Curtain Competition - Poetry Without Colors

When we released our new curtain colorways we asked you, our customers, to help us describe them with one rule and one rule only… no mention of any specific colors. “Why” you may ask? Each recycled silk curtain, just like each colorway, transcends colors, textures, and patterns. Each curtain is a hanging piece of art, a kaleidoscope of poetic possibility. We drew inspiration for the new colorways from the titles of Grateful Dead songs, so the path was already paved for artistic interpretations.

You went above and beyond and we were blown away by the artistry of your answers. You inspired us with your creative interpretations, your expressions of emotion, and the beautiful adjectives and verbs that tied them all together. Honestly, they were too good not to share again… so here you have it, poetry without colors:

Fire on the Mountain - "There's a dragon with matches that's loose on the town"

Flame brings warmth, love sparks passion, everything is energy

“Heaps of tumeric, chili, cardamom, and ginger toasted over glowing embers” 

“sizzling colors dance in the breeze enlightening the spirit and delighting the mind sparking dreams brimming with imagination”

“a golden warmth that signifies strength, radiance and the fire of the summer sun” 

Morning Dew - "Walk me out in the morning dew my honey"

Renewal leads to growth, flow finds harmony, the essence of life.

“First morning breath, feet grounded in the moss as the stream glistens with the sunrise hitting each rock and curve differently.” 

“A treasure chest upon a shore kissed by ocean waves full of peacock feathers and sapphires glistening in the morning sun “ 🌞

“The last gilded rays of day filter through hazy water in dusky tendrils. Horsetail, lily, and pondweed dance, mottled, kaleidoscopic, and verdant. A dragonfly skims the water's surface on iridescent wings, sending gentle ripples across the pond. Then, momentarily, all is still”

Sugar Magnolia - "She's got everything delightful, She's got everything I need"

 In freshness, love blooms boughs of joy, the endurance of happiness.

“A new beginning: Smiles with rosy cheeks and hearts that skip a beat” 

“The feeling of strawberry lemonade after a long walk with your lover. The gentle blush that creeps onto cheeks with a Sunday sunset."

“a rush of divine femininity represented by fields of fragrant, beautiful magnolias, along with acres of sweet, blossoming flowers.”

Dark Star - "Shall we go, you and I while we can, Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds?"

Creation, galaxy, universe, cosmos, shrouded in mystery.

“Cosmic galaxies collide into dreams of stardust fantasies.”

“The dark abyss of the cosmic tides, constellations lighting the way to truth.”

“dancing with the darkness. swirling colors fill my mind with visions of the sky. shining stars enlighten me. leading the way with their galactic like haze. a field of bright light shines and makes me lose fright. take me away to this universal place…”

Jack Straw - "We used to play for silver, Now we play for life" 

Cultivation yields harvest, gilded illumination, golden hour.

“in the longest stretches of summer, the moon surrenders her evenings to a warm and hazy glow. fireflies; iced chais; dancing on the beach; driftwood; bare feet; dry heat with a breeze 👒” 

“✨⚜️Regal brushstrokes 🎨 ⚜️of spun honey, 💛majestically magical, ✨🔮✨over perfect 🔆 prints of energetic🌀persuasion”

“Aloof flutters of camel lashes and coarse, pungent fur. Bedouin beats undulating over the sea of dunes. The flap of canvas tents and hypnotic swirl of sand in sweeping winds. Brightly woven blankets contrast the monochromatic tones of the desert. A sweet kiss of spearmint chill marks each sip of earthy green tea.” 

Shakedown Street - "The only thing there is to say, Every silver lining's got a touch of grey"

Calm is in the ripples, the mist, the dewdrop, find reflection.

“embraced by the early morning fog and kissed by the silvery mist”

“And if you are searching for hope, look to the devotion of the cold. The smell that greets you before the snow, the loudness of a silent forest, the taste of right now, the defiance of the ice that lasts long into the sun, drip, drip, drip. We, are, here. Traces of what is, and what will be. #gettinghyggewithit” 

“Have you ever been just a little too cold? Warm bodies melt into to the heat but the but the second a cool breeze hits its goosebumps all over again. It’s nice to know there’s always more chances to shudder.”

According to the Oxford dictionary, a sari, or saree (don’t worry, we’ll get to that later), is: 

A garment consisting of a length of cotton or silk elaborately draped around the body, traditionally worn by women from South Asia.

Whereas a fashion-forward fondness of sarees is shared across South Asia, even having been reflected in western culture of late, the sari is popular, in fact, ubiquitous in India. It can be worn as a sari dress, a sari wrap skirt, or in its most elegant form, as a traditional Indian wedding saree. In fact, there are more than 80 ways to style a sari, and if that wasn’t enough, did you know that there are more than 100 types of sari fabric in India alone? Historically, more colorful designs with more detailed embroidery are indicative of a higher economic and social status. While silk is the most coveted and costly, woven cotton was the original sari fabric, and more recently synthetic blends like polyester have become popularized as a result of their being comparatively inexpensive. As this sari style of dress transcends physical borders, cultural boundaries, and a multitude of fabrics, we are going to focus on the Indian saree, specifically the silk Indian sari, for the remainder of this post. 

Where does sari silk come from?

As you may already know, silk is an extremely delicate and luxurious textile that is produced by a industrious insect called a silkworm and then spun into silk fabric. There are only four types of silkworms, otherwise known as “bombyx mori,” in the world of which India has all four; mugi, eri, tasar, & mulberry. What do silkworms eat? Silkworms are even pickier than pandas and eat only mulberry leaves. In fact, if their diet varies at all they will die, and mulberry is hard to come by in the colder months. It is thanks to silkworms that India has Chandari silk saris, Banarasi silk saris, Assam silk sarees, and Sambalpuri silk sarees amongst many others, however, the popularization of recycled sari silk and synthetic saris is likely thanks to the picky eating habits of the silkworm.

What is recycled sari silk?

As we already know, the picky silkworm munches on mulberry leaves, and the result is a beautiful, laborious fabric that is worth its weight in style, and for that reason, is often recycled. Recycled sari silk is upcycled, recycled, or repurposed from sari material using either leftover off cuts from the manufacture of saris, or from repurposing the silk fabric from saris that are no longer desired. The recycled sari is broken down into lengths of cloth, and then sewn or re-spun to create contiguous pieces of fabric, or rolled into lengths of recycled silk yarn. The result is an environmentally conscious textile that is influenced by all of the rich history of its past lives. If a picture tells a thousand words, how many stories do you think a piece of recycled fabric can recount? Sometimes these recycled saris are combined with synthetic fibers or attached to other recycled panels so as to strengthen the fabric as they are turned into a one-of-a-kind kaleidoscopic patchwork, as is the case with our Mexicali recycled silk panel curtains and Mexicali magic skirts!

Sari or saree?

Sorry for leaving you hanging, the answer is… both. Whereas “sari” is the typical spelling used in North America, “saree” is the common spelling used in the rest of the world. “Shari” is another spelling that is often incorrectly used. In order to keep this article as multicultural as possible, and to keep you on your toes, we will continue switching back and forth more times than you can say “spell me sari or saree, but never shari.” The etymology of sari is as simple, beautiful, and elegant as its namesake, in its earliest usage it evolves from śāṭikā (Sanskrit: शाटिका) which refers to women’s attire, and into another Sanskrit word that loosely translates to “a strip of cloth.” While more than a strip, you can see how this linguistic understanding evolves with the sari, a strip of cloth that can function as an entire woman’s wardrobe. Furthermore, how poetic it is to have these strips reduced to strips of cloth to be spun again into recycled sari silk, in the beautiful sari silk cycle of rebirth.