Sourced by Sandry Law in the back streets of Kunming
Sandry Law, our Head of Procurement, spends most days crisscrossing Yunnan in search of exceptional tea. But on a rare quiet afternoon, she ducked into a textile workshop off Qingnian Lu — a tiny atelier where two sisters, Miao weavers from the hills, stitch floor cushions for the local chá lóu. The linen comes from a mill in Dali, stone-washed with river water, and the dyes are plant-based: ochre from turmeric, moss from tea leaves, clay from red earth, charcoal from bamboo ash.
Each cushion is cut and sewn by hand, with a hidden zip so the cover can be slipped off and washed. The cotton fill is carded, never blown — meaning it won’t clump or go flat. Sandry tested a prototype on her own tea-room floor for six months, through wet Kunming summers and dry winters, before signing the order. ‘They breathe,’ she says. ‘You can sit on them for two hours and stand up without that clammy feeling.’ The result is a cushion set that feels crafted, not manufactured — four seats that turn any floor into a quiet invitation to sit, pour, and stay.