the MAIWA JOURNAL: Maiwa Foundation

Friday, September 06, 2024 No comments

Thursday, December 21, 2023 No comments

Wednesday, September 06, 2023 No comments

UPDATE

FROM THE LEATHERWORKERS AND WEAVERS

of the

ARTISANS ALLIANCE OF JAWAJA

From the Maiwa Foundation

The Maiwa Foundation is dedicated to the long-term goal of making artisans and craftspeople self sufficient. We provide funding to remove obstacles to self sufficiency, and to educate and raise the skills of artisans.

Only one of the groups we work with has required crisis assistance due the challenges wrought by COVID - that is the leatherworkers and weavers of Jawaja. In Canada, when the pandemic first started, the Canadian government offered something called the “Canada Emergency Response Benefit” or CERB as we all call it. The Maiwa Foundation has been able to offer its own form of CERB to the group of Jawaja artisans located in Rajasthan.

With lockdowns and restrictions on international travel, this group could not attend craft fairs. Within India their work is sold through craft alliances and in airport boutiques. The closure of these venues and the decline in demand for their goods due to pandemic related lifestyle changes has meant that there were few orders and little work available for this group. Maiwa stepped in and, for the first time in our history, provided subsistence living expenses to a group of artisans. In the past we have provided assistance to get out from under a predatory lender, capital assistance to construct a facility for the preparation of hides, and our very popular pink bike project - that makes it easier for school girls to get to school.

We are actively looking for ways to turn this situation around. We are optimistic and hopeful that it can be done. We are encouraged by the Jawaja artisans who tell us repeatedly that what they want is work, not charity. They want orders, ideally beyond our regular orders, to fill the gap created by lost work. If they have reliable, consistent orders they do not require financial assistance.

We are in contact with Indian artisans on a weekly (sometimes a daily) basis. In a normal year we would spend many months in India working side-by-side. The present situation has pushed the day when we can work together a bit further into the future. What the artisans want most is what we all want - for things to return to normal. One way to keep things as normal as possible is to have meaningful work. We are doing everything we can to make this happen.

We and all the Indian artisans thank you for your continued support.

Donate to the Maiwa Foundation

See Jawaja Leatherwork Here

PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT THE ARTISANS ALLIANCE OF JAWAJA

The Pink Bike Project

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Jawaja Weaving and A Thank You To Jane Stafford

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Artisans Alliance of Jawaja Faces Land Challenge

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A New Loom for the Artisans Alliance of Jawaja

Tuesday, July 20, 2021 No comments

2019 FOUNDATION

TEACHING NATURAL DYES IN BENGAL

We continue to work with a natural dye revival in Bengal. Regular readers will know that following the 2017 Indigo Sutra conference, Maiwa taught workshops in rural Bengal. To get artisans up and running with natural dyes they need orders. As 2019 unfolded, those orders started to arrive. We will unfurl the cloth, check the weave and dyeing and then think about how this magnificent cloth can be used.

Read about the Bengal Workshops in our series of blog posts.

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2019 BEHIND THE SCENES

HELPING "THE CLOTH THAT CHANGED THE WORLD"

Maiwa was pleased to provide some of the natural dye samples that will be on display at the Royal Ontario Museum's upcoming show: The Cloth that Changed the World: India's Painted and Printed Cottons. The exhibition opens in April 2020 and runs until September 2020. A few of our images have been used in the accompanying book. The book is a magnificent production edited by Sarah Fee (Senior curator of Eastern Hemisphere fashion and textiles at the Royal Ontario Museum.) The book is now available for pre-order.

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2019 ENGAGEMENT

GIBSONS PUBLIC ART GALLERY

Charllotte Kwon delivered a talk at the Gibsons Public Library on the Sunshine Coast. It was her Slow Clothes lecture in which she argues for ways to put value and meaning back into our textiles and the ways we make them.

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2019 LECTURES

MAIWA SCHOOL OF TEXTILES

The 2019 Lecture and Event Series included a number of international artisans. We had five outstanding individuals from India including father & son, Jabbar and Adam Khatri. brothers Abdullah and Jabbar Khatri, and famed weaver Shamji Vankar. We also hosted a special event by India Flint, and provocative lectures by Meghann O'Brien, Anna Heywood-Jones, and Tim McLaughlin. The annual Threads Lecture was delivered by Charllotte Kwon and Tim McLaughlin.

SEE ALL REVIEWS HERE

Friday, January 10, 2020 No comments

INDIGO VAT PROJECT

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.

Click Here to Donate to the Indigo Vat Project

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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.

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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.

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MAIWA'S HOLIDAY HOURS

MAIWA & MAIWA SUPPLY

GRANVILLE ISLAND, VANCOUVER

December 24th (Christmas Eve) — 10am - 5pm

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

MAIWA EAST

1310 ODLUM DRIVE, VANCOUVER

December 24th (Christmas Eve) — 9am - 5pm

December 25th (Christmas Day) — Closed

December 26th (Boxing Day) — Closed

December 27th – 9am - 5pm

December 28, 29th – Closed

December 30th – 9am - 5pm

December 31st (New Years Eve) — 9am - 4pm

January 1st (New Years Day) — Closed

January 2nd — Regular hours return, Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm

Wednesday, December 18, 2019 No comments

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.

Click Here to Donate to the Indigo Vat Project

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

MAIWA'S HOLIDAY HOURS

MAIWA & MAIWA SUPPLY

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

MAIWA EAST

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

Wednesday, April 25, 2018 No comments

This presentation was given by Charllotte Kwon, Tim McLaughlin, and Pankaj Shah at the Indigo Sutra event held in Kolkata, India on November 10, 2017.

Blue Ideals:

Overcoming Artisan Challenges to the use of Natural indigo

Charllotte Kwon, Tim McLaughlin, Pankaj Shah

Download as a PDF

[Charllotte Kwon]

Introduction

Thanks to Amrita Mukerji for starting this journey. And thanks Jenny Balfour Paul for keeping us on the journey. And thanks deeply to Ruby Ghuznavi for inspiring so many of us so very long ago that the journey was worth taking.Thanks to all those who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make Indigo Sutra happen.

Welcome to everyone. We have three people on stage, here’s why.

My name is Charllotte Kwon - I have practical experience working with indigo vats. I also have considerable experience working with artisan groups helping to bring their work to the world market.

Tim McLaughlin has a background in chemistry and philosophy of science and has been working on understanding the complex reactions that take place inside the indigo vat. This information has proved very useful in identifying good organic substitutes for the ingredients used to build a vat. I have worked together with Tim as co-director of 4 documentary videos and co-author of a recent Thames & Hudson publication on Banjara embroidery.

Pankaj has a background in artisan development and he has a keen understanding of the many challenges facing artisans and artisan groups. He is a co-founder of Qasab in Kutch, he is formerly of Khamir (which he also co-founded). For over twenty years Pankaj, along with his wife Meena, has been a facilitator and artisan liaison for Maiwa Handprints working with traditional tribal communities in Kutch and Central and Southern India.

The three of us have worked together for a very long time. We have committed our lives to working with artisans and natural dye farmers and to understanding their challenges - and their desire to reach markets.

In addition to running my business Maiwa, I also teach the use of natural dyes. Through this teaching I build and maintain natural indigo vats for use by 16 students in a week-long workshop. I do this twice a year. In addition I oversee the maintenance of production vats for both cellulose and protein yarns.

In my opinion, building and maintaining the vats for students is a bit more tricky than for production dyers. Students have not perfected the technique of dyeing - usually they add too much oxygen while dyeing, and they occasionally collapse a vat through dying a cloth which has not been prepared properly. Reviving vats under these conditions has taught me many skills. I have learned a great deal about how far vats can be pushed and what can be done to keep them alive.

In this conference we would like to focus on natural indigo use by artisan dyers and small-scale growers in India.

Natural Indigo

Natural indigo has the potential to become the centre of a network of artisan and dye-grower relationships. Many regions of India (especially Bengal) have the perfect conditions to grow high-quality indigofera tinctoria which, when processed, will yield an exceptionally good proportion of indigotin (the active component of indigo dye).

This capacity represents a natural resource which was heavily exploited with disastrous results during colonial times. Today, the hope is to encourage a revival of natural indigo growing, extraction and use, to empower small-scale artisan communities.

Types of Indigo - Types of indigo vats

We want to draw a clear distinction between the indigo dyestuff as either natural or synthetic.

The vat used in the dyeing process is either a chemical vat or an organic vat. A chemical vat uses sodium hydrosulphite or thiourea dioxide as a reducing agent. An organic vat uses a natural reducing agent which we will explain in a moment.

Clearly there are three possibilities of interest:

1. Use synthetic indigo in a chemical vat

2. Use natural indigo in a chemical vat

3. Use natural indigo in an organic vat

There is no dispute that using natural indigo in an organic vat would be best. Let’s look at how an indigo vat works.

[Tim McLaughlin]

We are indebted to Michel Garcia for his clear explanation of indigo vats as having three distinct components. All indigo vats, regardless of how they are made need three things.

1. Indigo dye

2. A reducing agent

3. A base

Let’s look at these:

The Indigo dye contains indigotin - the active component of indigo. Indigotin does not dissolve in water. It behaves like a very fine sand. If we want to dye with it we need to dissolve the indigotin.

The reducing agent is what we add to the vat to dissolve the indigotin.

BUT - the reducing agent will only be effective in a basic environment - so we must also add a base to the vat.

All indigo vats contain these three parts: Indigo, a reducing agent, and a base.

Indigotin: indigotin is dissolved into a yellowy-green solution. Cloth or yarns are placed into that solution. The dissolved indigo known as leuco-indigo or indigo white permeates the fibres. When they are taken out, the oxygen in the air turns the indigo back into its insoluble (blue) form.

The raw ingredients of chemical vats are dangerous and require careful handling. The disposal of the remains of a chemical vat can be a pollution problem. An organic vat can be made by replacing the chemicals, with organic matter and selecting an appropriate base.

The recommended base is Calcium Hydroxide - known as calx or lime. When the vat is exhausted the calcium hydroxide can be converted to Calcium Carbonate - which is just chalk. This is accomplished by whipping air into the vat.

A large number of possibilities exist for organic reducing agents, after all, indigo dyeing has been done by artisans for thousands of years - for most of this time artisans had no access to chemical supply stores. Sugars, fruits, sweet vegetables, even spent dye matter such as madder or henna can be used.

These organic vats all have different personalities and require a certain sensitivity on the part of the artisan. In return for cultivating this sensitivity, the artisan works in a much more healthy environment and keeps the workplace free from hazardous materials.

Moving to an organic vat, however, represents a challenge to artisans in terms of knowledge and experience. So we suggest an incremental change. First - replacing synthetic indigo with natural indigo, that is, indigo which has been extracted from plants. Second, once this transition is established, replacing the chemical vat with a natural vat, one of the vats that uses sugars or organic matter to accomplish the reduction.

The spent organic vat is a compost containing plant matter, indigo pigment and chalk. And it can be easily be thrown away as a nitrogen and calcium-rich compost.

Let’s look at the switch from using synthetic indigo to using natural indigo extracted from the indigo plant.

[Charllotte Kwon]

The goal of reviving natural indigo and getting artisans to switch from synthetic to natural indigo presents a number of challenges to both growers and artisans.

I purchase natural indigo for Maiwa. Recently I was shocked when artisans told me that there was no natural indigo left - Maiwa has purchased it all! I asked myself “How can this be so?” Maiwa does not purchase THAT MUCH indigo. The number of artisans claiming to use natural indigo, and the number of large companies which claim to support traditional techniques, require a far greater volume of dyestuff than Maiwa could ever use.

So I asked myself “How is this possible?” It seemed that it could only be possible if artisans or merchants that say they are using natural indigo are not using natural indigo. Either they are being sold synthetic indigo and being told it is natural. Or they are receiving a blend of synthetic and natural.

We want to present these issues here, because this audience represents possibly the most knowledgeable and active indigo community in the world, This conference takes place at the centre of what was once the best land to grow indigo in the world. If these problems are solvable this is the place and the time to solve them.

[PANKAJ SHAH]

I would like to look at the issue of indigo use from the artisan’s perspective. What challenges face artisans in the use of natural indigo? We have broken this question down into five points:

Five Challenges facing artisans:

1. Technical Challenges: Dyeing skills needed to produce quality results with natural indigo.

2. Design Challenges: Creating products using natural indigo.

3. Sourcing Challenges: Availability of natural indigo on regular basis at consistent prices.

4. Costing Challenges: Setting prices for natural indigo products.

5. Marketing Challenges: Competition and market position for artisan products.

Let’s explore these.

1. Technical Challenges:

Dyeing skills needed to produce quality results with natural indigo.

[CHARLOTTE KWON]

Fortunately this challenge can be overcome. A skilled indigo dyer who already knows how to use synthetic indigo should have little difficulty in transitioning to natural indigo.

The use of natural indigo and organic vats needs to be demystified to help those who are not confident. There are many myths about indigo, which have kept artisans from using natural indigo dyeing or making an organic vat.

Natural Indigo behaves differently in the vat than synthetic indigo. Synthetic indigo is strong and immediate. For an artisan to get the same depth of shade from natural Indigo multiple dips are necessary. A deep colour in the block printing process is difficult because the physical resist, dabu mud, for example, weakens when dipped repeatedly. In ikat, bleed is more likely when a skein of tied yarns are repeatedly immersed.

Conversely a light clear shade can be more difficult with synthetic Indigo but may be obtained with ease when working with natural. In fact, a single dip that produces a deep shade raises suspicion that an artisan is not working with natural indigo.

Organic vats also behave differently than chemical vats. Chemical vats are quicker to make but often have a shorter life than organic vats.

The Organic vat often works best when a gentle heat is applied from time to time. There are some low-tech options for providing the heat needed to revive a vat – such as immersion heaters (many of which now have small solar panels). I will be teaching the technicque of building and maintaining vats in our “Vat Mechanic” workshop.

Timelines and work schedules may need to be adjusted for the use of natural vats.

A chemical vat can be prepared in a few hours. A vat based on fructose may take about 24 hours to reach its best. Vats based on sweet fruits and vegetables or henna may take two to three days to reach optimal dyeing strength. Fermentation vats may take a week or longer to establish themselves based on size of the vat and process used.

If work falls off or there is down-time in the studio, craftspeople need to know how put a vat to sleep and wake it up, that is, how to maintain vats during dormant times.

Natural vats need to be adjusted to meet different craft methods. Techniques such as Ajrakh, Dabu, Kalamkari, Bandhani, Shibori, Plain fabric dyeing, yarn dyeing etc. all bring their own requirements. The skilled dyer knows this and can adjust the vat to meet these requirements.

However - the synthetic indigo with the chemical vat has de-skilled artisans and it s a myth that it is very difficult to learn the process of working with natural indigo. As Tim mentioned - we highly recommend that artisans first learn to work with natural indigo (rather than Synthetic indigo) using a chemical or hydros vat. Get confident with that. Then work alongside these vats with a small vat made with natural indigo and various organic agents. Explore what is cheaply and easily available in your local area. Once you are confident, scale up to larger production vats for your process.

2. Design Challenges:

Creating products using natural indigo.

[TIM MCLAUGHLIN]

It is necessary to educate the public about how indigo behaves on a textile. After final washing indigo dyed textiles should not show rub off on a white cloth with a light rubbing. But there is long term rub-off and wear. The public does not necessarily connect the love of textiles they already know — like faded blue jeans — to the behavior of indigo dye on a shawl or jacket.

More specifically, it is necessary to design products that take advantage of the unique character of natural Indigo.

Actually, indigo is in a privileged position. Few dyes or fabrics could lay claim to the wealth of traditions that indigo can. It has been used wherever it grows. It is used throughout Asia, and through trade it arrived in Europe. Indigo clothing traditions span all classes. Indigo can be used on prestige textiles and on “blue collar” textiles. Historic uses are everywhere. It is simply a matter of tapping into these rich traditions in an authentic way. Innovation, modification and incorporation of traditional cloth into contemporary products is the next logical step.

3. Sourcing Challenges:

Availability of natural indigo on regular basis at consistent prices.

[CHARLLOTTE KWON]

Artisans may find it difficult to obtain a supply of natural indigo. Prices may not be stable throughout the year — Indigo prices are tied to the success of the crop and so depend on each season.

Additional challenges to small-scale artisans purchasing from extractors include:

Knowledge of purity of the natural indigo. Usually a skilled dyer would have to make a test vat and dye a familiar cloth. Ideally, this takes place before a large amount of indigo is purchased.

Deception is possible, however, this is an age-old problem of trade (the old bait and switch) and there are no qualities of natural indigo which make it either more or less problematic than any other raw material being used in a production process.

Natural Indigo suppliers are saying they do not have enough clients. Their main sales are powdered leaf indigo for hair dye - not extracted indigo for dyers.

4.Costing Challenges:

Setting prices for natural indigo products.

[Pankaj Shah]

Generally speaking, effective costing requires the experience of one full production run of product. Small-scale producers require training in flexible costing strategies. Strategies that can take into account real costs of training, infrastructure, and materials. More importantly the models used for costing need to be appropriate for small-scale artisan producers who often use family members in production. Costing models based on factory production are worse than no costing models, as such models will dictate how small scale craft “should” be organized.

Here are some figures for costs:

Using Natural indigo is more expensive than synthetic indigo, however, using natural indigo in an organic vat can be less expensive than synthetic indigo in a chemical vat if the vat is in constant production.

Artisans should be able to offer clients a schedule of options with pricing. If the artisans knows confidently how to build all types of vats then they can offer the client synthetic indigo with a chemical vat or natural indigo with a chemical vat or natural indigo with an organic vat. It is in the hands of the clients: what they wish to pay for, what they wish to say on their label, how they choose to market, and if they wish to be truthful.

5. Marketing Challenges:

Competition and market position for artisan products featuring natural indigo.

Charllotte has proposed that producers establish labeling whereby the process is announced to the buying public:

“Only natural indigo extracted from plants was used to dye this item.”

“This item was dyed with natural indigo using an organic vat technique.”

We would like to see the market reinforce the use of natural indigo. If an artisan is dyeing with natural indigo, the client should be able to visit the artisan and see the work going on. The client needs to pay the proper rate for natural indigo. The use of natural indigo can be marketed to the buying public as a value added step - in the same way the use of natural dyes and organic cotton are marketed as value-added steps.

These are the 5 challenges facing artisans when they consider using natural indigo.

To conclude we would like to correct some false assumptions about the use of natural indigo. These often come up when we talk to artisans and dyers and ask them why they are using synthetic indigo and not natural indigo.

Objection #1 The natural indigo vat is too difficult to make.

[CHARLLOTTE KWON]

Although natural vats can be temperamental, with experience there is no reason that the artisan dyer cannot have have the same success with natural vat as they have with the chemical vat. Many chemical vats can be built very quickly - but they also are exhausted quickly.

A natural indigo vat is like other artisan processes such as the manufacture of cheese or curd.

The manufacture of curd is a fermentation process which has the same sensitivity to temperature, pH and starting ingredients as a natural indigo vat.

In fact, the perfection of technique gained through working with a natural organic indigo vat can lead to artisans being able to manage very fine fabrics like pashmina and fine wools and silks that can be weakened and compromised in the synthetic/hydros vat.

Objection #2. Production dyers say- our large, deep indigo vats contain up to 3 kilos of indigo - It is too much of a risk to attempt an organic vat.

[TIM MCLAUGHLIN]

Established artisans who are concerned about managing a larger vat should begin with smaller vat and use these to become familiar with the process. We have had very satisfying experiences working alongside traditional dyers. Often there is an “ah-hah” moment, an epiphany, when they master the vat. At this stage they are reluctant to return to a chemical vat. It IS an investment to make a large deep vat. Yes. But it a rewarding investment.

Objection #3. Using items like dates for an indigo vat would take food out of the mouths of artisan families.

[PANKAJ SHAH]

This is an interesting argument which calls up the ghosts of famine and the troubled history of indigo in Bengal. However, it does not reflect the truth of working with organic vats. If dates are expensive or needed for food, a variety of other materials can be used. It is never the case that people need to go hungry in order to feed an indigo vat.

Moreover, fruits may be used for an indigo vat that are not suitable for eating. Items such as over-ripe bananas and over-ripe mangos.

In addition, unusual items such as madder or henna which has already been used for dyeing can be used. In some parts of India henna is inexpensive and readily available because of mehndi - and henna is a fabulous reducing agent.

Moreover, artisans always need to purchase raw materials for their craft. This is always the case. It is only because some of the raw materials for an organic vat are also foods that the confusion arises. But for an organic indigo vat there are many many choices and they do not have to compete or have impact on the local markets for foods.

[TIM MCLAUGHLIN]

The criteria for reducing agents is really rather simple. For fruits and vegetables they must have a lot of single sugars (monosaccharides). Either glucose or fructose. Chemically speaking, the aldahyde functional group on these molecules makes them reducing sugars. The sugar molecules are only useful when they are not in a ring form. For this reason sucrose will NOT work. Sucrose is one molecule of fructose and one molecule of glucose linked together in ring formation — so that this sugar will not work as a reducing agent.

Even jaggery will work - because even though it has a high percentage of sucrose, it also has a high percentage of fructose and glucose.

The other quality that fruits and vegetables must have is that they must NOT be acidic. Acidic fruits like apples, pineapples, or the pulps of oranges and other citrus fruits will not work. The acids in these fruits will collapse the vat. However, sometimes the citrus peels will work. Sugar beets and sweet onions will also work.

The real test of what will work is in making a working indigo vat.

Conclusion

{CHARLLOTTE KWON}

What Maiwa brings to the table with our participation in Indigo Sutra 2017 is a deep desire to get farmers in India growing natural dyes. As the market becomes more enthusiastic for natural colour, as we educate more people towards “slow clothes”, as consumers become prepared for the expense; the extra care required, and the beauty of cloth coloured with natural dyes, there is a real opportunity for artisans and farmers to work together to create new networks.

The networks are everything. Artisans need to be be able to find a vital, value-added market for environmentally friendly processes to preserve the cleanliness of their local water and land.

All we need to get started is some artisans who are prepared to start dyeing with natural indigo and some farmers who are prepared to grow that indigo and sell it to the artisans.

Thursday, November 23, 2017 2 comments

Monday, October 30, 2017 1 comments

Thursday, August 17, 2017 No comments

The First Pink Bike - being delivered in January 2016.

In 2016 The Maiwa Foundation was able to make a big difference in the lives of rural schoolgirls. Many of you know about the leatherworkers and weavers who together form the Artisans Alliance of Jawaja (AAJ).

Getting started with a little help.

Many of the female children of AAJ artisans have to walk several miles to school. The distance, combined with the time taken and the obligation to do other work in the home can make it difficult for girls to attend school (or to have enough time to complete homework). In these rural Indian families boys usually get bikes and girls do not.

The first ride.

The pink bike project was conceived as a way to assist the village schoolgirls to get to and fron school. These bike are female "style," pink and very sturdy. In collaboration with the Artisans Alliance of Jawaja, the Maiwa Foundation oversees the purchase of the bikes and the distribution in the village. In January of 2016 we made our first delivery of bikes. Now, at the start of 2017 we are doing another round of promotions for the project.

Loading up the first shipment of bikes near Jaipur.

Lined up and ready to go.

Interested? We have set up a special donation button on our website to support the Pink Bike Project. A $100 donation purchases one of these sturdy pink bikes for a village schoolgirl.

A good day - the arrival of the bikes and some reactions.

The Backstory to this Project.

Jane Stafford of Jane Stafford Textiles, (JST) a weaver from Salt Spring Island, visited the AAJ weavers in 2014. After that meeting Jane was inspired to assist the group. In her own words:

"Way back in 2014, Handwoven Magazine gave me a little award for $500.00 and JST (Jane Stafford Textiles) matched that with another $500.00. We donated $1000.00 to the Maiwa Foundation requesting that the money be used for girls education in the village of Jawaja. During the next tour a lovely lady matched that donation so there was now $2000.00 to go to the girls. In the end it was decided by the Jawaja village that the money go to buy bicycles so the girls could travel the long distances to get to school and they wouldn't have to start and end there day walking in the dark. The bicycles are pink and girls style and extremely sturdy so the boys of the village aren't interested in them :^)"

The Maiwa Foundation is a registered charity in Canada. The foundation issues tax receipts for donations over $25.

Tuesday, February 07, 2017 No comments

The Maiwa Foundation is a registered charity in Canada. The foundation issues tax receipts for donations over $25.

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The Maiwa Foundation is a registered charity in Canada. The foundation issues tax receipts for donations over $25.

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Labels

About Maiwa

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