Collection: David
After the shearing that we do, we wash the wool, it is left to soak and it is ginned (removing the knots from the wool) is a fairly long process. Then it goes to the yarn and there I have two options: I dye the yarn first or I make the blanket to dye it later... I prefer this second option and always in a natural way.
Throughout the history of America, my grandfather told me, when the colonizers arrived on our lands; The aborigines were amazed with the strong colors that they brought in some fabrics, in those years, those colors with natural dyes could not be obtained until our ancestors began to investigate how to obtain them from the natural resources that we had, herbs, insects, fungi, vegetables , fruits, etc and thus beautiful and native Latin American colors were born.
Today we use beets, onions, herbs, walnut shells, carmine cochineal, etc. and the color "grabs" according to the type of "mordient" used, the mordant is the fixative, some types of mordants are: salt, vinegar , purple corn liquor. In the case of some green tones, it is washed with ash water, and there the darker or lighter shades of green are given, all this our parents learned from our grandparents and they from theirs and so on until the beginning.
Once all this is done, it is left to rest, in hot water and there it tends to wrinkle or the thread sticks and it should not be ironed, the only way to stretch it is by rolling it on wooden rollers, we make them from logs, it is rolled and it is left for approximately 7 days, until we see that the garment is dry, unrolled and well ironed.
All this process since we sheared, 40 days have already passed, it requires a lot of physical effort, it is exhausting but the reward of all effort is to see our warm blanket that someone is wearing.