There’s sensuousness to reading a cloth, taking one’s fingers and lightly passing over the surface, like braille. To me, Indian bandhani is the braille of all artisan-made cloth resists; this is why I chose it as the ClothRoads scarf this … Read the rest
In this dry, desert Gujurat-region of India, the starkness of the landscape was a marked contrast to the vividness of the naturally-dyed cloth, the edges weighed down by rocks, drying in patches on the ground. A stones throw away, the … Read the rest
It was an exquisite day for a journey to the centuries-old, preeminent region of woodblock makers and printers–blue skies, clear air, rich vegetation surrounding us as our van climbed up the switch-backed road outside Jaipur, India. Lake Sagar below was … Read the rest
This I know–one cannot have too many scarves. And since the launch of ClothRoads, my drawers are brimming. I have a few cold-weather scarves—handmade, of course, but the others tend towards the “statement-making” variety. I’m often asked what compels me … Read the rest
When traveling to cloth-weaving villages, there’s generally one “something” that I’m intrigued by or in search for. Three years ago, it was the seemingly rare handspun cotton and handwoven cloth made from the organic natural cotton beige color “ixcaco”, the … Read the rest
“I remembered what my father always said: ‘Never leave the land of your great grandfathers, and develop it for a good cause,” Alfonsa Horeng recalls. “That local wisdom was what convinced me to leave my career in the big … Read the rest
Sometimes one is lucky enough to meet the maker—I’m talking artisan-made cloth here.
I’m in an elevator in corn country Nebraska in steps an exuberant woman wearing the almost exact replica of a handwoven, naturally dyed silk scarf that I … Read the rest
I fell apart weaving in Laos. It really didn’t matter that I’d been weaving more than half my life. When it came to weaving weft ikat in fine silk (50 ends per inch) in the humid heat of Luang Prabang, … Read the rest
When I first touched the new Indian handwoven silk and blockprinted fabrics, I wanted to design something that would frame the beautiful scroll patterns and plaid-like weave of these natural-dyed prints.
Small patchwork pieces of silk on … Read the rest
The smell of hot wax rises from the grass-covered hut every morning. A petite elderly woman, dressed in a traditional sarong, walks slowly down the stone-covered path, the Mekong river her backdrop. She carries a roll of hemp cloth, and … Read the rest
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