Artisans are Ethically Sourced: We help Empower Women
Are you looking for ethically sourced products? If the way people are treated when making the products you use is important to you, you'll appreciate the stories behind our products. Our partner organization employs disadvantaged women who sew our tablewares and housewares. When you purchase from Rustic Loom you are empowering women and making a difference in people's lives by buying ethically sourced products. We'd like to introduce you to some of the faces behind Rustic Loom.
See how our beautiful, ethically sourced products end up in your modern rustic home.
Mr. Edmunson in Ghana
Here is Mr. Edmunson, the Batik artisan, and his colleague figuring out some details with a batik wooden block print. These become the fabric patterns for Rustic Loom's ethically sourced Batik products.
Here, Mr. Edmunson, prepares the hot wax for our splatter paint/splatter wax batik pillows.
Splatter painting the fabric for our splatter paint pillows.
Finally, the end product- Black and White Splatter Paint Pillows.
Working on the placement of the batik wax print on the cloth- the darker white lines and dots are the wax- this fabric will then be dyed, printed with wax, then dyed again to achieve multiple layers of color shades in the fabric.
Here is some fabric after the first round of dyeing. The same fabric will be stamped again for three layers/shades of color. I love the process of batik and really, any resist printing and dyeing- there is always a nice surprise when the resist (in this case wax) is removed.
Get the finished product: Green Batik Print Napkins.
Disadvantaged Women in India
Teamwork! Our partner organization in India employs disadvantaged women who sew our wares. Below, see the talented ladies from the women's organization in Mumbai sewing our Ikat pouches.
A peek at the Indian women who tie the warp threads - Ikat is a tie and dye process whereby yarn is tied and then dyed to make a pattern.
Bagru, India Artisans
The indigo dye is bathed in a kettle bath for our blue leaf print. Then, the printer in Bagru prints out our blue triangle pattern for our table cloths, napkins, tea towels, and more.
The finished block print table cloth design.
Making its way across the world
To Brooklyn from 🇬🇭 Ghana! What an amazingly small world we live in, my colleague, Mr. Edmunson, the batik artisan who makes our batiks from Ghana uses 'whatsapp.'
The first time I visited Ghana - not too long ago, I wrote letters home to the US, visited call centers to make a call once every long while- fast forward to now where I can chat back and forth quickly - wow ( maybe this shows my age too... but still makes me feel the wonder of how small our world is!)
So grateful, that we can help empower disadvantaged women and work with artisans from all over the world to offer you handmade, ethically sourced clothing and table wares. For more about our process follow Rustic Loom on Instagram.