 | About Us |  |
 About UsWildweaves is a family-run partnership with one foot in the UK and the other in Nepal.
We sell the Heaven Hemp range of clothing, homeware and accessories, designed and produced by the Nepali side of the family in Kathmandu since 1999.
Our idea for Wildweaves began in 2006. On one of our frequent visits to see our daughter and family in Kathmandu, myself, Marilyn, and husband, Graham looked round the Heaven Hemp workshop and were intrigued to see the many weaves, blends and effects that are possible by mixing different natural fibres.
We set up Wildweaves to bring you these beautiful natural fibre products.
Today when we are all getting more conscious about how and where the things we buy are made, we can guarantee that the Heaven Hemp workshop in Kathmandu ensures healthy working conditions and standard hours in a bright factory, with use of courtyards outside for breaks. There is a permanent staff of five who are paid above-average wages. Of course, no child labour is ever used. Heaven Hemp outsources any knitting to groups of women knitters and makes sure they are paid a good wage for their work.
Heaven Hemp makes a point of using Wild Nepali Hemp and Wild Himalayan Giant Nettle for many of its products, all growing naturally in the wild without pesticides, fungicides, herbicides or fertilisers. The nettle and hemp are harvested, processed, and spun by rural farming families who are paid a good sum for their work. Heaven Hemp also buys woven lengths of hemp and nettle from these farmers.
When you buy from Wildweaves you are supporting a Nepali-owned and -run industry, aiding the Nepalis in the hills who produce the Wild Hemp and Nettle, and also helping the Nepali economy in these difficult times.
| More About Heaven HempSome Background:
Udaya and Rosie Thapa started Heaven Hemp in the UK in 1999, marketing and selling the Heaven Hemp range as well as manufacturing natural fibre products for other companies.
However, to ensure quality, to enable us to do the designing of products ourselves, and to carry out research into hemp we moved back to Kathmandu and opened our own workshop and offices in 2001.
In partnership with my parents, we opened the Wildweaves website this year, 2008, from where customers can buy Heaven Hemp products online. There is also a Wildweaves stall that trades from Oakham Market every Saturday.
Our Goal:
Hemp is a wonderful resource and indigenous to Nepal. Cannabis sativa, subsp. indica grows wild in the hills of Nepal from east to west, and has been harvested and used for cloth (as well as for food, fuel and medicine) around the Himalayan farmsteads for generations, providing strong fabric for sacks, clothes, bags and ropes. Farming families traditionally make hemp yarn and weave hemp fabric in quiet periods in the farming year. If they are able to sell some of this yarn and cloth they can make a much-needed cash income. We want to be able to support these families in this traditional occupation by using Wild Nepali Hemp for all our accessories, buying rolls of hemp from the farmers for a fair price every season.
We also aim to use Nepali Hemp for clothing as well as for accessories. Our intention is to find a low-cost way of spinning Nepali hemp into fine thread while giving as much employment as possible.
We also use Chinese hemp to spin fabric for our clothes. We mix this with organic cotton, nettle, bamboo and even banana fibre for unique and natural products. Other natural fibres we use are jute, silk, recycled silk and lokta (for paper).
Our Workshop:
We employ five permanent staff who are paid above-average wages. When we have a larger order we hire staff on a temporary basis. We have good links with both tailors from the Muslim community and those from the Tarai and have a regular roster of tailors who return to us year after year. We hope to be able to give work this year to the Tarai tailors since many of them are being affected by the on-going floods in Saptari district.
We also contract out work to groups of women knitters and women skilled in crochet: these women work from home on a piece-work basis and are thus able to top up their income without having to leave their children.
Our recent addition of three handlooms means that we can hire local weavers, who are paid per metre for their work.
Working Conditions:
Our workshop is simple, clean and safe to work in. If there is any area needing attention we address it promptly - for example, staff are provided with face masks when undertaking work that creates air-borne fibres, such as when cutting certain types of fabric, like jute.
All staff are able to use the outside courtyards or the large garden for breaks. Any overtime is matched with time off in-lieu. Staff are given paid holiday according to their own communities' customs, the amount of days is decided at the beginning of every year. There is a yearly staff picnic. Staff also receive a Dasain bonus (the main festival - something like Christmas) every year.
Sick pay is payable to a certain number of days on production of a doctor's note. We are working on the idea of a fund where all staff contribute as well as management that can be utilized in case of emergency.
We ensure that any staff concerns are addressed promptly though weekly meetings or through one-to-one meetings with either one of us.
All our staff are paid well. Our permanent staff have the option of taking their pay on a weekly basis. We always pay the full amount and on time. Temporary staff are also always paid the amount agreed promptly.
Staff are given top-up training wherever needed.
Environmental Considerations:
We endeavour to keep any polluting activities to a minimum. All our Wild Nepali Hemp is 'naturally organic' since it grows in the wild and has had no chemical input to grow. It is harvested, processed, spun into thread and woven all by hand then carried out of the hills on foot before coming down to Kathmandu by bus.
Some of our cloth for clothes comes from China by road, as does the bamboo. Udaya visited the factory this year and was assured that they are using the least polluting way of processing the raw hemp.
Like our hemp, our Wild Nettle is also collected from the wild where it grows without the need for fertilizers and pesticides and is processed and spun into thread by hand.
We use only AZO-free Swiss dyes which are less harmful to the environment. We are investing in research to find the best natural dyes that will not run or fade, and have exported hemp dyed with walnut shells to France last year.
We are trying to use Nepali fabrics wherever possible to reduce our environmental impact: we are using more banana fibre this year and are sourcing Nepali 'peace' silk which is produced without harming the silkworm. We also use recycled silk and recently started using organic cotton in our natural fibre blends.
We hope this gives you some idea of our work here in Nepal - please do contact either me or Udaya at kmtrading@mos.com.np if we can help you further.
Rosie
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