Welcome to Thailand
We left Bangkok today after meeting at the Survarnabhumi airport. Having not met half the tour group yet I was relieved to find the two friendly looking women on the queue in front of me where Anna and Julia Booth.The other two paticipants of the tour are Annette Ribbons and her teenage daughter Hana. With Emma and her son Tane , Emmas mum Annie and myself ,we total eight. I chat to the women about why they decided to come on the tour. Annette Ribbons is a lecturer of Costume at NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art) and is a lover textiles and textile arts ,and also very fond...
Read MoreNatural Dye Adventure
Last night on the way home from dinner at the night market we thought we would try our hand at buying some sticky rice and mango. We knew we had an early start in the morning so it seemed sensible to be prepared and have breakfast ready to go. At first it was a little tricky to communicate what we wanted as we already had half the ingredients at home, so our order was complicated,but we got their eventually.I think Anna enjoyed the process of purchasing the mango and sticky rice better then consuming it! Anna,Julia and Annette buying mango and sticky rice. We were up early and eating...
Read MoreTrims with Ya Mi
At night from the roof of our guesthouse you can see the lights of the emblazoned Chinese temple and hear the beat of the drummers as they rehearse for the Chinese New Year celebrations. From the mist of my dreams in the morning I hear the Muslim call for prayer ,shortly afterwards the robed Buddhist monks meander the streets collecting alms . Walking home golden Ganesh’s adorn a florist shop front. This is just a taste of the mix of religion and culture here on the Thai- Burma border. Refugees who have been caught crossing over the border seeking a better life in Thailand are...
Read MoreLet The Weaving Begin
This morning began with a five am wake up call, a raucous welcome to the year of the dragon. Our guesthouse virtually overlooks the local Chinese temple. Today was the culmination of a weeks worth of drumming and whistle blowing rehearsals into an onslaught of six dancing dragons unleashed onto the streets of town, and a bleary beginning to the day for us. After a breakfast of pancakes and dancing dragons we head over to Noe Thee’s with Ya Mi, David and Yapa. Everyone settles in quickly to the trim techniques we began learning yesterday and we then move on to a variation. Our...
Read MoreEmma- Kate Wallace WEFTshop Founder
It’s been an unusually busy couple of weeks for WEFTshop founder Emma Kate Wallace on the Thai Burma border. Time has been divided between organising and finalising the WEFTshop Textile Tour,working on exciting new WEFTshop sample products and being mum to young Tane. She takes a moment out to talk about the motivation behind WEFTshop. Emma first visited the Thai-Burma border in 1996 and at that time became aware of the situation of refugees from Burma’s ethnic groups who were living here.Emma returned to work with women on the border years later in 2005 after completing a degree...
Read MoreWeftshop Gallery