Maiwa Handprints blends art and ethics

Maiwa fabrics, originally uploaded by Oceanwood.

When I recently had to purchase new bed coverings for our vacation home on Denman Island, I knew right away I wanted to go to Maiwa on Granville Island. I have always admired the strong ethical foundation of the owners' business practices. And the fabrics are gorgeous, unique, and humble in a way only handcrafted fabrics can be. While distinct designs grace every surface, each cloth has creative variations in how the dye has soaked into the cloth or tiny differences in the "resist" patterns.

The result of all this careful hand working is that the beholder's eye endlessly delights in looking at the cloth spread out on the bed. Maiwa truly allows one to blend Art with Ethics to create a peaceful and beautiful sleeping environment.

Below is our comfy bed decked out in a playful blend of "sea blue floral" and "chocolate spiral" covers.






I discovered a few years ago that Maiwa recounts their artisans' textile production stories in a DVD series. My family have all watched, with awe, Maiwa's DVDs on the natural dye, embroidery, and weaving processes of communities all around the world. My young daughter has been able to learn about the geography of the countries where artisans engage in grassroots textile practices, as well as, learn about the unique magic of natural dyes like indigo. Our favourite scene from the Indigo DVD is when an artisan takes a brownish-yellow, soaked and twisted cloth from the indigo dye vat and shakes it out into the fresh air. As the oxygen in the air reaches the dyed surface, the cloth changes from yellow to indigo blue right in front of your eyes revealing the true magic of natural dye chemistry.

And just today I discovered a podcast series on the Maiwa website called, "Voices of Cloth." I have downloaded each one and can't wait to listen to more textile stories.

If you would like to learn more about the remarkable stories of textile communities around the world; or learn about Maiwa's fair-trade practices, or just drop in to see Maiwa's remarkable store at Granville Island, I recommend visiting their web page at:

http://www.maiwa.com/index.html

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Photo credits: Photos by Jessica at Oceanwood.

Oceanwood Chronicles, copyright 2008 - Jessica at Oceanwood. Creative commons attribution, non-commercial sharing only (translation: feel free to quote me in context or use this entry but please always credit me for my work, thanks.) http://oceanwood.blogspot.com/