During our mission to find the ideal dye house in Java in 2016, we visited several dye houses and textile markets, instantly realized how little natural-dye textiles are produced nowadays.
As Java is the origin of Batik, there were still a lot of dye houses in every corner, but we had no luck of finding our dream natural dye house for weeks.
Clock was ticking. When we were close to compromise, we witnessed the toxic chemical dyes being thrown into the river without any treatment. Right next to where local kids were swimming.
We had to face how chemical dyes had widely spread without enough knowledge of proper treatment. Since that moment, we became more determined to find the genuine natural dye house than ever, even if we had to go home empty handed, our option of working with chemical dye house ( that doesn't treat the after dye solution properly ) was completely off the list.
When we finally found the hidden treasure of ideal natural dye house, it felt like we found the oasis in the desert.
Green smell of leaves boiling. Some worker threw used dye solution from the pot to the garden, and chickens were drinking it as if it was a paddle of herbal tea. Actually, one of the colors called Secang, wood bark that makes pretty pink color has been more popular to be consumed as the beauty tea than being used for the textile dyeing for a long time.
We promised ourselves to only make products that don't harm workers, consumers, animals, and planet that day.
All of our natural dye collection are dyed with the plants from the backyard of the dye house in the jungle of Java.
We believe that people's needs can make a change. That day at the river, we explained to the girl of the dye house why we didn't make a deal with them. She was sad, but later she sent me a message that she started studying about the natural dye. A year later, she told us that her dye house started shifting to the natural dyes. And she added, since then they started getting more customers from overseas. That made us happy. We believe the consciousness of each consumer can change what makers produce and how. And someday, near future hopefully, we don't have to worry about the toxic while swimming in the river.