Vintage Indigo Stripe Rice Sack Chabu unrolled
Vintage Indigo Stripe Rice Sack Chabu rolled, showing the olive-green patch
Vintage Indigo Stripe Rice Sack Chabu draped
Vintage Indigo Stripe Rice Sack Chabu stripe and fray detail
Vintage Indigo Stripe Rice Sack Chabu unrolled
Vintage Indigo Stripe Rice Sack Chabu rolled, showing the olive-green patch
Vintage Indigo Stripe Rice Sack Chabu draped
Vintage Indigo Stripe Rice Sack Chabu stripe and fray detail

Vintage Indigo Stripe Rice Sack Chabu

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This chabu was cut and finished from a handwoven cotton rice sack dating to 1950s rural China. The sacks were found drying on a balcony in a remote mountain village near Chengdu, kept by a young couple who collect old fabrics to preserve their heritage. Woven by farmers, they were strong enough to carry rice for some seventy years, and decades of patching, mending and stitching left the quiet marks of daily life on them: colorful woven lines, age-worn texture, and warm brown stains where the rice itself sat.

Each piece was sourced, cleaned, cut and finished by Taya, an artist and tea lover based in Hong Kong. Being vintage, no two are alike, and variations in texture, patching, color and size are part of what they are.

Vintage Indigo Stripe measures approximately 128 by 23.5 cm.

Taya Zinina
The Artisan

Taya Zinina

Hong Kong

Taya is an artist and passionate tea lover, born in Russia and now living in Hong Kong. Her tea journeys through China are spent searching for farmers, craftspeople, and kindred spirits who love tea and culture as much as she does. In an ancient mountain village near Chengdu, she befriended a young couple devoted to preserving their heritage, and found hand-woven cotton rice sacks from the 1950s drying on their balcony. These sacks were used by farmers across China, patched and mended year after year, and stained a warm brown by the rice itself. Back in Hong Kong, she spent weeks cleaning and finishing the sturdy old cloth. When she first laid a finished piece beneath her teaware, she felt a deep connection with the art of time and the hands that wove it. These chabu are culture, history, imperfection, and time: life itself. Her hope is that something that moved her so deeply can now grace tea tables around the world.

See all work by Taya Zinina