Whether you’re growing colour on a windowsill or in a backyard garden, this workshop offers inspiration, practical insight, guidance and an intimate look at Maiwa’s ongoing research—rooted in observation, experimentation, and a deep love of natural colour.
Filmed over five years on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada, this unique online offering gives a rare, behind-the-scenes look at a working research dye garden in the Pacific Northwest.
We’ve sewn a limited collection of our Quilted Studio Bags from vintage Kantha quilts— layered cotton saris, stitched and patch-worked into something entirely new.
It stays with you when the seasons change a familiar length of cloth. It covers you when the sun is bold and warms you on cool evenings.
It is masterfully made, a song of dexterity and skill and all the plans that weavers make for the future. That it can say all this in simple threads ingeniously tangled is kind of a miracle.
Hand painting cloth with natural dyes is an ancient practice in India, known as kalamkari—which translates to “pen work.” The freedom to place natural colour in a painterly way requires considerable skill and natural dye knowledge.