Handspun Yarns. Natural fibres.

It’s a pallava. A whole lot of effort & then more some.
I often ask myself why am I doing this ? I must be daft.
Yes. It is so much easier to buy machine-spun yarn imported from China, use chemical dyes and machine looms. Faster. Easier. Definitely cheaper to make. Certainly cheaper to buy.
But to my mind it’s just like eating processed cheese & bread. Bland and tasteless. Some people like that taste. I prefer something that’s full of flavour, texture, and interesting. Made with fresh & natural ingredients that are delicious and good for you.

Finding all the different components is an adventure as I see it, and as important as the finished product itself People.Yarns. Dyes. Weaving. Determination, focus & luck in equal measures. Travelling to places off the beaten track, meeting craftspeople.

Silk cocoons

This all takes a bit longer for sure, but I get to meet artisans who make yarns from natural fibres. They show you what they can do, you look, sometimes give it a go, sometimes staying a day or two, you ask if there is anybody else, they give you a telephone number and off you go again. It a quest for the perfect ingredients.

Yarn is the basic building block in weaving any fabric. It determines the weight, feel & texture of any cloth.Working with small cottage-based artisans in Indonesia  who hand-spin  silk, cotton, ramie(rosella) & abaca( banana fibre) means I  get to make things that feel and look different & support local home-grown industries by buying their yarns at what is a fair price.

This is an ongoing process. By steadily developing new cloth & textiles you not only get to create something hopefully gorgeous that feels and looks different, but the opportunity  to develop a continuing sustatinabale & mutually beneficial working relationship with the families that produce the yarns.

Pak Mukardani

Pak Mukardani lives in  Central Java near Prambanan just outside Jogya. After the volcanic eruption of Merapi last year his whole farm was practically wiped out by the ash which killed all the mulberry bushes & decimated all the Ramie & banana plants. He has a variety of silk yarns such as mulberry silk produced from the Bombix Morixs silk-worm eating Mulberry leaves, sutra mas  - a silk produced by the Keket silk-worm that eats avocado leaves, atakas silk produced by the Jedung silk-worm that eats mahogany leaves. 

Variety of yarns

He also produces Ramie yarn. Ramie(latin name) is the same plant as Roselle whose flower buds make a delicious tea.  Ramie is a bit like flax in that the fibres come from the long  stalks( a long staple yarn) which make them easier to twist into yarn and stronger, unlike cotton( a short staple yarn) which comes in small fluffy balls that need to be twisted more intensely & is easier to break. What I love about the Ramie yarn is it’s strength & versatility. 

Ramie fibres

Another fibre produce at his workshop is abaka- a fibre made from splitting the heart of the trunk of banana trees lengthways into very fine fibres. Each fibre is very strong and long(up to about 5 feet). I have yet to test how well it dyes or weaves, but will keep you posted.

Before the eruption he was employing around 20 women to spin all the different types of yarns, but know there are only about 4 young women spinning.

Spinning yarn, Prambanan

I love the fact that textiles, methods & ideas have been traded across the seas for millenia. It gives a sense of continuity and endless flow to what is now produced. Designs and techniques germinated in one place , take root and thrive in another. Sumba is a prime example of this where their ikats have a very strong and recognisible Indian lineage.

When I was in Sumba recently, I took some Ramie from Pak Mukardani to test out the colours and see how suitable it would be to be used for Ikat. It took to indigo dye perfectly, and the red was also very beautiful. The weavers & dyers I was staying with were very impressed by this new fibre. I look forward to making ikats with it there soon, and being part of the ebb & flow of textile cross-fertilisation. 

When on Sumba I also  luckily managed to get hold of 2 kilos of locally grown hand-spun cotton yarn. Due to the extremely wet rainy season last year there is a shortage of hand-spun cotton available. Especially cotton yarn that is strong enough to be used for a warp. The lady of the house I was staying in showed me her couple of woven boxes in which were carefully placed carded local cotton, waiting to be spun into yarn at a later date.

Hand spinning cotton yarn, Sumba

Ginning cotton, Sumba 

I get some cotton from near Tuban in North east Java. It comes from a village called Kerek. Kerek is known for it’s traditionally hand-spun cotton yarns woven on a backstrap loom called a gedog. My friend from Kerek who lives in Bali- Nofel put me in touch with a friend of his in Tuban, Zaenal Abidin who is one of several people in Kerek who still produces the handspun cotton yarn.  I comes in 2 varieties : natural off-white, and choklat - a delcious light nutty brown. I was quick to snap up some raw cotton  and some yarns to experiment with.

Tenun Imam is a wonderful workshop in Denpasar on Bali, run by a couple of the most helpful and nice people I have met Pak Wim Alfian and his father. They are specialists in silk, and weave pure mulberry silk stoles for me, which I then print. 

Mulberry silk printed scarf

Silk cocoons, Tenun Iman

I also love their waste-silk tussar yarn which I dye and handspin into balls ready for weaving on my antar - spinning wheel.

Yarns, dyed and spun

No disco dolly nights for me anymore....I spend most of my evenings twisting the soft lustrous silk into yarn after it has been dyed. Oh the glamour of it all !