the MAIWA BLOG: May 2024

THE SHIMOGA SHIRT

This Maiwa piece is the perfect oversized shirt. The versatility of wearing it open or closed makes it a Maiwa favourite and a great layering piece. The Shimoga Shirt stays true to what we believe about timeless sustainable design; it's easily worn year round.

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MAIWA'S LINEN BASICS

Style your Shimoga shirt with any of our linen pieces seen throughout this email, perfect for layering.

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To our U.S. customers – don't forget that the exchange rate works in your favour, it's like an extra discount.

Thursday, May 30, 2024 No comments

The Natural Dyes in our Clothing

Are the Same Natural Dyes

On Our Shelf

See all of Maiwa's Natural Dyes

Large sizes always priced at wholesale rates.

Visit Maiwa's naturaldyes.ca Here

Our website dedicated to natural dyes.

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DYEABLE CLOTHING & BLANKS

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THE ULTIMATE NATURAL DYE KIT

The ultimate kit is a dye studio in a box. It contains everything you need to dive deep into the world of natural colour. From the initial scour to the final rinse — this kit has you covered. Priced at a discount to get you started.

See our Ultimate Natural Dye Kit Here

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The dyeing process usually requires additives. Additives are used to mordant the colour and shift it in interesting ways. Additives are also used to modify dyes for processes such as silkscreening and block printing. You will also find the additives needed for discharge techniques, scouring, after washing, and neutralizing. Descriptions are found with each additive. For more detailed information, see our data sheets.

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We believe in sharing information.Find everything you need to get started in our comprehensive guide to natural dyes — Free online!

The Maiwa Guide to Natural Dyes

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This journal has been an idea of ours for a long time. It is a little like a combination of a travel journal and a natural dye journal. It is the journal we have always wanted!

See The Natural Dye Journal Here

To our U.S. customers – don't forget that the exchange rate works in your favour, it's like an extra discount.

Tuesday, May 28, 2024 No comments

Traditional handloom is a remarkably flexible technology. Handloom permits weaving from fibres too fine to be handled by industrial mills. The mechanism of the loom (almost always worked with bare feet) permits the weaver to judge by feel when it is too damp, or too dry to continue working with hand spun cotton.

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KALA COTTON

FIRST 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.

KHADI

SECOND STORY

Khadi is a handwoven cloth made from handspun threads. But khadi is so much more than simply a beautiful fabric. It is an idea of cultural self-sufficiency with deep roots in the Indian identity.

In its essence, khadi is a fabric created through personal labour without industrial machinery. Khadi thus harkens back to the centuries when India produced some of the world's most prestigious cloth. But with it’s emphasis on manual skills and hand production, khadi also had a central role to play in countering the displacement of family life that took place during industrialization and British colonization.

Mahatma Gandhi saw khadi as a way to break India’s dependence on British manufactured cloth. As part of the non-violent freedom struggle, Gandhi understood that a return to hand-made cloth would strike an economic blow to Great Britain (India is one of the largest markets in the world) while empowering the Indian public with a sense of self that could be achieved by all.

Gandhi’s urging to boycott British imports and mill-made fabric, and for everyone to spin and weave their own cloth, is now well known. The effect of the Swadeshi (homerule) movement had the side-effect of slowing the erosion of traditional Indian hand production – especially weaving. Because “homespun” had played an important role in creating national identity, India’s craft sector continued to privilege traditional materials and methods. Handloom was encouraged and promoted.

THE BHUJODI WEAVERS

For over twenty years Maiwa has been working with Bhujodi weavers. The Vankar community of Bhujodi, India, has held steadfast in their belief that handweave matters: that skill can be taught, maintained, and improved; and that each time you warp up a loom, you are given the opportunity to express yourself in thread. Located in the Kachchh desert region of Gujarat in westernmost India, the Vankar family has been working with traditional weaves for many generations. In the last decade these far-sighted weavers have dedicated themselves to the use of natural dyes. Now the Vankars are as talented in dyeing as they are in weaving. It's an unbeatable combination of exceptional skills.

Read More About the Bhujodi Weavers Here

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To our U.S. customers – don't forget that the exchange rate works in your favour, it's like an extra discount.

Thursday, May 23, 2024 No comments

NEW BOOK!

GATHERING COLOUR

by Caitlin ffrench

As artist Caitlin ffrench shares her deeply personal approach to working with natural pigments, she invites readers to discover magic in the colour all around you. Explore how to respectfully wildcraft pigments from rocks, dirt and sticks; and how to forage or cultivate dye plants. Learn how to make inks, paints and dyes from natural pigments for use on paper, fibre, textiles and more. Develop personal rituals for marking the seasons and interacting with nature that will inform and inspire your creativity. For artists, for crafters, for curious inhabitants of this big beautiful world: Gathering Colour will help you bring fresh perspective and a connection to nature into your creative practice.

Caitlin's notebook is also available - Gathering Colour Field Notebook.

See Gathering Colour Here

Gathering Colour Field Notebook

by Caitlin ffrench

See the Gathering Colour Field Notebook Here

These images of Maiwa’s earth pigments come from Canadian artist Caitlin ffrench.

Caitlin ffrench

Caitlin works deeply with the idea of place and hand-made colour. She is an accomplished paint maker (and dyer) who has the ability to coax subtle hues from the earth. She is usually working with wildcrafted pigments, gathered from within the landbases she visits. Stones or discarded bricks are laboriously ground down finer and finer until they are fine enough to be called pigments - beautiful dusty colour - and then transformed again by her into paints. For Caitlin, to make a pigment from a stone is to make a connection between place and memory.

Visit Caitlin on instagram at @ffrench or at her website caitlinffrench.com.