Monday, November 22, 2010

At the dyers' center


Here are some random photos from the Weavers' and Dyers' Center, where we are spending most of our time while in Hyderabad.

The photo below is of real indigo on linen, dyed via millenia-old fermentation method.


High school students sometimes come to this government-run center for vocational courses. That's Sunita hard at work on a sort of batik. She's an adorable girl, the boldest amongst her fellow students (the first--and only--one to work up the courage to talk to me, the foreigner). I thought she was about eleven years old and she's actually seventeen.





Above: this is natural flax (linen) hand-woven for us, and on which we are experimenting with natural dyes for SLOWCOLOR, our burgeoning business. (Not to worry, I won't plug the biz too often here.) The fabric in the photo is dripping wet, having just come out of its myrobalan (plant mordant) bath.



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Only another week or so until I can see my fuzzbuckets again...




More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

4 comments:

Bonnie Luria said...

Just from seeing the early results of these exquisite linens, I can almost hear how that fabric drapes and floops
( not a word verification, but a made up one to describe the weight of it as it hangs on the body ).
Your enduring weird food, weirder menus, noise, miserable accommodations, and unreasonable hoteliers is a great sacrifice to make to get your business started.
I love reading about and seeing the process.
It's so very hands-on and about as local as it gets.
I'd like one of everything please.
Oh and how nice to see Lynx. Rumi is an equal opportunity snuggler.
Good for him.

Leslie Avon Miller said...

Interesting images!

Anonymous said...

I've been enjoying reading about your experiences with your linens and dyeings. Fascinating stuff. I wish you much success. And of course a blog post wouldn't be complete without your beautiful, cuddly kitties.

Happy Thanksgiving!

nancy neva gagliano said...

LOVE that indigo!! what a treasure...