About our fabrics

We source our fine quality handloom quilting cotton from the South Indian State of Kerala. This region of South West India has a tradition of producing some of the finest hand made fabrics due to a unique combination of natural and human factors. The Monsoon provides Kerala with a plentiful supply of rain and it is this clean, soft water together with the finest quality cotton yarns and dyes that allow skilled master weavers to produce beautiful fabrics.

	Kerala has a lush and fertile climate. This photograph has been taken from the Weavers' Cooperative Production Unit. Rice paddy fields can be seen surrounding the Production Unit.
	Bales of finest grade cotton are imported from the neighbouring State of Tamil Nadu whose arid climate makes it one of the major cotton growing areas in the world.
	Bundles (hanks) of cotton.
	The cotton hanks are boiled for 8-12 hours to remove all impurities as pure yarn allows for a better colour absorption.
	A view of the Dye House showing the concrete dye-baths.  This is the largest single handloom-dyeing unit in South India.
	The dyeing method used is manual rotation as can be seen in the photograph where hanks of yarn are dipped into dye-baths.
	The dyed yarns are sun-dried.
	The dyed yarns are sun-dried.
	A lady spinning weft yarn onto a bobbin
	Close up of a two colour weft yarn being wound onto a bobbin.
	A bobbin in the shuttle.
	Weaver at work
	Weaver at work.  Approximately 70% of the weavers are women.
	The weaving unit.  The weavers in Kerala are all members of Co-operative workers societies.  This means that they are all co-owners in the business and pride themselves in their work.  Kerala's labour laws fully protect workers' rights and our weavers fully comply with International Social Accountability Standards.  Good working conditions produce a pro-active quality control process.
	The environment has always been important and this photograph shows the settlement tanks where run-off from the dye-baths is properly treated to eliminate any pollution.  Please note the bountiful banana and coconut plantations irrigated by the treatment water.