One of Maison Mbosso's primary vision is to work with talented artisans all over Africa, to produce our beautifully crafted pieces. 

 

Bark

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Bark cloth is one of our favourite fabrics that we love working with. Cloth of the Mutuba Tree, it has been around for centuries in Central and West Africa; it was used to preserve dead bodies. It is a highly desirable cloth in the sustainable world, as the tree cloth needs to be harvested every year to grow again. 

 

Nowadays, with a rapid decline in the African textile industry over the past decades, bark cloth has become a precious cloth, currently only harvested in Uganda, in the Southern Central part of the country. The region is habited by the Baganda tribe, who passionately try to keep the tradition of bark harvesting alive. 

 

We have been blessed enough to be in contact with the Bark Research Network, and get some first hand fine bark, as well as talking about potential future sustainable and ethical ventures. 

 

Working with them is not like working with any fabric supplier; they are deeply passionated and knowledgeable about bark, which is highly inspiring. 

 

Natural dyes

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Sometimes, the most beautiful thing in a garment is something you can't see. Musa Juaith is one of the very last very skilled natural dyers of his region. Along with his family, they specialize in natural dyes done in traditional ways. What we love the most from his work, are his indigo and kola dyes. We love a stripe, so it was only fitting that we fell deeply in love with his striped patterns. Thanks to Magie, Ralph and Jenny from the African Fabric Shop we have been able to also think about the future and possible sustainable (always!) ventures with him and his dedicated compound. 

 

Beads

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The Victorious Youth group in Nairobi, is a group of entrepreneurs making beautiful artisanal crafts. Again, thanks to Magie, Ralph and Jenny from the African Fabric Shop, we have been able to get our hands on some beautiful recycled bone beads, hand-painted and finished with wax. Not only they are beautiful but they also have been recycled from the meat industry (mainly) as well as farms. These beautiful beads serve us as zip pullers, buttons and embellishments; I don't think we will have enough of them any time soon. We are excited to continue supporting them.