This lustrous silk scarf is sure to catch your eye, and everyone else's. This beauty is naturally dyed and it shimmers in the sunlight.
Its name "tany" means "earth" in Madagascar, as it is made of rich earth-toned colors created by natural dyes including leaves, bark, and clay.
It is 100% Madagascar silk and completely hand-crafted (hand spun yarn, hand dyed, and hand woven on a floor loom). The women of the Lovasoa Cooperative craft each piece in their small village in the central highlands of Madagascar.
This scarf is made from two species of Madagascar silk: 1) wild Borocera silk which is a species of silkworm only found in Madagascar, and 2) cultivated mulberry silk.
Only natural dyes are used in this scarf-
- the orange yarn is wild silk dyed with Madagascar turmeric root (which gives a gold color)+ nanto bark (which gives a red color).
- the rust red yarn is wild silk dyed with nanto bark.
- the black yarn is wild silk dyed with rice paddy mud.
- eucalyptus leaves, salt, and ash are used to "fix" the natural dyes, thus they will not run or fade.
- the ivory colored yarn is natural, undyed cultivated mulberry silk.
This beautiful piece will last a lifetime.
Your purchase directly helps a weaver in this cooperative support her family. It also preserves the cultural tradition of silk weaving in Madagascar.
Each piece comes with a lovely tag that tells the story of the silk and has washing instructions.
Washing instructions: Hand-wash with any kind of soap. Lay flat to dry. Iron while still damp to give it a lovely sheen. Separately, you can steam iron it on a low-ish setting to refresh it from time to time without washing. This gives it a lovely sheen. Dry cleaning is also fine.