wild silk — Ethnic Supplies

100 Years of International Women’s Day- Eugenie’s story

March 8, 2011 By idahorner 2 Comments

Happy 100th International Women’s Day

This is the last in the series celebrating our superfine fine ladies. We were in Madagascar yesterday where we met the lovely Henriette and we remain there today to meet Eugenie.

Eugenie- photo courtesy of FEEDBACK MADAGASCAR

Eugenie is the co-ordinator of Ny Tanintsika Silk project in Madagascar as recently featured on BBC2 in ATTENBOROUGH AND THE GIANT EGG. The project is part of wider efforts to conserve the ancient forests of Madagascar and is supported by the charity FEEDBACK MADAGASCAR

Ny Tanintsika’s project was set up to revitalize the silk industry in the Amoron’i Mania, south central region of Madagascar with the aim of increasing wild silk production while conserving the tapia forests. The projects benefits the poorest within the community especially the women who are involved in silk production

The village artisans are supported through all the stages of silk production and its transformation into different products, right through to marketing support and sales and a annual target to replant the tapia is set for each village.

I first came across these ladies 3 years ago and when I heard their story I reached one conclusion, I had to be involved!

Silk Scarf Weavers-photo from Feedback Madagascar

As we spoke it dawned on me that the survival of both this textile will depend on the conservation of the ancient forests, unless the ancient forest of Madagascar are conserved it will not be possible to harvest the wild silk from those forest. We concluded if the community continue to earn an income from the silk they collect it will be in their interest to conserve these ancient forests our challenge therefore is to enable the community to bring their silk products to the market.

As you will see from the documentary, the women and sometimes children go out everyday to find the cocoons from which the silk thread is woven and it takes them several hours a day to collect enough cocoons to produce just one scarf in fact Eugene told me that they women produce one scarf per month by hand and they rely on the forest to get the amazing dyes they use on the fabric.

Silk is very important in the Malagasy way of life and here at Ethnic Supplies we bring you some of the accessories made from this silk.

TO SUPPORT OUR WORK AND THAT OF THE CHARITY FEEDBACK MADAGASCAR PLEASE BUYING ONE OF OUR SCARVES AND BAGS FROM THE SILK PROJECT

nivo-raw wild-silk basket

Raw Wild Silk scarf

Filed Under: Ethical Fashion, Latest, Women in Business Tagged With: Africa, BBC2, David Attenborough, FEEDBACK MADAGSCAR, International Women's Day, IWD, MADAGASCAR, silk, wild silk

The forest would be saved if..

April 3, 2010 By idahorner 1 Comment

the community around it were able to link income generation and its preservation. This is the conclusion Rosemary Wallin yesterday when she dropped in for lunch.

Rosemary is getting ready for her PHd and her research into “luxury and handicrafts” led her to my website. She got in touch and I told her about my challenge of helping the women to come up with jewellery designs that are suitable for the British market
. Rosemary agreed to get involved and yesterday she travelled down from London for a meeting with me.

We spoke at length about the project and the materials the women use, in particular the sustainability of textile. We looked at African textiles BARK CLOTH and WILD SILK

As we spoke it dawned on us that the survival of both these textiles will depend on trees or a forest in the case of wild silk, unless the ancient forest of Madagascar are conserved it will not be possible to harvest the wild silk from those forest. We concluded if the community continue to earn an income from the silk they collect it will be in their interest to conserve these ancient forests our challenge therefore is to enable the community to bring their silk products to the market.

On the other hand in order to harvest bark cloth you need to protect the MUTUBA tree and in fact plant more and more of this type of tree. The harvesting process involves peeling off the bark and if you need to harvest again in future then you have to “nurse” the tree to ensure that it can produce the bark cloth again.You cannot cut down the tree!

If you are a regular here you may recall my conversation with a coffee grower in Uganda who was asked to give up his land for Pine tree planting. Could it be that the government is focusing on the wrong type of tree and that they would be better of encouraging the growing of the MUTUBA tree?

Could Rosemary consider sustainable textiles as part of her PHD, and perhaps work out a way the bark cloth for instance could be brought into mainstream use? This is a challenge she went away with amongst other things.

Can you help these communities conserve these ancient forests? A good start would be to order one of our wild silk scarves!

We considered too how much interest there is amongst the general population there is in learning about the process involved in producing what they wear today. Would people be willing to pay more for a product that helps protect/conserve an ancient forest?

Filed Under: Environment, Ethical Fashion Tagged With: Africa, african textile, bark cloth, forests, Mutuba tree, Rosemary Wallin, silk scarves, sustainalbe fashion, Tree conservation, tree huggers, wild silk

African Wild Silk- from cocoon to fabric

December 8, 2009 By ethnicsupplies 2 Comments

If you have been following my blog in the last few days you will have read about Africa’s best kept secret .

Yesterday we looked at the role of silk in the Malagasy culture

In today’s thread we will look at how the cocoons are transformed into a usable fabric, it is an involved if not fascinating process.

When Silk worm cocoons are collected in the tapia forest, the Landibe eggs are subjected to various treatments, before there are turned into usable thread.

The first stage involves the soaking of the cocoons in water and are turned upside down using a simple metal tool.

This treatment increases their volume four or five-fold, and they are then dried in the sun. When dry, they are boiled in soapy water for an hour and a half, and are kept in a container or cooking pot for about four days.

After this fermentation, the silk material is produced, which is cleaned with soap and dried. It is beaten with a stick to make it suppler. After drying, the wild silk is ready to be spun. As in the past, spinners in Manandriana use traditional weaving equipment.

After the thread is formed, women remove the gum in it by boiling it in soapy water for about a quarter of an hour and then leaving it to soak for half a day. The thread is then rinsed and dried in the shade.

Weavers in Madagascar traditionally use brown thread, dyed naturally, to make burial shrouds. However, faced with evolution in silk products on the market, women are diversifying to produce a range of fabrics and scarves in a wide range of natural colours.

They use a mix of domesticated silk and wild silk, experimenting with different weaving techniques and natural dyes. About twenty plants are used to make the different colours, which can come from different parts of the plant: their leaves, stems, bark, and roots. Various colours, such as red, green, brown, yellow, grey, black, are produced depending on local knowledge and practices.

The women of Manandriana still use simple tools, old wooden looms, during weaving and various weaving groups in Amoron’i Mania are benefiting from essential technical and material assistance from NY TANINTSIKA’s project.

For a selection of handwoven wild silk scarves from the project please visit our online shop

I hope you have enjoyed learning about African wild silk and as usual if you have any views please share them

Filed Under: African heritage, Business Opportunity Tagged With: antural dyes, ethnic supplies, handmade, Malagasy, silk scarves, wild silk