Malabar Trading was founded as a retail shop in 2001 with the aim of discovering and acquiring distinctive, traditional and hand crafted goods and textiles in India, Turkey and beyond.
The skill and creativity of people in these countries is truly admirable and we hope to help keep these crafts alive.
We are committed to ethical and fair working conditions and we always aim to minimise our environmental impact.
OUR SUPPLIERS
We work mainly with 4 small manufacturers in India. Our skilfully hand block-printed textiles are produced by a small company based in Jaipur. Our scarves are woven on hand looms in Kolkata by a small family run business. The quilts are screen-printed and hand stitched in Jaipur by a small company owned by two brothers, Arun and Arvind Pugalia
Many village women who are engaged in child-care and homemaking are able to supplement their families income by working in their homes, hand-quilting, embroidering, or attaching beads and tassels to garments. From these remote villages to the city showrooms, women play important roles at all stages of creativity, production and management
We have been doing business with the same people for over 6 years now and are always inspired not only by the skill and creativity of the people involved, but also by their humanity, ethics and their generosity of spirit.
HAND BLOCK PRINTING
Many of the block print motifs are inspired by nature. The designer expertly plans the colours and layouts of larger pieces like bedspreads and smaller pieces like cushion covers so that each item is complete in itself or complements the other parts of a group. Following the designers drawing, the village craftsman cuts small blocks by hand from hard teak wood, one block for each colour in a design.
The printer then dips the wooden block into a custom-mixed tray of fresh dye bath which is placed on top of a small table on casters and moves down the length of the cloth stamping with skillful precision. To print a bedspread of 90" x 108" the printers have to stamp approximately 1400 times with different blocks of as many as five or six colours, to cover the entire surface of the fabric. Only fine 100% cotton is used. Print colours are freshly mixed each day by the colour master in charge of each print workshop. He maintains a complete record of the recipes of various colours.