A Carmel designer creates a line of textiles to honor her South African heritage.

Soft sunlight pours through the windows on a winter afternoon, illuminating a cream-colored curtain with scattered brown shapes. Marilet Pretorius walks around a table, laying out large fabric rectangles in shades of whites and browns, colors that fit in with the other earthtones of her Carmel studio.

“When I get into a meditative state, I see pictures of symbols, shapes and patterns,” she says. “There is a connection for me between textiles and reassurance. It goes back to my childhood, as there is almost a golden thread that brings us all together.”

Pretorius works as a graphic designer and artist in various mediums and has recently started a new textile line produced by artisan women in Swaziland and inspired by imagery from Pretoria, South Africa, where she was born. Pretorius comes from a lineage of women textile artists: She learned weaving from her mother, who also made dresses for a shop she co-owned.

“I have been surrounded by cloth, thread and yarns ever since I can remember,” Pretorius says. “I find it familiar and comforting.”

Before moving to the Monterey Peninsula in 2008, Pretorius spent her youth living all over the world. When she was 6, her family relocated to Argentina. She then moved with her family to Mexico City when she was in high school. During her college years, she studied industrial design in Mexico, then transferred to Boston, where she studied graphic design. She continued her studies in Miami, where she learned etching and printmaking. In 2007, Pretorius moved to San Francisco and took courses at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, where she discovered textiles.

“I was fascinated by the imagery on textiles,” Pretorius says. “I love printmaking and wanted to bring those shapes off the rigid surface and onto my body, into a more tangible place where I can have more of a personal connection with it.”

For Pretorius, her personal connection to South Africa helped her create the new textile line, called the Knowledge Remembered Collection, which features nine designs; three of those are made in tandem with women artisans in Swaziland.

The pieces are fabric measure 3-by-6 feet with hemmed edges. They each feature unique patterns but use three different colors of off-white, dark tan and brown.

The pieces are up for interpretation for how they’re used: They can be worn as shawls or wraps, or used as window curtains or tablecloths.

Hanni Liliedahl, a stylist at Lilify in Monterey, has been a longtime collector of Pretorius’ work, from prints to textiles. “I love that she has taken her work to apparel so it is allowed to be part of a person’s day-to-day experience,” Liliedahl says. “In the textile line, you’re cocooning yourself, and also presenting an aesthetic.”

The pieces take nearly a full day to produce. To start, Pretorius hand-draws each design to scale on a fabric inner lining then ships them to Baobab Batik, with a staff of about 30 women, in Swaziland.

The artists use her drawing as a key and lay a khadi – a blank cotton piece – on top, then trace the patterns on. A wax is then applied, starting with the lightest areas first. As the wax dries, the cotton becomes stiff. The process is repeated with dyes for all three colors. The colors are sponge-dabbed on in order to cut down on how much dye and water they use. The entire piece is washed and the warm water pulls off the excess wax, which is then skimmed off and reused.

“I got really into how people put dye on textiles before the industrial revolution,” Pretorius says. “I specifically wanted to work with traditional textile techniques. On a human level, it feels good to be involved with keeping those traditions alive.”

Besides the three Swaziland pieces, Pretorius created six other designs, three smaller and three larger squares. Each is hand-painted, and thus unique.

For now the collection is available online only (Pretorius hopes to expand into stores). The three Swaziland pieces sell for $280 apiece – part of the cost of using slower, traditional fabrication techniques. The finished product also lasts longer, Pretorius adds, one mission of the “slow fashion” movement.

Liliedahl, who owns one of the Swaziland pieces, appreciates those connections almost as much as the design itself. “There is a consciousness and an elegance to her work, while still being very raw. It is understated, but very informed,” Liliedahl says. “Now that I know her, I can appreciate that her African heritage and her love of the Central Coast are married into an aesthetic that is very much her.”

See MARILET PRETORIUS’ work at mariletpretorius.com