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Visiting the Vancouver location of Maiwa to talk with founder and owner Charllotte Kwon was one of those pinch-me moments. I was surrounded by beautiful textiles in a warehouse/office/store while we talked about the history of the company, the connections and research they are doing with farmers in India, and the many many projects they have in the works. Maiwa has a 30-year history in the natural dye industry and the focus has always been on sustainable practices. 

Thirty years ago Charllotte Kwon formed a company and opened a shop. The shop was located in a new community of artisans that had formed on Granville Island. The Island, through its concentration of fine artists, printers, bookbinders, papermakers, potters, theatres, retailers, students, and industry, redefined itself as the cultural heart of Vancouver. The company was called Maiwa. In Cantonese and Mandarin “maiwa” is a word used to name the language through which art speaks. Maiwa. Beautiful language. 

Natural dyes are more than an ecologically smart way to add colour to yarns and cloth. Natural dyes embody the idea that there is a relationship between creativity, skill, what we make, what we wear, and the natural world. For Maiwa, natural dyes are evidence that colour can be a cultural force linking individuals to history and tradition. They work directly with farmers and run a full-time natural dye studio.

Charllotte Kwon is the owner of Maiwa Handprints Ltd. and the director of the Maiwa Foundation. Through Maiwa, Charllotte also runs a textile archive and research library located on Granville Island in Vancouver, Canada. Under her direction Maiwa has produced four documentary films and a number of print publications. She also guides Maiwa’s substantial web presence.

Charllotte travels extensively each year to research handcraft and to supplement her natural-dye research. Always looking to extend natural dye use, she also teaches dyeing workshops with artisans around the world and has planned a series of natural dye master classes to bring exceptional practicing artisans together. In 2014 she was awarded an Honourary Doctorate of Letters from the University of the Fraser Valley for her work in promoting the continuation of traditional textile techniques and cultures. In 2017 Charllotte was awarded the Robert Jekyll Award for Leadership in Craft (Canada). The same year she was an organizer for the Indigo Sutra Conference in Kolkata, India.

Maiwa Website: https://maiwa.com/
Maiwa School of Textiles: https://maiwa.teachable.com/

Maiwa Handprints Ltd.
1310 Odlum Drive 
Vancouver BC V5L 3M3
Phone 604 669 3939 

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Thanks to Isaac Matthews for the music, follow him on Instagram @hesjustakid