INDIGO VAT PROJECT
AND THE MAIWA GIFT CARD
INDIGO VAT PROJECT
Natural indigo is the famous blue dye used throughout India. The Maiwa Foundation is building infrastructure to encourage the use of natural indigo (derived from plants) rather than synthetic indigo (synthesized from petrochemicals). We are also encouraging the use of a natural fermentation process in dyeing whenever possible.
Traditional dyeing with natural indigo is accomplished through a fermentation vat. This process is difficult (if not impossible) to do in a shallow plastic pan or a metal pot. As with other fermentation processes (wine, beer, bread) the enzymes which drive the process are sensitive to temperature and environmental conditions.
Traditionally clay vessels are used that may be anywhere from 3 to 10 feet deep. The deeper vessels require more dye to get started, but they can run longer without removing the sediment (which gradually builds up on the bottom of the vat). Deeper vats can also accommodate lengths of cloth. The vats are buried in packed earth to stabilize the temperature. Sometimes they are surrounded on the outside with goat dung. The dung breaks down (like compost) and acts like a slow-release heater to keep the vat active during the winter.
The Maiwa Foundations identifies artisans who are enthusiastic to return to traditional methods. Maiwa will purchase and oversee the installation of traditional vats. In addition the Maiwa Foundation provides training in traditional methods as well as trouble shooting and sourcing natural indigo.
Your donation will assist in the purchase of the pot itself, transport, preparation and installation. The Maiwa Foundation hopes to remove barriers to authentic artisan work.
Traditional dyeing with natural indigo is accomplished through a fermentation vat. This process is difficult (if not impossible) to do in a shallow plastic pan or a metal pot. As with other fermentation processes (wine, beer, bread) the enzymes which drive the process are sensitive to temperature and environmental conditions.
Traditionally clay vessels are used that may be anywhere from 3 to 10 feet deep. The deeper vessels require more dye to get started, but they can run longer without removing the sediment (which gradually builds up on the bottom of the vat). Deeper vats can also accommodate lengths of cloth. The vats are buried in packed earth to stabilize the temperature. Sometimes they are surrounded on the outside with goat dung. The dung breaks down (like compost) and acts like a slow-release heater to keep the vat active during the winter.
The Maiwa Foundations identifies artisans who are enthusiastic to return to traditional methods. Maiwa will purchase and oversee the installation of traditional vats. In addition the Maiwa Foundation provides training in traditional methods as well as trouble shooting and sourcing natural indigo.
Your donation will assist in the purchase of the pot itself, transport, preparation and installation. The Maiwa Foundation hopes to remove barriers to authentic artisan work.
ONLINE GIFT CARD
Shopping for someone else but not sure what to give them? Give them the gift of choice with a MAIWA ONLINE gift card.
Gift cards can be used for anything in the Maiwa ONLINE store only. Sorry, the ONLINE gift card cannot be redeemed in the physical stores (Maiwa, Maiwa Supply, Maiwa East).
Gift cards are delivered by email and contain instructions to redeem them at checkout. Our gift cards have no additional processing fees.
IN-STORE GIFT CERTIFICATE
Looking for a gift certificate for MAIWA SUPPLY, MAIWA EAST or the MAIN MAIWA STORE? Please call us at 604 669 3939 or drop by and we will be happy to issue a gift certificate for the physical stores.
MAIWA'S HOLIDAY HOURS
GRANVILLE ISLAND, VANCOUVER
December 24th (Christmas Eve) — 10am - 4pm
December 25th (Christmas Day) — Closed
December 26th (Boxing Day) — Closed
December 27th-30th — 10am - 7pm
December 31st (New Years Eve) — 10am - 4pm
January 1st (New Years Day) — Closed
January 2nd — Winter hours in effect until March 31st — 10am-6pm
1310 ODLUM DRIVE, VANCOUVER
December 24th (Christmas Eve) — 9am - 4pm
December 25th (Christmas Day) — Closed
December 26th (Boxing Day) — Closed
December 27th - 28th - 9am - 5pm
December 31st (New Years Eve) — 9am - 4pm
January 1st (New Years Day) — Closed
January 2nd — Regular hours return, Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm
Thursday, December 20, 2018
No comments

Monday, December 17th – Monday, December 24th
10% OFF
all Jewellery
Visit us at Maiwa on Granville Island in Vancouver
7 days a week between 10am and 7pm
Over many years, Maiwa has travelled the world researching textile processes and the cultures that support them. During this time we have also encountered cultures with a long history of unsurpassed skill in working precious metals.
Maiwa seeks out traditional items, such as amulets, broaches, turquoise, lapis and amber. When working in India we employ local silversmiths to set stones and traditional pieces in 92.5% silver settings.
We are happy to say that in India, our enthusiasm for traditional pieces has ignited renewed interest in traditional work. Often the combination of antique elements in new settings provides the perfect contrast to fire the imagination. These are pieces with a history and a story, adornment that whispers in its own voice.
FEATURED GIFTS
Monday, December 17, 2018
No comments
WORKSHOP OPENINGS!
ITS NOT TOO LATE TO GET YOUR SPACE
MAKE 2019 YOUR YEAR OF LEARNING
A few spaces have become available after our opening rush. A workshop you were looking for may be available now.
As of this posting there are spaces available in:
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
No comments
The Maiwa School of Textiles is ready for our 2019 Spring Workshops registration day on Monday, December 10th beginning at 10am (PST).
Click the button below to read everything you need to know to have a successful registration day.
2019 is looking great, hope to see you there!
MAIWA SUPPLY
FOR ALL YOUR WORKSHOP NEEDS
YOU SUPPLY THE CREATIVITY, WE SUPPLY THE REST
Visit us in store on Granville Island 7 days a week 10am-7pm
And online at maiwa.com
Wednesday, December 05, 2018
No comments
GIFTED
SCARVES and SHAWLS
Monday, December 3rd – Sunday, December 9th
20% OFF
all regular priced Scarves & Shawls
Visit us at Maiwa on Granville Island in Vancouver
7 days a week between 10am and 7pm
Or online at maiwa.com
PROMO CODE: WRAPMEUP2018
(Use Promo Code at Online Checkout)
We want to make your Holiday Season even brighter by offering you a special 20% off all regular priced scarves and shawls, both in-store and online.
So much more than just a length of cloth, a shawl or scarf is a field of possibility. Feel the work of master weavers in each thread or delight in the patterning created by a variety of traditional surface design techniques. Wrap up in style this winter.
PROMO CODE: WRAPMEUP2018
PLEASE NOTE: Enter the promo code at the CHECKOUT stage. If you are purchasing from a phone or tablet, you will need to click “Show order summary” (in blue text) to be shown the box to enter your promo code.
20% OFF all regular priced scarves & shawls in the MAIWA store on Granville Island and in the MAIWA ONLINE store ends at 11:59pm PST Sunday, December 9.
FEATURED GIFTS
Favourite things shown: Leather Carrier Bag - Tan, Natural Dye Kit, Honest Yarn - Laterite, Merchant & Mills Pattern - The Strand, Ajrakh Silk/Cotton Shawl - Madder & Indigo, Wood Block - Tree, Kachchh Embroidery Pakko Pouch - Pattern D
Monday, December 03, 2018
No comments
GIFTED
EMBROIDERY & LEATHERWORK
Monday, November 26th – Sunday, December 2nd
20% OFF
all regular priced
embroidery & leather
Visit us at Maiwa on Granville Island in Vancouver
7 days a week between 10am and 7pm
Or online at maiwa.com
PROMO CODE:
EMBROIDERY&LEATHERWORK
(Use Promo Code at Online Checkout)
We want to make your Holiday Season even brighter by offering you a special 20% off all regular priced embroidery and leather, both in store and online. Find the perfect accent to celebrate the season.
It is often said that embroidery is a language, a system of communicating through colour, pattern, stitch, and embellishment. Each embroidery is a unique creation of the woman who made it. No two are the same. We feature embroidery work done by 8 different groups based in India, all of whom exhibit a signature aesthetic.
Leatherwork from the Artisans Alliance of Jawaja. These pieces are completely hand-worked by skilled craftspeople from the stitched details to the burnished finish on the leather. Jawaja makes some of the most enduring items we have ever seen. Time adds subtlety, deepens personality, and bestows a heroic character on Jawaja leatherwork.
GIFTED
ARTISANS
PROMO CODE:
EMBROIDERY&LEATHERWORK
PLEASE NOTE: Enter the promo code at the CHECKOUT stage. If you are purchasing from a phone or tablet, you will need to click “Show order summary” (in blue text) to be shown the box to enter your promo code.
20% OFF all regular priced embroidery and leatherwork in the main MAIWA store on Granville Island and in the MAIWA ONLINE store ends at 11:59pm PST Sunday, December 2.
FEATURED GIFTS
We've hand selected some of our very favourite treasures as well as gift ideas that we love. The work of skilled artisans speaks through weave, stitch, pattern and colour — and adds a sense of purpose and meaning that lasts for years to come.
From one of a kind hand embroidered bags, to handwoven shawls, to the gift of giving a pink bike to a girl in India; making it easy for girls to get to school safely.
Favourite things shown: Leather Carrier Bag - Tan, Natural Dye Kit, Honest Yarn - Laterite, Merchant & Mills Pattern - The Strand, Ajrakh Silk/Cotton Shawl - Madder & Indigo, Wood Block - Tree, Kachchh Embroidery Pakko Pouch - Pattern D
Monday, November 26, 2018
No comments
GIFTED CLOTHING
GIFTED ARTISANS
Monday, November 19th – Sunday, November 25th
20% OFF
all regular priced clothing
PROMO CODE: SLOWCLOTHES2018
(Use Promo Code at Online Checkout)
Visit us at Maiwa on Granville Island in Vancouver
7 days a week between 10am and 7pm
Or online at maiwa.com
We want to make your Holiday Season even brighter by offering you a special 20% off all regular priced clothing, both in store and online. Find the perfect outfit to celebrate the season. Give the gift of slow clothes.
We are committed to exquisite, timeless, artisan-made clothing. Gifted artisans hold the threads of each step of production — from the farmers of natural dyes and fibres to the spinners, weavers, dyers, and block printers.
There is so much passion poured into every design; every weave, every pattern, and process, that we can’t hide our excitement. Gifted clothing made by gifted artisans.
GIFTED
ARTISANS
PROMO CODE: SLOWCLOTHES2018
PLEASE NOTE: Enter the promo code at the CHECKOUT stage. If you are purchasing from a phone or tablet, you will need to click “Show order summary” (in blue text) to be shown the box to enter your promo code.
20% OFF all regular priced clothing in the MAIWA store on Granville Island and in
the MAIWA ONLINE store ends at 11:59pm PST Sunday, November 25
FEATURED GIFTS
MAIWA'S KITS
You supply the creativity we supply the rest. These kits have everything that you, or someone on your list needs to start that next project.
From beginners to established makers, our kits are designed to encourage play and give you confidence in your craft.
Monday, November 19, 2018
No comments
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
No comments
Kala Cotton featured in the Prana Dress and Ahilya Kimono Jacket
Shown with: Holy Leather Day Bag, Handwoven Bhujodi Shawl, Ahilya Pant - Cream Dot.
THE KALA COTTON STORY
Cotton grows naturally in India. Up until the 1750s two indigenous varieties predominated: Gossypium arboreum (known as “tree cotton”) and gossypium herbaceum (known as Lavant cotton). Unlike conventional cotton, these varieties were native to the region and were well adapted to the climate. These fibres show up in textiles from the Kachchh region dating back thousands of years.
More importantly, these local varieties were ecologically sustainable. They had adapted to low water requirements and extremely arid conditions. However, they did not integrate well with industrial machinery and so were neglected. Today these “old world” cottons are being revived and incorporated into handmade textiles where they are once again appreciated as the fibres that can be spun into the threads that make the most exquisite cotton cloth.
Kala cotton. Now used in Maiwa clothing.
Kala Cotton featured in the Ahilya Kimono Jacket
Shown with: Handwoven Deshi Wool Shawl, Ahilya Pant - Ajrakh Dot.
Kala Cotton featured in the Ahilya Kimono Jacket
Shown with: Handwoven Deshi Wool Shawl, Kachch Embroidered Carry Bag, Ahilya Pant - Ajrakh Dot.
Shown with: Handwoven Deshi Wool Shawl, Kachch Embroidered Carry Bag, Ahilya Pant - Ajrakh Dot.
Wednesday, November 07, 2018
No comments
2018 REVIEWS OF LECTURES AND EVENTS
MAIWA SCHOOL OF TEXTILES
The 2018 Lecture and Event Series of the Maiwa School of Textiles has just concluded. It will be a year to remember. Here are reviews of the lectures and events. In many cases we have been able to post the introductory comments. Thanks to each and every member of the Maiwa audience for your support. Speakers at the Maiwa School of Textiles always comment on the knowledge and enthusiasm of the audience.
Our Spring 2019 listings have just gone live. Registration for another incredible season of workshops opens on December 10, 2018 at 10am (pacific time).
Thursday, November 01, 2018
No comments
On Saturday October 27th, 2018, Charllotte Kwon and Tim McLaughlin delivered the THREADS lecture — "Kinds of Blue: The Natural Indigo Revival." Each year the THREADS lecture presents some aspect of the work of the Maiwa Foundation. This year the lecture followed up Maiwa's presence at the 2017 Indigo Sutra conference in Kolkata, India with details of teaching dye technique in rural Bengal.
The lecture also included an historic survey of Indigo use in India. From it's early discouragement on clothing worn by Brahmins to its ascendency during the time of the Mughals, to its world dominance during the British Raj, to its industrial synthesis at the close of the nineteenth century. All aspects of indigo's history influence how it is used, perceived, and appreciated today.
See all REVIEWS on the Maiwa Blog.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
No comments
Shunji led the audience through traditional Japanese Boro textiles and explained the history and conditions that led to their development. He then showed how the technique of remaking, patching, quilting, and stitching is being used in contemporary fashion and design. Throughout his lecture Shunji's humour, energy, and passion for textiles were inescapable.
Shunji Ohashi was introduced by Amber Joy Muenz:
I first met Shunji Ohashi when I was living in Japan. I met him through my good friend Sophie, now his wife - she first saw him tap-dancing on stage in Japanese Geta - wooden platform flip flop sandals at a little club we frequented in Tokyo.
The minute you meet Shunji, there's a warmth and brightness about him that makes you want to know more about where this excitement for life comes from. When Shunji would travel to Tokyo by train from Okayama, we shared conversations about creativity, expression and making. We would exchange the names of vintage clothing stores and antique markets in Tokyo and Okayama, the Denim Capital of Japan.
As a young man Shunji registered to study fashion at London College of Fashion. But just before he left he saw a tap dancer on the street in Shibuya. Shunji was floored. He approached the man and asked if he could learn. The performer told Shunji “Buy tap shoes!” So that day Shunji went out and did just that. And the next day he returned for his first lesson. He was inspired by the dance but also by the shoes. He considered how they were made and … he changed his major from fashion to shoe design.
Living in London, Shunji would pay his £400 rent with his tap dancing.
When he arrived back in Japan, Shunji started work at the revolutionary design house: Kapital. Just this week we learned that his persistence got him that job, after spending the night in a sleeping bag on the doorstep the head office - he burned in their minds the image of a young man determined to join their team.
He stayed 7 years at Kaptial - Where he learned the intricate craftsmanship Kapital is famous for. For 3 years Shunji spearheaded Kaptial’s Kountry line, which has a strong focus on intricate/labour-intensive design and hand craft.
Kapital never works with photoshop or any other digital design tools: so Shunji would hand-stitch every sample he designed. Because the factory was just round the corner from the design studio, he would walk the samples over himself when he went for meetings, often bringing sweets to the craftspeople whom he has enormous respect for.
But his deep connection to cloth and style he inherited from his family.
Shunji's grandfather owned a factory that made kimono fabric. His paternal grandmother is passionate about kimonos and has an enormous collection, some of which we worked with this week in his Boro workshop. His maternal grandfather was so passionate about fashion that he would travel to Tokyo — an eight-hour round trip in those days — just to buy a hat. That Grandfather used to buy clothes for Shunji. It was his grandfather’s style of extreme over-layering (so much so that his shoulders would ache) that influenced Shunji’s love of over-layering.
Shunji’s style motto became: kyabetsu no you ni nanmai kiru - ‘dress like a cabbage’.
After being sought out by the denim innovator G-star, Shunji moved from Tokyo to Amsterdam where he currently resides. At G-star, Shunji is responsible for creating the concepts that drive whole collections, as well as making labour-intensive one-off pieces for celebrities such as Pharrell Williams and Jaden Smith. He frequently visits factories to oversee production and is deeply involved with G-star’s sustainability efforts. Shunji’s personal drive is to make products of the highest quality that are as timeless as possible, so that people will continue wearing them for a very long time.
Shunji has a strong connection to Japanese tradition, Japanese Buddhist philosophy, craft and textiles. He understands the patience it takes to learn a craft. Shunji embodies a reverence for knowledge and a hunger to learn from others. He is a teacher and a student: a man of depth, generosity, creative thought and great curiosity.
I am thrilled to introduce you to my good friend Shunji Ohashi.
See all REVIEWS on the Maiwa Blog.
Saturday, October 27, 2018
No comments
On September 22nd, 2018, Charllotte Kwon delivered the closing plenary address to the 2018 Textile Society of America Symposium. Meghann O’Brien set the tone by delivered the keynote to open the symposium. It was three intense days of textile presentations and events.
See all REVIEWS on the Maiwa Blog.
Saturday, October 27, 2018
No comments
![]() |
Photo by Mercedes Jelinek, 2015. |
On October 23, 2018 Rachel Meginnes delivered her lecture "Striped Bare: Deconstructing Textiles and the Artistic Process." Rachel detailed her artistic career and talked about crucial moments and decisions. It was an honest and deeply-felt presentation with emphasis on how artistic motivation and studio practice are combined to create meaningful work. Rachel also presented a diagrammatic figure for understanding the success or failure of an artistic work to communicate with an audience. This figure sparked many questions from the audience after the talk.
![]() |
From the "In Studio" section of Plainweave Studios |
Rachel was introduced by Tim McLaughlin:
I was walking myself through the work of Rachel Meginnes in preparation for her return to teach and speak at Maiwa. I though how, in late winter, the day is sometimes wrapped in a white-grey fog. The air itself seems to drain the colour and contrast out of everything. The world becomes subtle; like an old billboard, bleached by the sun, weathered by the wind, washed by the rain. Wood silvers. Cloth unweaves itself, paper blisters and tears away.
And then I encountered Rachel’s statement: “Colour and surface should not be mere facade but rather a result of intent and effort over time.”
I read and reread that statement. I liked it. It seemed to indicate something true: That colour and surface are rewards of a kind. But I also caught a hint of contradiction in it. Colour and surface are the result of intent and effort. But who’s intention? Who’s effort? In a beautiful piece of cedar wood, silvered by the sun and found on the beach … where did the effort come from?
I’d like to suggest that Rachel’s statement is a lot like her artwork. The more you focus on it, the more it expands and draws you in. If you question it - it offers a suggestion of an answer, and then an alternative answer.
Rachel has spent a long time divining the subtle nature of process. She began her artistic career as a weaver, she studied textiles and indigo dyeing in Japan, she completed her MFA at the University of Washington, she co-owned and operated a rug design company producing hand-knotted, Tibetan carpets for the interiors trade. In 2012 she shifted gears and embarked on a three-year residency at the Penland School of Craft. Since then she has looked into the depths of process, surface, colour, technique and intention. Whatever truths or contradictions she has found there she has expressed in objects and artworks.
Please join me in welcoming Rachel Meginnes.
See all REVIEWS on the Maiwa Blog.
Saturday, October 27, 2018
No comments