Cream scalloped bowls, set of six
Six deep bowls with a scalloped rim and forty years of wear along the edge.
$30
Batik wall cloth, heron
$58
A pond heron in three dyes, drawn backwards in hot wax before any colour went on.
Materials & dimensions
- Handloom cotton
- Indigo and ochre dye
- Kaduru wood batten
58 × 84 × 2 cm · 340 g
Care
Hang out of direct sun. Do not wash — shake it and air it. If it must be cleaned, cold water, no detergent, and dry flat in shade.
Shipping & duties
Standard $39
Express $74.10
North America · 340 g
Free standard shipping over $250.
Import duties and taxes are set by United States, not by us. They are not included above, and your carrier collects them on delivery.
The story
The bird is a pond heron, the most ordinary wading bird on the island — grey-brown and invisible standing in a paddy field until it opens its wings and turns out to be white underneath. Padmini has drawn it standing still, which is how anybody actually sees one.
Three dye baths: undyed cream for the wing, ochre for the reeds and the light, indigo for the water and the dark of the back. That means three separate waxings, each one burying more of the design, and by the last bath the cloth is a stiff sheet of wax with almost nothing visible on it. The picture only comes back at the end, when the wax is boiled out.
There are no fine lines on the heron's legs. Padmini leaves them out because a wax line that thin floods on cotton about half the time, and she would rather draw a bird with no leg detail than one with a leg that bled.
Padmini Silva
Bentota, Southern Province · working since 1992
