Nato Small Shawl

This small shawl is named after the Nato (nah-too) tree of Madagascar.   The bark of this plant is used to naturally dye the deep red color. 

The Nato shawl's classic look goes with almost everything.  The contrasting textures of warp and weft yarn highlight its hand-made nature.

This shawl is 100% Madagascar silk and completely hand-crafted (hand spun yarn, naturally dyed, and hand woven on a floor loom).  The women of the Lovasoa Cooperative craft each piece in their small village in the central highlands of Madagascar. 

This special piece contains two species of silk - the wild Borocera silk, which is only found in Madagascar, and the cultivated Mulberry silk.  Mulberry silk is the white yarn, which is its undyed natural color. Borocera wild silk makes up the rest of the shawl.

The dye is fixed and will not run or fade.  This beautiful piece will last a lifetime.  

Your purchase directly helps a weaver in our cooperative support her family.  It also preserves the cultural tradition of silk weaving in Madagascar.

 Each piece comes with a lovely tag that tells the story of the silk and has washing instructions.

Washing instructions: Hand-wash with any kind of soap.  Lay flat to dry.  Iron while still damp to give it a lovely sheen. Separately, you can steam iron it on a low-ish setting to refresh it from time to time without washing.  This also gives it a lovely sheen.