I saw this impressive piece covered in sihos (mythical lion-elephant creatures) pregnant with double-headed nagas (protective river serpents) and carrying their young and a frogman (or perhaps an ancestor spirit) on their backs at Phaeng Mai Gallery in Vientiane. Continue reading
When I was volunteering at Ock Pop Tok in 2011-12, I used to sometimes take a break to visit Mon and watch her weave beaded patterns on her Katu backstrap loom. Continue reading
After the touristy atmosphere around Inle Lake in Burma, I found it a delight to travel up to the Shan hills and stay a few days in the less-visited town of Namshan.
Weavers in the Mandalay area specialise in acheik, sometimes called lun taya acheik, meaning 100-shuttle design. While not always using 100 shuttles, there were certainly plenty!
Cambodian hol fabric is patterned before it is woven, by tieing and dyeing the pattern into the weft threads. Continue reading
Ever since I bought my first piece of piece of 2/1 twill ikat silk in Chiangmai in 2001, I had wanted to see it woven, and finally in 2012 I was bumping along in a tuk-tuk heading out of Phnom Penh to Phnom Chisor to visit hol weavers. Continue reading
I was very impressed with the standard of weaving I found when I visited the Houey Hong Vocational Training Centre for Women. Continue reading
Laos is home to a large number of ethnic groups, many of whom still wear all or part of their colourful traditional dress, especially for festivals or weddings.
Last week I had the pleasure of taking Kay Faulkner’s East Meets West course at the Contextart Forum in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. Continue reading
Cambodian hol is woven on a plain warp, with all the design being in the pre-patterned weft (see Hol Weft Preparation). Once the warp is wound onto the board that will hold it at the foot of the loom, the hundreds of ends of very fine silk must be threaded through the reed (heddles are created once the warp is on the loom).
