Heart of the country: Fabrics fashion a life to dye for

By ELIZABETH BINNING

It is a beautiful day in rural Raglan as local designer Jean Carbon applies blue and green dye to a piece of silk wrapped around a pipe.

She is a fabric dyer and clothes designer who works from her home perched on a cliff - a large barn with spectacular coastal views.

She has mastered the art of living life to the full while still earning a respectable income, working her own hours.

Summers are spent living and working in Raglan; winters are spent travelling the world.

It is an enviable lifestyle, and a big change from several years ago.

The mother of two used to live in Hamilton, where she taught fabric technology to intermediate school pupils.

Then it was discovered that her partner Eric had cancer.

When he died Jean Carbon knew she could sit around and feel sorry for herself or grip life by the horns. She opted to get on with life.

She left her teaching job and moved to Auckland where she spent the next few years earning a degree in fabric technology.

"I think I knew it all - but I just didn't have the confidence. So I thought 'Right, I'll go and get my degree and learn skills like pattern making."'

At university the designer developed her interest in fabric dyeing and the techniques used by different cultures.

She worked on a research paper about ancient techniques, which she now incorporates into her own fashion label, C'bon. The garments she makes sell in tourist shops for up to $1200 each.

During her study Jean was assisted by two mentors, and she spent a year "playing" with different techniques, dyes and designs.

Today she still "plays" as she masters the ancient art of shirbori - a sophisticated form of tie-dyeing.

Shirbori, like other ancient resist dyeing techniques in which the dye is blocked from certain parts of the fabric, dates back thousands of years to when it was first used in India.

It was then taken along ancient trade routes to China and Japan where it was developed and used for kimonos.

Today, Jean Carbon uses the technique to create beautiful patterns on silk, which she then transforms into skirts, wraps and scarfs.

She says she is lucky to have found a job which allows her to work her own hours, from home, and still travel.

Each morning the designer takes her dog Mac for a walk along the beach and plans her day, drawing inspiration from the beauty around her. "I knew that I didn't want to work an 8am to 5pm job and I knew that I wanted to travel.

"I walk Mac along the beach every morning and just think about things.

"Initially I was a little bit worried that I didn't start work at 8am. I used to think 'This isn't good' - but then I thought 'Well, this is what I'm here at Raglan for."'

When she is ready to work she moves into her kitchen, which doubles as a studio until a side room is converted into a proper workshop. A can of cleaner and wet towels are always on hand to wipe up dye splashes from the bench top and terracotta-coloured floor.

Jean Carbon sticks to an enviable plan: work at home during the summer months and travel to places such as India in winter.

Her income from the sale of her designs (which vary from basic wrap-like sarongs to colourful layered skirts) is supplemented by a bed and breakfast business based in a barn next to her home.

Her work is sold around the country and she is now busy working on a collection for next month's local art to wear competition.

Several skirt samples, in vibrant blues, greens, reds and oranges are scattered about her kitchen table.

The rest of the open plan barn is decorated with old saws and pots and pans from her parents' farm.

It's a tranquil environment and she is more than happy to share the setting of the sun with her guests over a bottle of fine wine.