Three reasons to make Maiwa your Local Yarn Shop.

Louet

We have just brought in some European linen from Louet. Featured here are two of the Euroflax samples: a 100% linen bulky/chunky weight and a 100% wet spun linen in #2/Sport weight. Also shown is a KidLin, this is a blend of 53% Kid Mohair, 24% Linen and 23% Nylon. It is a wonderfully cosy and responsive yarn.

Manos del Uruguay

Manos del Uruguay was born in 1968 when a group of women were trying to find a way to promote economic and social development for remote rural women. We have new colours - natural blends made with the sheep's natural colours Grey, Brown and Ecru, and handspun together to create a melange effect. There are overdyed colours where the varied tones of the base yarn add tremendous depth and complexity. This new yarn is significantly soft, manageable and a wonder to work with.

Wagtail Yarns

Wagtail is a family run business from Austrailia that is completely dedicated to mohair and mohair blends. Featured here are two yarns: the lighter is a mix of 80% fine mohair with 20% merino wool, the second is a blend of 60% fine mohair with 40% merino. Both yarns are very soft, have a delightful weight and are quite pliable.

These three arrivals are now in our Supply store on Granville Island. We welcome you to come and see how they might work for your next project.

Assam: Land of the Golden Silk - Part 5
(Our 2008 visit to Assam in search of three types of silk.)

At the close of our first day in Assam we are very very tired. The combination of jet lag, tropical weather, the excitement and newness of everything has worn us out. Returning to our simple guest house we are asked what we want to eat. Ever prudent we select what we think is the healthiest (in terms of traveller’s food safety) simplest, an most importantly, quickest meal. A boiled egg. “No problem. No Problem. Right away.” We would have lost consciousness instantly but we stayed away to receive our humble supper. Two hours later the boiled egg arrived. With two pieces of white bread. I suspect the thoughtful addition of western style white bread was the time snag and I imagine young boys being sent running through the village to get shop keepers to open their stalls until some is found.

Eggs are also where we start with the Eri moth. The eggs are so tiny they are hard to show clearly. But if you look closely you can see the small holes where they have exited. Eri hatchlings in Assam.





NEXT >>

Assam: Land of the Golden Silk - Part 4
(Our 2008 visit to Assam in search of three types of silk.)



When we were getting ready to visit Assam we pulled out our boxes of slides and photographs and reviewed what we learned in Orissa ten years ago. We found eri then, including the marvelous specimen at the top of the page. Unlike tussar, eri is fully domesticated. To understand why eri is so special we need to talk a little about the process of reeling silk. The process is fairly strightforward. The cocoons are placed in warm water to loosen the gum (sericin) that holds the filaments together. One strand of silk is incredibly thin and would be too weak for most textiles, so the filaments from several cocoons are combined. As they are reeled the sericin acts to bind the multiple filaments into a single thread.

When the adult moth emerges from a cocoon it needs to make a hole to get out. The cocoons from which adults emerge are known as "pierced" because of this hole. The hole cuts so many of the fibers that the silk from pierced cocoons cannot be reeled. The silk is still used, but it is spun like cotton or wool and forms a lower grade of silk.

Eri is unusual in that it is never reeled. The fibers in the coccoon are like a tiny bale of cotton, all wound together and tangled. So instead eri silk is spun and this gives it a very unusual quality. Depending on how it is spun and woven it can give a very woolly result - and as with poorly made wools, eri can pill like cheap acrylic. But it can also give a tight strong fiber like linen. This is what makes eri textiles amazing - they can have the drape and weight of linen but are warm and insulating like cotton or wool.

Because eri silk is spun and not reeled it is not necessary to "stifle" or kill the pupa. You can let the moth emerge to mate and lay eggs - or you can eat it for supper. In eastern India eri was (and still is) raised as a source of protein with the silk being a very useful by product.

"Ericulture is a small scale industry in all the three stages; such as, rearing, spinning and weaving, the rearers growing a patch of castor (Ricinus communis) or ‘Kesseru’ (Hereropanax fragrans) plants in their hutments for making use of the leaves for rearing the worms for production of cocoon that is spun into yarn – the yarn woven into cloth by themselves for personal use. Most important however is the chrisalid which is devoured avidly. In fact, eri cocoon is considered a by-product, so also the castor seed. Castor plant is mainly used in other parts of India for production of seed which as a valuable material; but in N.E. region because of its profuse vegative growth and poor yield of seeds, the leaves are utilized for production of eri cocoon only." - Chowdahury 1991.

When we visited Orissa, we noticed that the eri were placed on special baskets when they were getting ready to spin. The basketry provided a perfect environment and permitted easy collection of the silk. Here you can see many cocoons and recently emerged moths.



NEXT >>

Our latest video podcast just went up.

Part 1 - Introduction and Presentation
Michel Garcia

Michel Garcia is a practicing chemist and botanist specializing in natural dyes and dye plants. He is the founder of Couleur Garance, and the Botanical Garden of Dye Plants, set in the Château de Lauris, terraced and adorned with ponds and fountains dating from the eighteenth century. The conservatory garden was envisioned as a resource for natural dye research and an oportunity to edify the public about organic colour.

Recorded at the 2009 Maiwa Textile Symposium on October 16, 2009
Posted January 2010

Here is the original post for Michel Garcia's lecture. In 2009 he also taught a workshop; Secrets from the Dye Garden: Extracts and Printing.

We came across Wormspit when we were doing silk research for our 2008 trip to Assam. If you have any interest in silk you need to know about Michael Cook, his blog (which goes back to 2003) and his site, Wormspit (www.wormspit.com). It is detailed, informed, supported by copious high-quality close-up photos, and at times outrageously funny. There is equal emphasis on raising the insects and working with the fibers.



Michael Cook, who lives in Dallas, Texas, got started raising silkworms in 2001 after he had already been weaving for ten years. Since then he's been raising various breeds, reeling the silks, dyeing the fibers and documenting the process. He was recently published in the Fall 2009 issue of SpinOff magazine and was the sericulturalist for the American Museum of Natural History's video Traditional Silk Making Today (with music by the Silk Road Project).

It is early January 2010 and our jeep has just rolled into the Jawaja Village. The last time we saw the weavers and leatherworkers was in October; when they were on the screen in front of a live audience at the Maiwa Textile Symposium. For that event, representative of the Artisans Alliance of Jawaja left their homes and travelled over 350 kilometers to Ahmedebad to participate in the teleconference presentation.

It is a dusty day when we drive in, but then it is almost always a dusty day in Rajasthan, with frequent drought and much desert. It's a hard place to live. When the dust settles we see the group waiting. We tumble out of the car and begin our formal greetings with "Namaste" No matter what is going to happen, it will happen after the social formalities have been properly completed.

After the greetings the entire group bursts into applause. Everyone is there: the women, the men, the children. Leatherworkers and weavers. Smiles are everywhere. It continues for some time and we, collectively, blush.

Not many of us get to see how our actions influence the lives of others. Cause and effect is hard to determine, especially in human interactions and especially between cultures. But when we met the group in the village square, and then moved on to the co-operative's warehouse we knew that we (and everyone who came to the auditorium that night for their presentation) had accomplished something. What impressed the artisans of Jawaja most was that when things went wrong (Canada refused the Artisans and translator Ashoke Chatterjee permission to enter the country.) Maiwa didn't give up. We didn't say "Well, we've tried - sorry." That confidence, that support; from people on the other side of the world, travelled a great distance and made a considerable impact.

The group faces many challenges of which the visa denials are only one example. As artisans they often focus closely on their craft, and (as with most craftspeople) problems can arise if the financial aspects of craft are not constantly watched. This is probably the area in which Maiwa can help most; financial planning, costing, estimating, and marketing.

As we wrapped up our meetings we took the group photo you see at the top. The feeling of pride was everywhere ... and as we turned to go we were told, "Of course, we still want to come to Canada!"

2010 has come in like a lion with a number of key events we'd like to share.

---

Our very own Hilary Young, together with Patricia Chauncey has a new exhibit.
DOUBLE VISION — MORPHOS INQUIRY
will run at the Numen Gallery until February 14th, 2010. Meet the artists at the exhibit's opening reception:

Assam: Land of the Golden Silk - Part 3
(Our 2008 visit to Assam in search of three types of silk.)

We are strangers in Assam. So our first official obligation once we have driven off with Chandan (our contact) is to visit the local constabulary. The ritual of the host is very important in India. It is just as important (or maybe more so) at the police headquarters. We are given tea and biscuits and asked about our "program." We are welcomed, then left alone in a room while calls are made. Eventually we are permitted to continue with an armed escort of two officers. News of the morning's events in Guwahati has travelled quickly. We are told to keep a low profile and not to visit any public markets.

The first stop is to see some tussar moths. We leave the road and walk through a family compound. Entering a brick building through a screen door we are met with the humid damp air one usually finds in greenhouses. Rich and slightly cloying. On a table of cut branches, large tussar caterpillars are happily munching away at the green leaves. They are a bright green and slightly translucent. They are always either eating or resting. That is the life of a caterpillar.




In the back of the first room is a line of spun cocoons.



And in a second room are the adults. The moths rest on an egg stick. The females wear a harness of thread that keeps them from flying away. The males are free to visit the females and if they do, it is referred to as "pairing". The moths are tended constantly and in our photo you can see the cot which has been set up under a protective sheet. The pairing takes place by the end of abdomen.




Perhaps tussar can be domesticated. We didn't witness egg hatching or the earlier instars of the insect, but it seemed that it might possible to fully manage a brood inside. Reports that tussar cannot be domesticated go back quite far. In 1796, Michael Atkinson, stationed in Bengal, wrote a letter that became part of Dr. William Roxburgh's 1802 presentation to the Linnean Society. The letter reads:

"This species cannot be domesticated. I am informed that the natives cannot even retain any of it for seed. The hill people say that they go into jungles, and under the Byer and Asseen trees they find the excrement of the insect; on which they examine the tree, and, on discovering the small worms, they cut off branches of the tree sufficient for their purpose, with the young brood on the branches; these they carry to convenient situations near their houses, and distribute the branches on the Asseen tree in proportion to the size thereof, but they put none on the Byer tree. The Parieahs, or hill people, guard the insects night and day while in the worm state, to preserve them from crows and other birds by day, and from bats by night.

" I myself have seen them thus watching the brood. This species cannot be confined, for so soon as the moth pierces the cocoon it gets away; and the people add, that it is impossible to keep it, by any precaution whatever."

It may be that this one observation has been quoted many times. Dr. John Feltwell (mentioned in the previous post) cites it. Once we learned more about the life of the moth, the last paragraph seemed somewhat dubious. For two reasons: firstly, the adult moths emerge from the cocoon with wings like wet tissue paper. It takes time, sometimes hours, for the insect to pump fluid into the wings to fully expand them. Secondly, the sheer size of these moths would make them easily kept by even rudimentary netting. They are such a beautiful moth that it would be an honour to be a tussar keeper.

Next >>