Materials & Weaving Process

    Island House shades are fashioned from natural materials, each featuring a distinctive texture, grain, color, and pattern that will grace your windows and enhance the mood of any room. Our grasses, reeds, fibers and bamboo are all renewable resources and are hand picked and cut from natural growing fields.

The process of sculpting these materials into hand-woven shades is a part of an old world tradition of craftsmanship. Each shade is carefully handcrafted from start to finish. The result is a beautiful piece of superior construction and quality.

We start by spreading the grass, reeds and fibers on a flat, outdoor surface, allowing the sun to dry them. Once fully dry, the materials are boiled in a sterilizing solution. They are dried again outdoors. For some materials, the time in the sun is increased to naturally lighten their color. Materials are stained by hand rubbing a sponge over each strand of material. This process results in unique color and shading characteristics. Following staining, materials are taken outdoors to dry.

Once the materials are prepared, three master craftspeople begin the weaving process on wide manual looms to create the natural fabrics. Spaced along the width of a 10 foot loom, each weaver carefully selects grasses, reeds or fibers to weave one row, and then runs a row of thread across. The loom is turned over and another row of natural materials and thread are woven. The process is repeated hundreds of times to produce our exceptional hand woven fabrics.

Island House Classics - window treatments for any decor!