Candy Table Runner

Handmade Table Runner 1ftx5ft.

This product is made by Swazi Women and facilitated by Gone Rural, a WFTO certified Fair Trade Organization.  The Women harvest the “Lutindzi” grass once a year in February.  The grass is plucked from the sheath leaving the root intact for next year’s growth.  The women dry the grass outside before bundling it and selling it.  The bundles of grass are transformed into beautiful colors in fuel-efficient dye vats and then laid out to dry in rows under the African Sun. 

Our Table runners are made using old batteries and a unique handmade loom. The loom is a simple wooden frame that stands up like a trestle. The batteries have two purposes; First the thread is wound around the battery like a bobbin, secondly when the grass is threaded into grooves along the top of the frame the batteries hang either side acting as weights and holding the thread in place.  Three pieces of the very fine lutindzi grass are then taken and placed on the loom, the batteries are flicked from one side to the other and the thread binds the grass in place.  Piece by piece, very slowly a length of material is created that eventually becomes a table runner.  When the work is long enough it is removed from the loom and the edges are trimmed with scissors.