This Saturday, August 18, 2018

10am - 9pm

ONLY AT MAIWA EAST

OVERDYE A MAIWA GARMENT 10am-7pm

Join us at Maiwa East, bring a Maiwa garment or shawl and we will overdye it with natural indigo for free! It is part of the Maiwa way – encouraging a long life for textiles. Wear it. Mend it. Alter it. Overdye it. Wear it again.

STOP BUY & SAVE – MAIWA EAST ONLY!

Sale items at our Maiwa East location:

RACKS OF BEAUTIFUL MAIWA CLOTHING

STACKS OF HANDWOVEN SHAWLS

JAWAJA LEATHER BAGS

JUTIS – EMBROIDERY FOR YOUR FEET

LEATHER SANDALS

and more ...

Maiwa East: Saturday August 18th – 10am to 9pm

 

IT'S A MAIWA EAST EVENT!

With refreshments, music, snacks, and that famous Maiwa feeling.

DYEING DEMO – SATURDAY 2-3pm

Join Sophena Kwon - originator of the Indigo Social - for a dyeing demonstration between 2 and 3pm. Sophena is a regular teacher at the Maiwa School of Textiles. She has also taught indigo at the Penland School of Crafts, at Shakerag, and at the Mood Indigo Exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum.

GET YOUR BLUES FROM US

Maiwa East sells natural indigo extracted from crops grown in southern India. We carry everything you need to get started; like the natural indigo kit and keep going, like our largest size of indigo. In addition we offer an instruction sheet for Indigo and Woad and the Organic Vat. Looking for something blue to wear? Check out our Indigo Celebrations page.

VISIT OUR "ALL THINGS INDIGO" ONLINE COLLECTION HERE

COMPLEX SILK: SELECTIVE DEGUMMING

The unique beauty of silk in its natural state (raw silk) is its crisp feel and incredible fibre strength. The protective protein layer is sometimes called “gum.” Removing this protein using controlled methods is a simple process that creates subtle patterning of white-on-white and textural contrast. Areas of fine and supple silk are revealed, distinct from the opacity of the protected raw silk patterns. Degumming also changes the behaviour of the fibre in relation to dyes, providing new pattern opportunities. Read full description.

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MAKING WAVES IN WOVEN CLOTH

Every weaver dreams of producing curves in the grid-based geometry of the woven structure.

The technique of ondulé is a rare and distinctive method for achieving such curves. Requiring a specialized tool and modification to the floor loom, ondulé weaving manipulates threads into undulating waves across the length of a cloth. Few weavers have dedicated the resources to master this technique, and Amy Putansu has focused on this style of weaving using her traditional floor loom for many years. Read full description.

MATERIAL AND PROCESS IN PERFECT UNION

By stitching, pinching, pleating, wrapping, and folding silk or wool and then securing those shaped bundles before dyeing, we can create textiles that are subtle, evocative visual and textural memories of the shaping process.

Infinite variation and invention continue to be possible with this process. Economical, simple-to-use, wash-fast acid dyes give saturated, transparent, vibrant hues to silk and wool, and they work perfectly with shaped-resist processes. Discharging (colour removal) allows for more complex colour combinations otherwise impossible to achieve through conventional over-dyeing. With this combination of process and materials, we can think and compose as painters, floating light patterned areas on dark ground using any colour combinations you can imagine. Read full description.

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Here is a complete list of courses with one or more openings.

We don't expect these spaces to last.

Making Waves in Woven Cloth

Creative Studio - 1st Offering

Complex Silk: Selective Degumming

Banjara Stitches

Marlinespike Ropework: The Bell Rope

Material & Process in Perfect Union

Elements of Design

Creative Studio 2nd Offering

Join us as we transform the Main Store on Granville Island into an Indian Experience.

Saturday July 21st, 2018

Textile - Clothing - Shawls

Visuals - Refreshments

Music - Mehndi ... and More

EXPERIENCE MEHNDI

Mehndi is a traditional form of body art made by drawing on the skin with a paste made from organic henna leaves. The designs remain a bright brown for a few days and then they gradually fade away.

Sessions are $15 or free with purchase of our new

ORGANIC MEHNDI KIT

Saturday July 21st, 2018 between 10am and 5pm

at our main store on Granville Island.

A DAY IN INDIA

Join us as we share some of the sights, sounds, and tastes of India.

For this day we have selected special garments to be featured

and spectacular shawls - exhibition quality textiles for sale to the public.

ABOUT HENNA AND MEHNDI

Henna has been used for over 6000 years to give copper reds and reddish browns to hair, skin, textiles, and leather. The active colouring component in henna is lawsone which is released when dried leaves are ground and a mile acid (lemon juice or vinegar) is added. The dye easily bonds with the proteins in hair and skin.

ABOUT OUR ORGANIC MEHNDI KIT

Everything you need to get started. Organic henna powder, eucalyptus oil, fructose, instructions, and material to make your own applicator. $29.95 available online and in the Maiwa store.

Madder dye. Bright, colourfast, relatively easy to work with, and well priced for the local economy. It's the red of choice for many dyers.

It was January of 2018 when our team of dyeing instructors arrived in Bengal. The team consisted of four people: Charllotte Kwon: owner of Maiwa and well-known natural dye instructor. Charllotte's vision to document natural dyes and promote their use has always been one of the founding principles of Maiwa. Alongside Charllotte was her daughter Sophena, who has co-taught natural dyes for many years and who has gained her own following for her remarkable Indigo Social events. Veteran staff and Maiwa Supply manager Danielle Bush was present. She has taught the use of thickened natural dyes for printing and painting for many years. And our new addition, Amber Muenz, who is a quick study and an amazing organizer. The team flew into Kolkata, repacked into a van, and headed north.

Scoured, mordanted and ready to dye — rows of yarns at the ready.

Our goal for the visit is for the artisans to be comfortable using natural dyes in production. If enthusiasm was going to be necessary for success, then we had nothing to worry about. On the first day the yarns were ready, the outdoor studio was scrubbed down and we hit the ground running. We worked until the light was gone and then we kept going. By the light of cell phones and flashlights we worked the indigo vats until we got what we wanted. Success comes slowly, a little bit at a time, but it does arrive.

Working into the night by the light of cell phones. 

Sophena and Charllotte check the indigo vats again during the day.

Our students are all experienced yarn handlers. Fine silks and cottons presented no problems for them. While working with large hanks in batches of one or two kilos they could keep the yarns moving in a way that resulted in even dyeing. We realized that if we could build the right dye vats for them - they had the mechanical skill to work the yarns. Our goals became clear. Make the right pots of natural colour and then give them the confidence to make those same pots for themselves.

We talked about proper preparation (scouring is essential for even dyeing), and then returned to the indigo dye which had been the focus of our November trip and the inspiration from the Indigo Sutra conference.

Natural indigo on the bamboo drying racks,

undyed yarns awaiting their turn to wear a natural colour.

With blues complete, we launched into the other colours: lac, madder, pomegranate, marigold, cutch. Outside in the yard you could see a record of our progress. Curious eyes of neighbours peered over the fence. The bamboo poles that held the drying yarns became a kind of chromatic clock. At first they were all shades of natural yarns — all whites and creams — but over the next four days they became blue, yellow, gold, red, brown and purple. You’ve never seen such happiness as when a dyer places the first freshly dyed hank of yarn, the first new colour, beside the others on the pole.

Our experience of colour is unlike anything else. Our joy in this experience is only made deeper when the colours are the reward for our own hard work.

Marigold in the dyepot. Yes, cooking colour out of flowers is a magical experience - especially as surprisingly few flowers give fast colours.

Skeins of yarns. We were constantly impressed by the skill of these artisans at handling yarns. Not a strand broken. Never any tangles.

Colour was not the only sensation being shared during that visit. At the end of each day there was a Bengali meal. Often it was cooked on top of the wood fire in the yard. Tandoor chicken, eggplant, vegetables and the wonderful local fish. It was during this time, as the scent of pungent spices mixed with the smoke of the fire and we sat in a circle at dusk, that the stories would come out. Sparked by some incident during the day or some memory brought on by the conversation, a leisurely tale would take shape. Often following a thread as tenuous as the yarns we had dyed that day; talk of childhood, of growing up on tea plantations in the foothills of northern Bengal; talk of monsoon storms and favourite foods; talk of weavers and aunties and the eccentric character that each village and family seems to have.

Children of the village. We never forgot our initial motivation to help the weavers: to help them transition back to natural processes and protect their health and their environment.

We had put down roots. The weaving skills were strong and the dyeing skills were growing stronger each day. Was there a market for naturally dyed cloth? Even naturally dyed yarn? We knew the answer was yes. We backed up that answer with some orders and a promise to return next year. 

Those who know Maiwa’s history know that these projects (like our embroidery revivals) can take years. A surprising number of years at times. But we are committed. The artisans are committed. Together we are working to return to traditional colour and to continuing this Bengal story.

Natural Colour: A Bengal Story

Part One

Part Two

MAIWA'S HAND-DYED YARNS

Honest Yarns. Fast colours made with natural dyes. Available in 4 weights and 18 colours on linen. Wholesale lots are also available. These yarns are dyed by a different community than the one featured above.

Visit Maiwa & Maiwa Supply on Granville Island 7 days a week between 10am and 7pm

And Online at maiwa.com