Dye Day

It’s Wednesday, which means our dye vats are ignited and we’re ready to colour some sisal!

Seeing as it’s starting to warm up here in Swaziland, we’re feeling our Summer Love colourway – made with cream, mango, coral, fuchsia and aubergine hues. Since last Wednesday we’ve stocked up on more raw sisal from our women’s group in Big Bend – where the ladies have been hard at work extracting fibre from inside the sisal leaf, and then drying it out in the sun. Phindile, our dying expert, will need to follow a precise recipe of pigment combinations in order to match this batch to the Summer Love colours. Sometimes, we’ll get a bespoke order come in and the whole team has to get together to work out which pigments, in what quantities, need to be mixed to achieve the right look. It’s always so satisfying when the sisal comes out right first time! Then once it’s dyed, the sisal is hung up to dry before making its way into the production studio to be sorted and stored, ready to be sent out on our next day in the field with our weavers. Rest assured that every step in Tintsaba’s production process is done by hand, and the dye we use is environmentally friendly and non-hazardous. That way, not only do our products support Swazi women but they contribute to a happier, healthier world overall.