For The Love Of Indigo
Clearest. Deepest. Blue.
Sizes from 30g up to 2.5 kg. Our large sizes are priced at a wholesale rate so that all artisans can participate in the magic that indigo brings.
Maiwa's Natural Indigo
Decades ago, Maiwa began looking for blue. The word “indigo” was everywhere, but the legendary dyeplant proved much more elusive. It had been a little over one hundred years since the German chemist Adolph von Baeyer had discovered the chemical formula for indigo and worked out a way to synthesize it industrially. During that time farmers who grew indigo and those who knew how to extract it became increasingly rare.
Indigo has great longevity: archeological evidence of its use dates back to Indus valley civilization in the third millennium BCE. Ancient cultures—Greek, Roman, Chinese, Japanese, Indian—all created distinctive textiles based on indigo blue. Remarkably, indigo was also used in Central and South America, where it was independently discovered. Blue seems to be both universal and at the same time deeply tied to the culture that uses it.
Maiwa, after thirty years, has formed an intimate relationship with indigo. We have worked with historians like Jenny Balfour Paul, researchers like Dominique Cardon, and botanist-chemists like Michel Garcia. We’ve brought together block printers from Rajasthan and the Kutch desert and placed them in the same natural dye studio as ikat weavers from the south and eri silk farmers from Ethiopia. Indigo connects them all.
Maiwa's indigo is grown in Southern India. Here the plants drink in the tropical sun before farmer-producers transform the green indigoferra tinctoria into a colour that is beloved by artisans the world over. We've just received a fresh harvest.
Maiwa, after thirty years, has formed an intimate relationship with indigo. We have worked with historians like Jenny Balfour Paul, researchers like Dominique Cardon, and botanist-chemists like Michel Garcia. We’ve brought together block printers from Rajasthan and the Kutch desert and placed them in the same natural dye studio as ikat weavers from the south and eri silk farmers from Ethiopia. Indigo connects them all.
Maiwa's indigo is grown in Southern India. Here the plants drink in the tropical sun before farmer-producers transform the green indigoferra tinctoria into a colour that is beloved by artisans the world over. We've just received a fresh harvest.
MAIWA Productions
DVD - Indigo: A World of Blue
On Sale $10.00 (Regular $21.95)
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