Ellen Doyle WEFTshop Founder
In 2006 I first traveled to the Thai- Burma border with Emma. Having been there the previous year establishing relationships with some of the refugee women, she suggested I come along on this trip. I knew I wanted to focus my skills on benefiting others and forming a community together so I took her up on the offer. That first trip was short but profound and it was also when Janita Suter and Deb Maynard were on the border and when our four paths crossed ,WEFTshop was born. Ellen working with Ah Htoi What struck me the most about the women on the border was their tenacity and spirit....
Read MoreOrphan Dolls Find a Home
Annette, Hana and Emma Kate Wallace got a sense of completion when they delivered the dolls that were handmade in Australia during the WEFTshop doll making workshops to the KWO ( Karen Women’s Association) on the Thai- Burma border. The dolls were the result of a series of three workshops run in collaboration with the Karen community in Sydney in the lead up to refugee week in 2011. Hana and Annette delivering dolls The intention of the workshops was to promote a dialogue between the Karen community in Australia and the broader Australian community. We worked together to make dolls...
Read MoreLast days on the Border
For our second weaving workshop we return a couple of days later to notice Nung Kil and Noe Thee have been hard at work and progressed every scarf on a fair way. Hana is the first cab off the rank in terms of finishing her scarf and there is a lot of excitement as Nungn Kil cuts the threads to release the piece from the loom. Noe Thee demonstrates how to knot the ends to give the lovely tassle effect that features on the scarves she sells through WEFTshop.One by one each scarf is finished and cut from the loom and it is a team effort as each person knots their ends.Hana demonstrates to Anna...
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 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 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...
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