It seems like yesterday when I introduced to you @traisto, although it is almost three years by now. Back then we were living in Crete and "traisto" was just a name to sign her hand-woven textiles. One activity out of the many crafts that we were experimenting on, when our obligations as farmers were leaving us with some free time.
So many things have changed ever since. We have changed ourselves, to start with, the place that we live most of the year has changed, our skills to crafts that tend to disappear have changed and finally and because of the all the above, "traisto" itself has changed.
Weaving, natural dyes and beeswax candles, along with our farming products and our everlasting love for photography, they have all found their place to our new home and became the ingredients of our own, unique blend, keeping our hands busy and our minds creative.
"Traisto" is all the above, in a small workshop based in Nafplio, Greece. A creative sanctuary of slow crafting, a lifestyle.
The floor weaving loom is the most eye catching item and source of pride for our small workshop. Fotini is working with natural fibres like wool, cotton and jute, drawing her inspiration from landscapes and geometrical shapes. I have shown you many of her textiles in the past and there are many more in her account. In those pictures we have just finished "dressing the loom" with new wraps and getting it ready for new creations.
The candle making has become a true and rather unexpected fascination. We started making a few of them, for our home but Fotini loved them so much that she devoted a lot of time practicing, studying and improving, to reach the level of quality that we are offering today. The aroma of the pure beeswax travels us into a nostalgic era and when the time comes to burn them, their light soothes our souls!
The tapered candles are hand dipped with the slow and traditional way that they are made for ever. The twisted ones are made by hand, one by one. The wick is also hand made, by cotton thread and wherever there is colour, it is only from natural dyes.
Paraffin and chemicals have no place in our workshop, not even the slightest trace of them.
Natural dyes, is another craft that used to be common knowledge and is now almost forgotten. Using plants to dye fabrics is something that people are doing for millennia and yet, only after a few decades of using chemical dyes, we almost forgot their existence.
Bundle dyeing reminded me the magic of the darkroom when I first saw a picture developed before my eyes. In a similar but more natural way, the plant parts create their unique imprint on the fabric leading to one of the kind patterns.
Have you ever seen a landscape with mismatched colours?
A meadow with "wrong" colour combinations?
No, you haven't.
Because in nature all colours fit together, there is no wrong combination. In the same way it is practically impossible to make unfit combinations with natural dyes. All the colours belong with each other and they always produce a harmonious result.
And I just love the fact that only natural fabrics can be dyed that way. So we only use 100% cotton, linen or silk.
I wasn't familiar with silk at all. Actually, if I remember correctly, I have only had one silk shirt in my whole life. But working with it made me appreciate it a lot. The colours turn out so vibrant on it and it gives such a natural sense of luxury.
We source undyed mulberry silk from the region of Soufli, in Northern Greece. They have a long tradition in silk production, recognised worldwide. There used to be a lot of producers in that area but now it is only three family bushinesses that are still running.
As promised, this was the first sneak peek in our new workshop and a short recap of what we were up to, the last year. I've been preparing this post for hours and now that I read it again I realise that I only said and shown only a fraction of what I originally wanted.
But there is time for more posts and more updates!
Have a lovely weekend ahead :)
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
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