Colors in White

How strange it is that a week that brought us our first madder dye bath, so full of colors, ideas and possibilities, was enveloped by two remarkable snow storms. The first blanket melted within a day or two, but the second one forced us back indoors putting a temporary halt on our experiments in color. 

This is how it all started, a bit hesitant at first:

But the deeper we looked into the root of madder, the whiter it got. White was all around. White which is not really a color (or is it?), as we looked for it in vain on the color wheel, only to find it at one extreme of the gray scale, was taking over. It's presence was overwhelming, and we were forced to step back and admit, that there is more to this color business than meets the eye.

After all, it was white that brought us here in the first place. It was our search for pure cashmere wool in Ladakh that brought us through Manali four years ago. It is then that we fell in love with this beautiful valley and met the people who are such integral part of our life today, and it was also then that we decided to spin a life out of fiber. Back then, of course, we did not know that 80% of Ladakhi cashmere is of course white.

So while we keep on looking for the rainbow at the bottom of the dye pot, white, I hope the purity of white will always be with us to serve as a reminder to step back and admire the elements we are working with......

I leave you with a few more pictures of the glorious white:

Good night my colors....and sweet dreams of spring under a blanket of snow..............