound systems. While select pieces will be available online, the heart of this project has always been community, conversation, music, and the experience of discovering something handmade in person.
More than anything else, Dyed and Gone to Heaven exists to preserve the spirit of handmade counterculture craftsmanship in a world increasingly dominated by automation, disposability, and imitation. This project is about slowing down, creating intentionally, honoring where we come from, and making things that carry real energy into the hands of real people.
Made by hand. Made with love. Made to last beyond festival season.
A FAMILY BRAND
Dyed and Gone to Heaven is the continuation of a creative lineage that stretches back decades through family, music, craftsmanship, and counterculture community.
Long before the project existed, Melanie Campbell grew up immersed in handmade artistry through her mother Karen, who owned and operated a locally loved hippie craft shop called The Birch Tree in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Located in the Laurel Mall throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, The Birch Tree became known for its handmade ceramics, patchwork clothing, tie-dye, jewelry, trinkets, and other eclectic crafts rooted in the spirit of the era. As a child, Melanie spent countless hours helping in the shop, learning not only practical artistic skills, but also the deeper philosophy behind handmade work: creativity, self-expression, resourcefulness, and the ability to create something meaningful out of almost nothing.
That same spirit carried into Melanie’s lifelong connection with music and festival culture. Inspired early on by her mother’s love for artists like The Beatles and the Grateful Dead, she eventually became deeply involved in the jam band and deadhead communities throughout the late 80s, 90s, and 2000s. From Grateful Dead tours across Pennsylvania and Ohio to regional jam band gatherings and festival culture throughout the East Coast, music became more than entertainment — it became community, identity, freedom, and home.
Years later, that same creative energy evolved in a new direction through her son Zac Campbell, also known as HABITFROMTHELOT, a multimedia artist, music producer, and founder of Research Agency Media Group. Through music, fashion, events, and experimental creative projects, Zac spent years building brands and artistic ecosystems rooted in underground culture, alternative fashion, and the evolving world of electronic music and festivals.
Despite coming from different generations and artistic backgrounds, both Melanie and Zac shared the same growing frustration with the direction modern festival fashion had taken. The deeper festival scene that once thrived on handmade creativity, individuality, and DIY expression had increasingly become saturated with mass-produced accessories, synthetic fast fashion, and trend-driven aesthetics disconnected from the authentic spirit of the culture.
The idea for Dyed and Gone to Heaven slowly emerged through years of conversations, shared crafting sessions, discussions about manufacturing and artistry, and the realization that there was still real demand for genuine handmade work within the scene. That feeling fully crystallized during Florida Groves Festival in 2026 while watching Goose perform together. Surrounded by beautiful vendor booths and vibrant festival energy, they realized there was still space — and a real need — for handcrafted goods made with deeper intention, stronger craftsmanship, and real cultural roots.
What began as an idea quickly became something much more personal: a collaborative project built around family tradition, artistic expression, healing, and community connection.
Today, Dyed and Gone to Heaven exists as a meeting point between generations — combining old-school hippie craftsmanship, festival culture, psychedelic artistry, and modern creative vision into something that feels both nostalgic and entirely new. Every piece created through the project carries traces of that lineage: Karen’s handmade spirit, Melanie’s decades in the music community, and Zac’s contemporary creative world all woven together into a shared artistic language.
DOING THINGS RIGHT
Dyed and Gone to Heaven was created as a response to a growing disconnect we began noticing within the modern festival and fashion world. Over time, many of the spaces that were once defined by individuality, handmade artistry, self-expression, and community became increasingly flooded with mass-produced clothing, disposable accessories, and cheaply manufactured products designed more for social media trends than for real people and real experiences.
Festival culture has always been rooted in creativity, freedom, experimentation, and personal expression. Historically, the scene was built by artists, travelers, musicians, craftspeople, and independent creators making things by hand and sharing them directly within their communities. Somewhere along the way, much of that spirit was replaced by factory-made fast fashion, synthetic materials, and products designed for quick consumption rather than meaningful connection.
We created Dyed and Gone to Heaven because we believe there is still value in things that are made slowly, intentionally, and by human hands.
Every tie-dye pattern, engraved piece of woodwork, wrapped crystal, or handcrafted object we create carries time, energy, and individuality that simply cannot be replicated through mass production. Imperfections are part of the beauty. Variation is part of the process. No two pieces are ever exactly alike because they were never meant to be.
As artists and lifelong participants in festival culture ourselves, we wanted to build something that felt closer to the roots of the community we grew up loving — something more organic, more personal, and more connected to the original DIY spirit of the scene. We wanted to create pieces that feel discovered rather than manufactured. Art that carries story, personality, and intention instead of simply functioning as disposable trend cycles.
Whenever possible, we prioritize handmade production methods, natural or durable materials, small-batch creation, and craftsmanship over convenience. We believe people can feel the difference between something made for profit alone and something made with genuine care and artistic purpose.
More than just a clothing or craft brand, Dyed and Gone to Heaven is our attempt to help preserve the spirit of handmade counterculture artistry in a rapidly automated world. It is a celebration of creativity, imperfection, human connection, and the timeless tradition of making beautiful things by hand and sharing them directly within community spaces.
At its heart, this project exists to bring authenticity back into festival culture — one handmade piece at a time.
Our Relationship to Research Agency & Delete Clothing Co.
Dyed and Gone to Heaven operates as part of the broader creative ecosystem of Research Agency Media Group, an independent multimedia and creative company founded by Zac Campbell (HABITFROMTHELOT). Through music, fashion, events, media, and experimental creative projects, Research Agency has spent years building brands rooted in underground culture, alternative fashion, festival communities, and independent artistry.
Within that ecosystem, Dyed and Gone to Heaven exists as the organic and handcrafted counterpart to Delete Clothing Co.
While both brands share a foundation in artistic expression, individuality, and counterculture influence, they approach those ideas from very different creative directions.
Delete Clothing Co. explores darker aesthetics, industrial textures, monochrome palettes, hard geometry, cyberpunk influence, and techwear-inspired fashion rooted in futurism and structured design. Its identity leans toward the mechanical, the dystopian, and the engineered.
Dyed and Gone to Heaven moves in the opposite direction — embracing color, texture, imperfection, handcrafted artistry, psychedelic influence, natural materials, and the warmth of human-made objects. Where Delete is sharp, minimal, and geometric, Dyed and Gone to Heaven is expressive, organic, whimsical, and fluid.
In many ways, the two brands represent opposite sides of the same artistic philosophy.
Both projects were created from a desire to reject disposable fast fashion and mass-produced culture in favor of more intentional, independent creativity. They simply express that philosophy through different emotional and visual languages.
Together, they reflect the broader vision behind Research Agency Media Group: building authentic creative projects that exist outside of traditional commercial expectations while remaining deeply connected to music culture, art, community, and self-expression.
ABOUT OUR PRODUCTS
At the heart of Dyed and Gone to Heaven is a love for handmade craftsmanship and one-of-a-kind artistic expression. While hand-dyed clothing and wearable art remain the core of the project, our work extends across a wide variety of mediums, materials, and creative disciplines inspired by festival culture, psychedelic artistry, and old-school DIY craftsmanship.
Our collection includes hand-dyed apparel, patchwork pieces, wearable art, laser engraved woodwork, customized wooden instruments, handcrafted furniture and household decor, crystals and gemstones, wire wrapped jewelry, handmade trinkets, and a constantly evolving range of experimental creative projects. Many of our pieces blend multiple artistic techniques together, resulting in functional art designed to be both expressive and deeply personal.
Each of our garments is individually hand dyed, making every piece a completely one-of-a-kind wearable work of art. No two items are ever exactly alike. Every dye pattern, color blend, texture, and variation is created by hand, resulting in unique details that simply cannot be replicated through mass production. The slight imperfections and natural inconsistencies that emerge throughout the process are not flaws to us — they are part of the beauty, individuality, and authenticity that give handmade work its soul.
Made with care, creativity, and an artistic spirit, our pieces are designed to stand out and bring vibrant, colorful energy into everyday life. We intentionally embrace the organic nature of the process, allowing each creation to develop its own personality and visual identity rather than forcing uniformity.
Beyond clothing and accessories, Dyed and Gone to Heaven also explores handmade environments and lifestyle design through hippie-chic decor, custom artistic installations, and curated spaces intended to bring warmth, creativity, and individuality into everyday life. Whether it’s a hand-dyed hoodie, a laser engraved instrument, a wrapped crystal, or a custom furniture piece, our goal is always the same: to create objects that feel meaningful, expressive, and genuinely human.
Because of the handmade nature of our process, many of the pieces we create are exclusive to our festival booth and may never appear online. We view each event, collection, and creation as part of an ongoing artistic journey rather than a traditional retail catalog — a constantly evolving body of work shaped by music, travel, experimentation, and community connection.
To preserve the richness of the colors and protect your garment, we recommend washing all hand-dyed items separately in cold water before wearing and during future washes. Tumble dry low or hang dry for best results.
Thank you for supporting handmade art, independent craftsmanship, and small-scale creative culture.
ROOTS THAT RUN DEEP
Although Dyed and Gone to Heaven is now rooted in the Central Florida festival scene, the spirit behind the project was shaped long before we ever arrived in Florida. Our roots trace back through decades of jam band culture, grassroots festival communities, and the independent music spaces that helped define our creative outlook and sense of belonging.
Long before modern festivals became highly commercialized experiences, places like Trip’s Farm in northern West Virginia, Nelson Ledges in Ohio, and the Church of Universal Love and Music in Pennsylvania represented something far more communal and transformative. These were spaces built around music, creativity, freedom, art, experimentation, and genuine human connection — environments where handmade crafts, improvised community, and self-expression naturally existed side by side.
Those experiences deeply shaped the philosophy behind Dyed and Gone to Heaven.
For us, festival culture has never simply been about entertainment or fashion. It has always been about community, discovery, creativity, movement, and shared experience. The vendor booths, handmade markets, parking lot culture, and artist spaces surrounding the music often became just as meaningful as the performances themselves. Some of the most memorable moments happened wandering through booths late at night, meeting artists face to face, hearing the stories behind handmade creations, and discovering objects that carried real personality and energy.
About ten years ago, we relocated to Florida and became immersed in the growing Central Florida festival and music community. While our geographic home changed, the values and spirit that shaped us remained the same. Today, Dyed and Gone to Heaven continues that tradition by operating primarily as a traveling festival vendor project, bringing handmade art directly into the spaces and communities that inspired it in the first place.
Our booth is more than a place to sell products — it is an extension of the culture we come from. A place for conversation, creativity, storytelling, music, shared inspiration, and authentic connection. We believe there is something irreplaceable about meeting artists in person, seeing handmade work up close, and experiencing creativity in a real-world environment rather than through algorithms and screens.
The jam band and electronic music communities continue to serve as a major influence on everything we create. From psychedelic visual aesthetics and improvisational creativity to the deeper values of openness, individuality, and collective experience, these scenes remain woven into the identity of the brand itself.
At the end of the day, Dyed and Gone to Heaven was built from festival culture, for festival culture — not as an outside interpretation of it, but as a genuine continuation of the communities, traditions, and artistic spirit that shaped our lives.
SURVIVING CANCER AND LIVING TO CREATE
At the center of Dyed and Gone to Heaven is Melanie’s lifelong relationship with creativity, music, craftsmanship, and community. What began decades ago as a childhood spent learning artistic skills inside her mother Karen’s craft shop eventually evolved into a lifelong connection to the jam band and festival world — a culture built around freedom, expression, creativity, and human connection.
Today, that creative spirit continues to evolve into a new chapter.
While living with and surviving stage 4 lung and brain cancer, Melanie chose not to step away from the community and artistic culture that has shaped so much of her life. Instead, Dyed and Gone to Heaven became a way to remain active, connected, inspired, and creatively engaged through the things she has always loved most: art, music, craftsmanship, and people.
For Melanie, creating is not simply about producing objects — it is about energy, intention, healing, and expression. Every dyed garment, handcrafted object, wrapped crystal, and artistic experiment becomes part of a larger process of staying connected to life, creativity, and community even during difficult circumstances. Art has become both a personal outlet and a reminder that creativity does not disappear with age, hardship, or adversity. If anything, it becomes more meaningful.
The project also serves as a bridge between generations. Many of the skills, philosophies, and artistic traditions behind Dyed and Gone to Heaven were passed down from Karen to Melanie, and are now continuing forward into a new era through collaborative work with Zac and the larger creative ecosystem surrounding the brand. In that way, the project represents more than a business or fashion label — it is the continuation of a family tradition rooted in handmade artistry, self-expression, and counterculture creativity.
There is something deeply human about handmade work. Every piece carries traces of the person who made it: their mood, energy, memories, experiences, imperfections, and perspective. That human presence is something Melanie believes should never disappear from art or from the communities built around it.
More than anything, Dyed and Gone to Heaven exists as proof that creativity can continue through every stage of life. That art can heal. That community matters. That craftsmanship still has value. And that the traditions passed down through generations can continue evolving while still remaining deeply connected to their roots.
This project is ultimately about carrying that spirit forward — through color, music, craftsmanship, and community — one handmade piece at a time.
WITH LOVE FROM...
Dyed and Gone to Heaven is more than a clothing brand or festival vendor project. It is the continuation of a family tradition built around creativity, craftsmanship, music, and community. Every piece we create carries a little bit of that story with it — generations of handmade artistry, decades spent immersed in festival culture, and a shared belief that meaningful things should still be made by human hands.
In a world increasingly shaped by automation, mass production, and disposable trends, we hope our work serves as a reminder that individuality, creativity, and authentic self-expression still matter. We believe art should feel personal. We believe handmade objects carry energy that factories cannot reproduce. And we believe the communities built around music, creativity, and shared experience are still some of the most beautiful spaces in the world.
Whether you discover us online or meet us in person beneath the lights and sound systems of a festival somewhere in Florida and beyond, we’re grateful to share this journey with you. Our booth will always be a place for conversation, connection, creativity, and colorful self-expression — a small continuation of the artistic communities that inspired this project from the very beginning.
Thank you for supporting independent artists, handmade craftsmanship, and the preservation of authentic counterculture creativity.
We hope to see you somewhere on the road.
Made by hand. Made with intention. Made to last beyond festival season.