Clarens Interiors are proud Mungo stockists.
The items listed are from our store at 279 Main Street, Clarens.
“You can never have enough,” said our textile designer Lenore Schroeder’s mom, referring to the stacks of uninspiring dishcloths she regularly gifted her daughter after she left the family home. Lenore thought differently, vowing to dedicate her entire career to the creation of a cloth that she would proudly hang in her kitchen rather than keep stuffing in the back of her drawer. Well, not really. But she did have a lot of fun reimagining this kitchen staple for us.
Wanting to add some texture to complement the traditional check design, Lenore turned to Master Weaver Stuart Holding’s ancient pattern books and found the mock Leno weave, from the same family as the Mungo Huck. The 3D effect created by the Leno’s interlacing of the warp and the weft allows for greater absorbency in the bulkier parts of the Vadoek, with the strips of plain weave in between helping it to dry quickly. Perfect.
Lenore then stood at the Dornier loom and let inspiration hit.The designs are planned way ahead of time, but “sometimes when you get to the loom you just have this inner voice saying add some yellow, or green,” she explains. Exercising as much restraint as she could as a lover of colour, she still managed to pull a total of 15 different hues into the range of 9 Vadoeks. We’re not complaining – these cloths could make even doing the dishes feel like a party.
Centre stage a lunch table, with tinkling glasses of homemade lemonade, crusty oven-warm bread, a freshcut posie and the scene of roast lamb, bedecked upon a breezy checked tablecloth.
The Crags Check is just the cloth to inspire that country kitchen feeling.
Perfect for alfresco dining, casual dinners with the family or to be swept over your Easter Sunday lunch table.
Another Stu Holding original (Mungo’s founder and Master Weaver), the Crags Check is uniquely woven at the original Mungo Mill – an old dairy farm in the heart of the Crags, the mountainous countryside nestled between Plettenberg Bay and Nature’s Valley.
Pure cotton gives the Crags Cloth it’s soft, light and fresh feel, with a long-lasting finish.
The Crags Check features a classic log cabin design – a plain weave (single layer) in which the warp and weft strands interlock to form the pattern. A tricky effect to achieve, with multiple colour threads, means that each warp thread has to be hand knotted to the loom.
Forest Green
Mustard
Petrol Blue
Warp Stripe Placemat
Colourful and contemporary placemats with stripe detail. Woven with a true selvedge at the Mungo Mill. Cotton & linen.
Dimensions: 45cm x 35cm @ R195
For those who feel the good ol’ tablecloth is from a bygone age, here’s something to lift your setting… A new addition to the Mungo table linen range: Warp Stripe Placemats.
Whether it’s a quiet dinner in, or a few guests around the table, we’ve got you covered (well your table at least…). Colourful, contemporary and easy to clean, they’re the perfect mealtime complement. With a colour palette inspired by the soft blues and earthen pinks that dot the natural landscape of Plettenberg Bay surrounds, where you’ll find our full production hub.
A tabletop addition designed to decorate, protect and entertain, our Warp Stripe Placements also feature a true selvedge. Particular only to looms that use a shuttle (in this case of our 1960s Rutis), a selvedge is a tightly woven, non-fraying edge. The result is a placemat with a classic finish, that requires no extra hemming.
Featuring a cotton warp and a linen weft – a formidable fibre combination that gives your Mungo mats a suitable handle that’s built for longevity.
Anything else? They’re reversible. So both sides look just as good – even if you slop a bit of sauce on it…
So there you have it: a backdrop to your breakfast, or some colour beneath your chicken curry. Something for the entertainers. Or for those who (like us) think a casual meal in is worth elevating.
Machine washable.
Darwinia
Sea Salt
Ink
Mali Cloth Table Runner
Rich in pattern and texture, the Mungo Mali Cloth is a sturdy cotton table runner inspired by the lateral geometric patterns of the famous West African strip cloth.
- 58cm x 150cm @ R745
- 58cm x 250cm @ R1,170
- 58cm x 350cm @ R1,590
The story behind the Mungo Mali Table Runner began years ago when Master Weaver Stuart Holding embarked on a trip to Mali to learn about its ancient textile traditions. The truth is he was there for a music festival, but Stu can smell a loom a mile away.
Mali is well known for its beautiful textiles, from mud-died fabrics to woven strip-cloth. Stuart’s fascination with textiles led him in search of local independent weavers and indigo dyers across the country.
Strip weaving is one of Africa’s oldest art forms. Handlooms are used to weave long narrow strip panels, which are then sewn together to form a wide cloth. Rows of patterns are added by means of weft floats (threads that run laterally). The intricate detail of the motifs is something that can only be achieved through this hand-made process.
At Mungo, inspiration has been drawn from the geometric row designs and weft faced weave construction of this unique traditional African textile.
Our Mali table runner is woven from pure cotton grown in Southern Africa and comes in a range of vibrant and textured colourways.
No need for a table centerpiece when you have a Mungo Mali Cloth Table Runner – this decorative piece will steal all the attention!
Rolled Denim
Rolled Sand
The Man Cloth
The ultimate and most useful cooking, cleaning, gardening apron/cloth.
* Hook, removable belt, padded corners
Dimensions:
The ultimate and most useful cooking, cleaning, gardening apron/cloth for a man.… or a woman or anyone who appreciates a multi-faceted, multi-functional cloth. The Man Cloth will find a million uses in your home.
As happens in any family, there was a mild disagreement, a differing of opinions. In the Holding household the disagreement occurred over the indiscriminate use of kitchen linen. Some were of the opinion that it’s acceptable to use a cloth for cleaning greasy tongs, spilled machine oil, scattered coffee grounds… Others didn’t share that opinion at all. So Stu designed and wove the Mungo Man Cloth – the apron to meet every need.
It seriously doesn’t get more versatile or handy than this. Woven from pure cotton in an absorbent honeycomb weave, the man cloth comes equipped with a hook for hanging and padded corners. It also comes in a range of ‘manly’ greys that help to hide dirt and stains. A removable belt allows it to quickly double up as a generously sized cloth, ideal for wiping down surfaces.
Braai with it, clean surfaces with it, protect your hands from the flames with it, hold hot plates with it, wipe your hands on it, keep food warm with it, cook up a storm with it. It’s a useful addition to any home.
One of Mungo’s gems, once you begin to use the Man Cloth you won’t know how you survived without it. We’ve used ours while cooking a steak on a spade or when hanging a leg of lamb from a tree over a wheelbarrow full of hot coals.
Manly Rust
Manly Black And Grey
