It takes thousands of tiny twists, plaits and knots to turn beautiful natural fibres into finely woven rugs, homewares and accessories. Using both traditional and modern techniques, our artisans start and finish every item by hand.
PLAIT & TWIST
Plaits made from long strands of jute are the first step for weaving rugs, baskets or tableware. Artisans wrap the plaits around a pole to hold things taught, adding new sections of jute as they go.
In much the same way, artisans also twist jute fibres for use in our macrame wall hangings and bags and to prepare for weaving some of the baskets.
WEAVE & COIL
Jute plaits are expertly coiled or woven to create our baskets, placemats and rugs. The consistent finish of each piece is testimony to the artisan’s skills.
When making the shapes for our rugs and runners, they coil, weave and stitch the strands into a small wooden frame to make sure each piece is the right size and shape.
MACRAME
A recent resurgence in this craft has given the next generation of artisans a chance to learn these intricate skills, as seen in our wall hangings, bags and tableware.
SPIN & LOOM
Using age-old methods and skills that have been passed down through generations, artisans handloom beautiful textures and patterns with jute and cotton for our shoppers, totes, lining textiles and throws.
Working from home, or in community weaving centres on traditional wooden looms, each new pattern can take days to set up before the intricate process begins – row by delicate row.
STITCH
All of our woven products including jute baskets, bowls and rugs are fixed and finished with hand stitching. Using a strong needle, and fine jute or cotton thread, artisans place tiny stitches through every layer to keep things securely in place.
Practicing traditional screen printing techniques, our tags, cotton fabric and cloth are all carefully printed by hand using AZO free natural dyes.
SEW
Sewing workshops are established in several of our artisan communities.
DYE
Ancient techniques using tannin mordants and indigo sourced from nature are skillfully practiced to achieve beautiful hues of blue, charcoal, brown and gold for the fibres in our baskets and bags.
Where the skill of natural dyeing isn’t present, we always make sure our artisans are using the safest and most sustainable option available to them.
DYE TECHNIQUES
Tie-Dye
“The Dyer works in concert with the material, not in effort to overcome limitations. An element of the unexpected is always present. All the variables attendant upon shaping the cloth serve to remove some human control from the dying process…. An analogy is that of a potter firing a wood-burning kiln. All the technical conditions have been met, but what happens in the kiln may be a miracle or a disaster. Chance and accident also give life to the hand dying process, and this contributes to its special magic and strongest appeal.” Master Katano Mtohiko
It is an ancient way of creating patterns of colour by folding, tying, stitching, crumpling or otherwise preparing the fabric to inhibit the flow of the dye into the folds of the fabric. The pattern of the folds and where the colours are squirted determines the final design. With experience, the end result can be predicted and controlled to some extent, but surprise is part of what makes tie-dye an exciting and interesting art form.
Shibori (Japan), Haus (West Africa), Plangi & Triktik (Indonesia), Bandhani & Ikat & Leheriya (India) are examples of variations of tie-dye methods.
Ikat
“A dye technique used to pattern textiles that employs a resist dyeing process on the warp fibres (warp is the set of lengthwise yarns that are held in tension on the frame or loom), the weft fibres (the yarn that is inserted over-and-under the warp threads), or in the rare and costly “double ikat” both warp & weft, prior to dyeing & weaving.”
In Ikat, the resist is formed by binding bundles of threads with a tight wrapping, applied in desired pattern. The threads are then dyed. The bindings may then be altered and the thread bundles dyed again with another colour to produce elaborate, multicoloured patterns. When the dying is finished the bindings are removed and the threads are woven onto cloth. In other resist dyeing techniques such as tie dye and some batik, the resist is applied to one face of the woven cloth, whereas in ikat the threads are dyed before weaving, and both faces are essentially identical in appearance.
Ikat is most characteristic of Indonesia and double Ikats (gerinsing cloth) are produced in only the village of Tenganan in Bali, Indonesia.
Shibori
Shibori comes from the Japanese verb root shiboru “to wring, squeeze and press”. It is one of the most common handmade cloth tie-dying methods applied in various parts of the world, known by different names and comprising of their own traditional techniques of the same origin. Three terms for separate shibori methods have come into international usage: plangi, bandhani & tritik. Plangi is a Malay-Indonesian word for the process of gathering & binding cloth. Bandhani is an Indian term for the process of plucking & binding cloth in small points. Tritik is a Malay-Indonesian word for stitch resist.
Rather than treating cloth as a two dimensional surface it is given a three-dimensional form by folding, crumpling, stitching, plaiting, plucking and twisting. The areas of the fabric that are against the core or under the binding would remain un-dyed. The steps that follow after cloth is half dry is the loosening of the sewing. This process can be done several times to get a splash effect.
Plangi & Tritik
Plangi is a form of tie dye tradition found in Java, Bali, Lombok & Sulawesi. It means “rainbow” and in many parts in South East Asia the rainbow is believed to form a bridge or conveyance between heaven and earth. It is also the road of the gods. “Rainbow” also suggests the textiles being brilliantly coloured. The colourful and blurring effect resulted by pulling and binding cloth into a repeat (jemputan), with the patterns made by resist dyed dots.
Before the dying process can begin, the cloth must be bleached first. While jemputan refers to pulling and tying what actually happens is the stitching of a box shape, pulling that thread tight, and immersing it into dye. The Cotton binding keeps the dye from reaching that part of the cloth, so that when it is removed a small white circle is revealed. The tip of the cloth may be left unbound to give a coloured centre to the circle. Bits of padding may be inserted into the circle before tying to create variety of shapes resembling cowry, shells & squares. A grid of such repeats yields a field of square diamonds. That field can be edged with a running stitch tritik, creating a boarder.
Tritik is where the resist is stitched into the cloth, usually using pineapple thread that will not break when pulled tight. As the name suggests tritik resembles small droplets of water running around a single line.
Bandhani & Leheriya
Bandhani is the art of tying small dots on fabrics with a continuous thread and dying it.
Leheriya means “waves” and the technique is different from Bandhani as here the fabric is rolled from one corner to the other diagonally and then it is tied at intervals with strings, to produce complex wave patterns. Leheriya is distinguished by the natural, ripple effect in mesmerising colours. The zigzag pattern of irregular colour stripes is a visual invocation of the flow of water creating calm and restful coastal feel. Thus stripes that follow in one direction is Leheriya, while diagonal stripes that intersect at right angles to form checks are called Mothra.
MUD CLOTH
FINISH
From trimming loose fibres and threads to double-checking stitching, our artisans ensure quality throughout production, whilst still preserving the little flourishes that make our products distinctly handmade.