Using natural dye to all of our fabric is also a part of Ulur Wiji’s journey. We used to start this fashion business like the one on the market today. Buy fabric from the market, sew it, then sell. But more and more we felt there was something wrong with what we were doing. Moreover, the fabric we used was mostly polyester, which takes thousands of years to degrade.
On that Journey, we started to learn about natural dye. And we think this is the right thing to do. Because these are the few things that we can do. The land to live in, and the water to drink, who one else have responsible if not ourselves. Today, we are more selective in choosing of raw materials, starting from the fabrics to use and what dyes to use. We only use materials from the nature, with the purpose that when the #ConscienceCraft is no longer used, then even if the material is buried it can decompose naturally more quickly.
For dye material, we use leaf extraction, bark, seeds and the others from plant. So the waste from extraction is safe, because it can become a compost for plant. Coloring with natural dyes is a lot of art. When we started, most of the #ConscienceCraft that we developed is always failed. Uneven color, easy to fade, and many other things that cause the product to be fail for sale. We are still doing the trial and error process until this day. But we are so happy, because using natural dye is full of mystery. Every time we coloring the fabric, our hearts always argue out of curiosity about the results.
But instead we see this as the strength of natural dyes, because the results are unique. One product with the same dye, applied with a different fabric, the results can also be completely different. The real challenge is sometimes people think of equating the results of natural dyes with chemical dyes. These are two different things and also completely different processes. We really appreciate #TemanWiji who always provide support and also challenges to us. Ulur Wiji will always to learn about how to produce the beautiful colors with natural dyes.
M Joko Santoso