NETTLE Shawl ~ LÁSA DEARG
Our nettle shawl collection has been long in the making. The nettle fibre is collected, processed, spun and knitted by hand in Nepal, supporting a Fairtrade (currently processing application) organization that supports remote families and villages with a fair income. It is a long process, many hands and steps are involved. Once the shawls are done, we purchase the items directly from the organization and they send them to us in Ireland.
Once received, we scour and dye them using only natural ingredients. Our dye house is run on rainwater only. We use only cold mordanting methods which take a few days, but also save energy. We only work with two mordants, alum and iron acetate. No heavy metal or poisonous mordants/dyes are used in our system.
Once dyed, the used dye, rinse and wash water is added to settlement tanks, filtered in gravel and plant filters before drip fed into an evergreen woodland were it is used as organic fertilizer and turned back into oxygen by the trees.
Our left over dye matter is added to our wormery and turned into compost. After 6months it is used to feed our dye plants.
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Due to being handmade, each shawl is unique in length and width, as well as style. Nettle shawls, like linen, get softer with wear.
NEANTÓG DEARG is shown here by Wiki. Wiki is about 160cm/5"2 tall.
100% Nettle fibre
Dye: Madder
