Colourways

The most exciting part of designing this wrap is, of course, the colourway aspect. At least that's what I thought until I started trying to lock down only four designs. Just when you think you have worked out what the babywearing community is attracted to they shift, morph and simply change their minds! Wrap slings, like most carriers, are ultimately a fashion accessory. Babywearers choose them as much for their aesthetic as for their utility. Some match them to the baby's gender; some have a different carrier for each outfit; some have 'special event' carriers; some have fanatical devotion to purple; some have partners who eschew anything vaguely feminine; some love busy, some neutral. It goes on and on!
Frustratingly, I can't use the only design I know for sure that I would like to use because it was part of the Ellaroo colourway design contest this year. Designed by a "SallyC" it has just the right eucalyptus'y tones for an Aussie wrap:

I've asked on thebabywearer if anyone knows who SallyC is so I can ask her to design an alternate for me but in the meantime I'm messing around with using the same colours in a different configuration:

I don't mind this one but it is somehow less satisfying than the original and less evocative of the bush to me. I suspect it is because it is less simple in design. I'll keep working on it...
The other colourway that I like is one I am calling MamawooIn the neutrals corner is Paulus' (sling_dad) design. It's really lovely and simple but not one I'd ever choose myself:


As a bold experiment, this cream and red appeals in a french, boat shirt kind of way:

I also really want something in peacock tones of purple, blue, green and black but am yet to settle on something that appeals.
Most important of all, I am searching for an indigenous artist to design a colourway for me in ochre tones that evoke traditional indigenous art. This is proving more difficult than expected!
I am very excited to be in discussion with innovative designer Lara Cameron from Melbourne who produces the most gorgeous screen-printed fabrics. I'm considering having a design commissioned to be screen-printed onto a solid, neutral version of my weave. This would be a new and exciting product for wrappers...

Finding the weave...

Ever since I first discovered wrap-slings I have thought about making my own. My first endeavours were stretchy-wraps made, lovingly but poorly, out of vintage material I bought on ebay. Several friends were the recipients of my labours and were, apparently, quite taken with my humble products.
Stretchy-wraps, however, are always going to have a short life-span and were never really my personal choice for carrying my child. I started to contemplate producing my very own woven wrap. I wanted something that would be designed with our muggy, blistering climate in mind - after all, my beloved ellaroo wrap was often suffocating at the height of Summer and it was one of the thinnest. When this journey began, the Vatanai hadn't emerged from the Czech hinterland (an odd place for a hot-weather wrap to be born) and I thought I might be the first to come up with a solution to melting mamas and their babies who love to 'wrap'.
As I am not now, nor never have been, a weaver; I set about finding someone to develop the wrap with me. It is surprisingly difficult to source a weaver in Sydney! In my search I came across Kaz Madigan and her fascinating blog about weaving at curiousweaver.id.au/
I wrote to her and she kindly set me on the correct path for achieving my end. Handweaving, she informed me, would cost anywhere between $100 and $200 per metre. Clearly, this would not be practical for a commercial endeavour however she also told me that I would need a handweaver to make a sample which would determine the settings for any industrial weaver that I found to make the slings for me.
It took me six months to find a weaver willing to do the work. In the end, I found someone who is just about to make my sample, a 2mtr long piece of fabric which will feature various possible weaves for me to choose from - perhaps the most expensive piece of fabric I will ever own at $990 for the 2 metres! The high cost is due to the many hours of work that go into designing a weave and, of course, the materials etc. We are endeavouring to produce a weave that is soft, strong with a diagonal weave and reinforced warp and weft threads. It's very exciting but scary too...so much outlay with no guarantees.
While the weaver has been working out weaves for the sample, I have been trying to find a commercial weaver to produce the fabric. This is far harder than I could have imagined. If I were to have the fabric produced in Asia, I would have abundant weavers to choose from and the base cost would be under $3 per metre. To have it made here, I have a handful of options and the cost per metre is upwards of $17. Though there is great temptation to take it off-shore, it would really defeat the purpose of this venture and, I imagine, it would damage my sales here at home. After all, most of the babywearing community here in Oz have expressed interest in my product primarily because it is an Australian product. Naturally, they want an Australian product at sweat-shop prices but don't we all?? :) I am meeting with the good people at Austral Textiles next week to see what their colour-range is - it doesn't look promising but they have a strong ethical component to their production of textiles and they have the smallest minimum run. As it is, they will only do 200 metres of a single colourway at a time - this means a whopping 80 slings for each colourway would have to be produced meaning I would have, at a minimum, 240 slings to flog! Of course, if I could sell 240 slings, I'd be well on the way to making of go of this business. Wish me luck!