Laos Essential Artistry

Lao Weaving - Beginning of the End

I'm posting an article from today's online Vientiane Times (April 9, 2012) that reveals how the Chinese are now creating printed Lao sinh fabric so Lao women no longer have to purchase hand-woven Lao sinhs. Is the threat real? Yes. Just look at how the Chinese have eliminated any need for Hmong to create their own Hmong New Year skirts/designs. Everything that is sold in Laos and in the states is made in China. The Chinese are smart and the colors are bright and the designs entrancing, but there is nothing left that the Hmong make by their own hands. Who has time anyway if you're working and caught up in the non-stop pace of American life?

We were just in Laos in February and we'ren't aware of these sinhs being sold, though we did hear from Carol Cassidy that Lao tdin sinhs were being sold by the Chinese as printed fabric.

I guess it's good for our business, right? We can buy some of these cheap sinhs and sell them for a cheaper price and especially here in America, who cares if the sinhs are hand woven are not? What do you think? Does it matter that another old cultural tradition, an exquisite art form will slowly wither away?

Chinese sinh makers not breaking any law: senior official

Lao sinh makers should strengthen their production capacity rather than asking the government for help to stem the influx of Chinese made products into Laos, a senior official at the Ministry of Science and Technology has said.

Vendors at Vientiane's Khuadin market display Chinese-made sinh.

Deputy Director General of the Intellectual Property Department, Mr Makha Chanthala, said on Thursday the department could not bring any legal charge against Chinese firms that make the traditional Lao skirt for sale in Laos, as there are no ownership rights attached to the product.

“Because the sinh can be considered public property, it is impossible for us to file legal charges against Chinese producers because they're not violating any intellectual property law,” he said.

Mr Makha made the comment amid large scale imports of cheap, machine-made sinh from China, which makes it difficult for producers of hand-made garments in Laos to stay in business. Many people have said the government should file legal charges against foreign manufacturers because they are copying a Lao product.

Mr Makha said the Intellectual Property Department will only be in a position to stop Chinese producers selling sinh in Laos if an individual, association or business can prove that Chinese factories are copying designs and patterns they have registered with the department.

He said one of the best steps that sinh makers and the public authorities could take would be to boost their production capacity so they can compete with the inflow of cheap Chinese goods.

And the government will be powerless to stop the inflow of foreign goods into the country when Laos joins the Asean Free Trade Area and the World Trade Organisation, he added.

Mr Makha suggested that individuals and businesses should register any patterns they create with the department, saying this would help to protect their designs as intellectual property.

Director General of the Technology and Evolution Department, Mr Soumana Chounlamany, said Lao businesses need to utilise more technology so they can increase their output. They could also form groups to share technological know-how to help cut production costs.

Mr Soumana said one way that Lao handicraft makers could survive would be to advertise the uniqueness of their products. He said many consumers did not want to buy machine-made goods as they saw no value in them.

He also said there was growing demand in the world market for hand-made products. Japanese consumers, for example, are prepared to pay more for hand-made items than factory-made goods because they appreciate the work that has gone into a hand-crafted piece.

Some people also value the fact that every hand-made item is slightly different, and take pleasure in knowing that they own something unique.

Older Shamanic Textiles for Sale

We've been putting up all our older shamanic textiles we've purchased over the last ten years on our Yahoo! store website. We are definitely not in a rush to sell these, and they are not cheap, but I figure someone might see something they would really like to have or would fill a gap in their collection. The money we make from selling these textiles we are going to use in publishing our English translation of Sinxay, which we plan to have published before the next Lao Studies Conference in July 2013. Sinxay, like Lao textiles, is an important Lao cultural heritage, one unfortunately many Lao are not aware of, and we think our English translation will spark a Renaissance of Sinxay and a greater appreciation of Lao culture. Below are photos of some of the textiles we are listing for sale here

 

Testimonial from Queensland Art Gallery

 
We recently sold one of our XL (64 x 96 inches) Hmong History Storycloths to the Queensland Art Gallery for $1400 and after they received the storycloth we received the following email below. Receiving emails like this make it all worthwhile for Bai and I. You can see similar storycloths we still have available here. The photo you see above is a storycloth almost exactly like the one we sold which includes Wat Tham Krabok in the lower left-hand corner, the informal refugee camp in Thailand that closed in 2004, but not before over 14,000 Hmong were given refugee status and came to the US.

Dear Peter and Bai: I am writing to thank you for your assistance with securing the wonderful Hmong History storycloth for our contemporary textile collection here at the Queensland Art Gallery.  I have been impressed with your passion for Laos textiles and the high level of professional service you provide to your online customers. Laos Essential Artistry provides important opportunities for Laos textile artists to market their works to international collectors, museums and galleries via an easy to navigate website. Your obvious commitment to the artists ensures that all works are well documented with an established provenance essential to institutional collections.    I have appreciated you prompt attention to all of my enquiries and willingness to undertake additional research where required. Thank you again.

 

Sinxay Textile Grand Prize Winner from Last Year's Silk Textile Exhibition in Bangkok

In our previous post Laos Handwoven Silk Textiles Receive Most First Place Prizes! the article in the Vientiane Times mentioned that  Manivone Keomany, who last year won the top award at an exhibition of Asean silk, also held in Bangkok, was this time awarded four first prizes at the Asean Silk Fabric and Fashion Design Contest 2010 held from August 22-29. That last year's top award was given to a textile featuring Sinxay, one of the most important Lao mythological heros and we purchased a textile woven by the original weaver in Sam Tai. You have to know the story of Sinxay to really appreciate this textile and in another post we showed a Lao edition of SangSinxay newly published in Laos and Bai and I will hopefully have our English translation of Sinxay published in two years.

White Silk Wedding Sinh from Laos worn by Happy Customer

We just had to share a photo a customer sent to us this weekend who had custom ordered a white wedding sinh over six months ago. Her wedding was held early this summer and in the photo you can see her wearing the white silk sinh and silk scarf next to her husband.

She wrote, "everything went perfectly with the white wedding sinh I ordered from you. I had a seamstress create the sinh based off of pictures online and the advice of my mother-in-law. I even had our cake modeled from the decorative designs on the silk. I ended up wearing an American dress for the ceremony and secretly changing into the Lao sinh for the reception. My husband was very surprised! Everyone loved the dress, including all the Lao ladies who wanted a picture with me and the dress! Attached is a picture of my husband and I, and a picture of the cake. Thanks so much for everything you did to make this all possible!"

Wow, she's gorgeous and we love the tailoring of the sinh. And what's great is that there was enough fabric for her to have a blouse tailored. We love it when customers share photos of sinhs and/or scarves they purchase from us as they are being used/worn. It makes us feel that all our hard work and efforts are worth it.

 UPDATE! And for anyone who's interested we just added our new collection of Vientiane Fashion and Wedding Sinhs on Dec. 7, 2011 here.

18 Gorgeous Silk Sinhs with Scarves sets, Two Colors, For Sale

  

Last January we had someone order 18 sinhs for a Lao dance troupe that was going to be performing for Lao New Year in Minnesota. Being a custom order and a large quantity, it took a while to find someone who would manage having these sinhs and scarves woven for us in Vientiane. Little did they know, and did we know, that four months was not a long enough time to weave all the sinhs, scarves and tdin sinhs, and so we let our customer know that the sinhs wouldn't be completed on time in March and they decided to cancel the order. But of course we were committed to paying for the order and as it turned out all the sinhs, scarves and tdin sinhs weren't finished until the beginning of June! Which worked out great for us because we then brought the sinhs and scarves back with us in July and didn't have to pay any shipping charges.

What we learned, and it was an important and very worthwhile lesson, is that the difficulty of complex weaving and dyeing cannot be hurried. Just think about it, one scarf took about seven days  to complete, one tdin sinh about the same seven days, and one sinh about three days. And that doesn't count they dyeing of the silk. 17 days multiplied by about 8 hours per day equals approximately 136 hours to weave one complete set of a sinh, tdin sin and scarf. And when you think of the number of woman-hours involved in weaving, and especially these special sinhs, the price we charge is really a bargain and that includes paying what the weavers feel is a fair wage. That's what Laos Essential Artistry is all about.

Our customer wanted ten blue silk sinhs and eight fuschia-colored silk  sinhs and getting the silk dyed to match the colors we wanted wasn't easy and in fact we had to have the blue silk dyed several times to make it "brighter." Luckily Bai's sister who lives in Vientiane manages all our Laos orders while we're in the states, and being a former weaver she can perform the quality control that is needed.

For this order several women worked for the woman we contracted with and because we wanted to have three silk threads twisted together, rather than five, which allowed for a finer, softer weave and more detail in the flower designs, it took a lot longer than the weavers originally thought, and one reason they couldn't complete the order before Lao New Year.

It was a learning experience for all of us, and the best news is that these sinhs are gorgeous and when we put them up for sale on our Yahoo! store we plan to only sell them as a set because we're thinking how often can a group purchase silk sinhs and scarves that are the same color and design? We really doubt there is any place in the states where matching silk sinhs and scarves can be purchased like we're offering at Laos Essential Artistry. Check out the sinhs on our Yahoo! store here

 

Update (Feb 24 2011) We have discounted the sinhs from $190 to $170 until April 29. We are going to exhibit at the International Lao New Year in San Francisco on April 30 and will raise the rpice of the sinhs and scarves back to $190.

   

Lanterns, Sihos, Ngeuaks and Nagas in Lao Textiles

We’ve isolated this diamond shape piece from tapestry style textile woven in Sam Neua because we find the motifs, design and color especially mesmerizing in this textile.

We included in the introduction to the Sam Neua Silk Tapestry Wall-hangings as is written the catalog Weaving Tradition: Carol Cassidy and Woven Silks of Laos in the section Patterns and Motifs that “The motifs in Lao textiles reflect and record the complex history of the region. Some are drawn from the unique Lao Tai culture and are said to represent characters in traditional Lao epics. Others are derived from outside influences both ancient and recent. The imported motifs have been adopted and adapted by each weaver and translated into designs that express personal experiences, hopes and dreams…"

But what do all the motifs in the diamond shape mean? Luckily, we’ve had the good fortune to guide a friend of ours who is doing research on a book about Lao textiles from primarily the Sam Neua region and we asked her what she thought about the motifs in the above textile and she wrote back:

“This brightly colored diamond shape is called a "lantern" and is often found on such Lao-Tai textiles as shoulder cloths (phaa biang) and door curtains (phaa kang). Here it may come from a funeral panel. The central design is a saang hong (or siho) that represents a mythical being that is half elephant (see the trunk) and half bird (see the legs). In the center, the siho appears in a mirror-reversed design, and again on each side in two smaller versions.

The siho is pregnant with double-headed serpent or ngueak (naga) in its belly, and on its back is a candle house with a figure inside -- representing a boat taking someone to the other world. The figure is either a recently deceased member of the community or the shaman accompanying him as guide into the after life. Notice the five-fingered hands of the figure and the naga heads on either side of him.

Rainbow patterns occur in the candles on top of the houseboat, in the “S” designs representing baby nagas, and in the hooks of the sihos’ hair. There is one story that says that such a design can occur on coffin covers of fathers who die before their children are grown and that the double headed naga in the siho’s belly represents the youths who must mature before the mourning process helped by this textile can be completed."

Thank you Elli! We love it. Not only are the textiles exquisite works of art, they’re incredibly rich in meaning. One of the reasons we’ve opened Laos Essential Artistry.

 

Taykeo Textile Gallery Weavers in Vientiane, Laos

This video was taken about three years ago when Taykeo had some of the best Lao weavers working for her. We're a little biased because the first weaver you see in this video is Bai's sister Bouasai. She wove for Taykeo part-time while she was attending the university. She graduated over a year ago and now works at another job, but still helps us out in managing our business interests in Vientiane. In this video you can see some very complex weaving and with one weaver you can see her picking out a pattern by looking at an antique Lao textile. All the Lao silk you see has been naturally-dyed and the colors Taykeo chooses for her textiles are simply gorgeous. You can see some of her beautiful textiles at our Yahoo store here. The textiles aren't cheap, but our prices are half of what you would pay in any of the museum shops where you might see her textiles for sale.

Cosmic Creatures: Lao Textiles from Sam Neua, Sam Tai and Muang Vaen

We actually got the idea for the title of this post from an exhibition curated by Patricia Cheesman at the East-West Center Gallery in Honolulu, Hawaii titled Cosmic Creatures: Textiles from Northeast Lao Communities this last summer. We substituted Sam Neua, Sam Tai and Muang Vaen for Northeast Lao Communities, because these are the towns most associated with Northeastern Laos and the towns we are very familiar with and will be visiting on our June 2010 Laos tour.

If you're a regular follower of our blog then you probably are familiar with Patricia because we recently wrote a post recommending two books for our tour participants to read to gain a better understanding of the history, complexity and artistry of Lao textiles and one of them was Patricia Cheesman’s Lao-Tai Textiles: The Textiles of Xam Nuea and Muang Phuan. In the exhibition mentioned above Patricia writes in the handout that, “This exhibition gives us a glimpse into the heavens of the peoples of northeast Laos where serpents are powerful allies and can become human; birds can turn into elephants, serpents or boats, through an art-form created by women.”

We’ve isolated the diamond shape piece above from a tapestry-style textile woven in Sam Neua because we too are fascinated with these magical (cosmic) motifs. But what do they mean? Luckily, we've had the opportunity to guide Elli Findley, a professor at Trinity College through northern Laos the last three years as she has been researching the use of Tai Daeng (Red Tai) textiles in rituals such as weddings and funerals, and we asked her if she would provide insight into the possible meaning of the motifs used in this diamond shape piece.

She wrote us back saying, “This brightly colored diamond shape is called a "lantern" and is often found on such Lao-Tai textiles as shoulder cloths (phaa biang) and door curtains (phaa kang). Here it may come from a funeral panel. The central design is a saang hong (or siho) that represents a mythical being that is half elephant (see the trunk) and half bird (see the legs). In the center, the siho appears in a mirror-reversed design, and again on each side in two smaller versions.

The siho is pregnant with double-headed serpent or ngueak (naga) in its belly, and on its back is a candle house with a figure inside -- representing a boat taking someone to the other world. The figure is either a recently deceased member of the community or the shaman accompanying him as guide into the after life. Notice the five-fingered hands of the figure and the naga heads on either side of him. Rainbow patterns occur in the candles on top of the houseboat, in the “S” designs representing baby nagas, and in the hooks of the sihos’ hair. There is one story that says that such a design can occur on coffin covers of fathers who die before their children are grown and that the double headed naga in the siho’s belly represents the youths who must mature before the mourning process helped by this textile can be completed."

Elli writes that the siho is  "pregnant with double-headed serpent or ngueak (naga) in its belly." Patricia Cheesman in the handout mentioned above writes about the naga (nak/ngeuak) that,  “The serpent is the oldest symbol known to have been a totem of the ancestors of the Lao-Tai peoples and was shared by the Chinese in the Yangtze River basin over 6000 years ago. Whereas the Chinese told of the male serpent hunder god controlling rain, storm, earthquake, and flood, the Lao talked of their mother ngueak, a serpent goddess that had a human face and could turn into a human at will. She had the same powers over water, a crucial resource for growing rice and the source of life force and well-being of the people. The serpents guarded the treasures of the earth, living in caverns full of gems and crystal water and often ventured into the realm of humans, seducing and procreating with them. They are loved as ancestors of the Lao-Tai peoples in myths and legends. In the textiles these serpents are shown with colorful crests, bodies that curve into ‘w’, ‘v’ or ‘s’ shapes and appear to be spiraling in a criss-cross game or passing from one realm to another in procession. The crested serpent is the active, aroused form of the serpent mother.

In Buddhist iconography, there are serpents called nagas. The most famous naga protected the Buddha from floods at the Enlightenment. The naak, which is the Lao pronunciation of naga, is represented on temple steps and roofs as the link between the realm of the gods and humans, the profound and the mundane. They can also become human, protect and bring rain. The correlations between the Buddhist naak and the shamanic serpent mother ngueak are as entwined as their bodies on the textiles. The cosmic serpent is still the most popular motif on Lao textiles today and represents female energy, the power of nature, and the earth.”

Join us in June to visit Laos, "Land of the Naga!"

 

Laos Tour Bibliograhy continued: Textile Books

There are three books that we recommend if someone wants to gain a better understanding about Lao textiles. Two are in print and our top two choices. They are: Weaving Tradition: Carol Cassidy and Woven Silks of Laos and Lao-Tai Textiles: The Textiles of Xam Nuea and Muang Phuan by Patricia Cheesman. The third book is the small classic by Mary Connors, Lao Textiles and Traditions, published in 1996 and has been out of print for many years.

The one book that we’re most excited about though is one that hasn’t been published yet. It’s in the process of being written by Elli Findly, the professor we’ve guided the last three years. It will be the kind of book that anyone traveling to Laos with an interest in textiles will want to have, providing the most complete discussion of all the different motifs being used in Lao textiles and the influence of religion (Buddhist and animist) and their use in rituals past and present. As she writes in her vita, the current proposed title is, Spirits in the Loom: Religion and Design in the Weaving of Northeastern Laos,” and of course its still in the process of being researched and written. Her direction in the book is reflected in a recent presentation she gave on “The Serpent and the Bird: Images of Transformation in Tai Textiles,” sponsored jointly by the Costume and Textile Society, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, and the Town and Country Club, Hartford, October 7, 2009. 

Our top two books are very different and are complementary, at least from our perspective. Carol’s book is actually a catalog produced in conjunction with the exhibition Weaving Tradition: Carol Cassidy and Woven Silks of Laos. The book was written by Dorothy Twining Globus and Mary F. Connors and the exhibition was curated by Dorothy Twining Globus.  As is written on the mocfa website, the book is “a comprehensive overview of the traditional and contemporary woven silk textiles of Laos and the techniques used to produce them plus a portrait of designer Carol Cassidy and her workshop, Lao Textiles. 160 pages, with 125 images and illustrations.” The book can be ordered through the San Francisco Muesum of Craft and Folk art here.

And we have to give ourselves a little plug as Peter is one of the many people listed in the acknowledgements as “having given generously of their talents, experience, and commitment in bringing this book and exhibition to fruition.” Two of our photos were used, there’s one of a Mien women embroidering on pg. 31 and the first photo in a sequence showing the tapestry weave technique of pg. 59.

The book is divided into three sections, The People of Laos and their Textiles, Making Textiles and  Carol Cassidy and the Lao Textiles Studio. The section we keep turning to is “Making Textiles.” Mary and Dorothy have done a marvelous job in describing and illustrating all the myriad facets of the weaving process. The writing is clear and the photographs leave no ambiguity, you really learn something here. Plus, almost worth the price of the book itself are the two black and white detailed illustrations of the loom, one facing the back of the weaver and one from overhead, looking directly down on the loom and weaver. We can’t begin to tell you the hundreds of times we’ve referred to these drawings in trying to better understand certain weaving details (at least from Peter’s perspective!).

The only nitpicking we have is with the binding of the catalog and our book is now in many “pieces.”

  

The second book we highly recommend is Lao-Tai Textiles: The Textiles of Xam Nuea and Muang Phuan by Patricia Cheesman. In writing this post we discovered there is a new PB edition, published on September 30, 2009 that is available on Amazon at a 32% discount for $40.85. Yes!

We are eternally grateful to Patricia because it is only through her book that we learned about Muang Vaen, one of our favorite weaving villages in all of Laos, and one that we visit on our tour. The book is clearly a work of love combined with some serious scholarship. We’ve met Patricia at a conference in Bangkok, visited her gallery in Chiang Mai and have a DVD she produced on Tai Daeng Shamanic Traditions in Sam Neua, and her strong connections with the tribal people of this region are clearly evident.

Patricia has published numerous books and articles on Thai and Lao textiles and is a recognized Lao-Thai textile expert and recently curated an exhibition (Summer 2009) at the East-West Center Gallery in Honolulu, Hawai‘I titled Cosmic Creatures: Textiles from Northeast Lao Communities, centering in the Sam Neua, Muang Vaen and Sam Tai area.

Back to the book. Whereas Carol’s catalog is more technical, Patricia’s book is rich in its telling of the story of weavers, villagers and shamans from the northeast region of Laos through their textiles.  The history and geography chapters are a little confusing, but they can be skipped and we’ve learned so much from her chapters on Lao women’s sinhs (Chapter 5: Textiles for women’s everyday wear and Chapter 6: Textiles for women’s ceremonial dress). The book is richly illustrated, with color photos on most pages and provides a remarkable insight into a region, Sam Neua/Sam Tai/Muang Vaen, that is often overlooked.

Recent Custom Order for a White Wedding Sinh

At Laos Essential Artistry we can’t begin to carry a selection of sinhs comparable to shops in Vientiane. We have selected certain styles we like and have listed them on our site, but while we have hundred of sinhs, the shops in Vientiane have thousands upon thousands of sinhs. Plus, some sinhs, especially those used for weddings can be relatively expensive. We’re not at that level yet…

So what we’ve done is write in our sinh section on our Yahoo store website that we will custom order sinhs for customers and we’ve completed a number of custom orders over the last year.

What we want to do in this post is share the process we went through for a recent custom order.

About a month ago we had a request from a customer asking if we had any white wedding sinhs in stock or could get one. Well, we definitely don’t have any in stock so Bai called her sister Bouasai who works in Vientiane and asked her if she could visit a couple of the shops we work with to see if they had any white wedding style sinhs. We’ve given her a digital camera so she can take photos and she located some white sinhs, took photos and emailed us the next day several photos of white sinhs, including the one below.

 Our customer liked the sinhs in this photo and actually preferred the whitish one on the left. But when we looked at the sinh carefully we could see there was a slight beige color to the white. The Lao actually prefer bright color sinhs, such as red or blue to wear for a wedding, and if they want something white, they prefer a more beige color.

In looking at both sinhs and talking with Bouasai, we determined the one on the right was closest to pure white. We told our customer and although the sinh was more expensive ($450) than she told us she initially wanted to spend, she told us that she wanted to order that one. One of the reasons these wedding style sinhs are so expensive is because of the embroidered patterns on the sinh. In this particular sinh the embroidery uses metallic threads and was quite complex and must have taken over a month to make.

When she told us about her decision then we asked her to send a check for $150 as a deposit. We can also take credit card numbers if a customer wants. Once we received the check we had Bouasai buy the sinh (she inspects them to make sure there are no issues such as discoloration, poor weaving/embroidery, etc.) and then she sent this one by express mail. It weighed just a little over 1 kilo and we paid $65 for shipping, which we had prearranged with her. If something is shipped by express it will arrive in a week. If we ship it by regular air-mail it may take up to a month and would have cost about $40.

Once we received the sinh, we inspected the sinh, took some photos and sent them to our customer. She loved the photos and sent another check to cover the balance due, $350. When we received the check we sent the sinh by priority mail and this last week she emailed us saying, “The sinh arrived last Monday! With all the holiday goings-on, I forgot to email you. Thank you so much; it is very beautiful and the embroidery is so impressive. My fiancé will be so surprised to see me walk down the aisle in such a gorgeous dress! Thanks again for all that you did to put it into my hands!”

The photos of the wedding sinh we sent her are below and we hope this post helps provide more transparency into what goes into a custom order.

We are currently working on an order for 18 sinhs for a customer in Minnesota who needs the sinhs for Lao girls who will be dancing in several performances this spring, beginning with Lao New Year in April. This custom order is a little bit more complex because the sinhs have to be custom woven to meet the specifications of our customer, rather than just purchased from a shop, and since she wants them by mid-March so they can be sewn and ready by Lao New Years, our weavers have only two months to complete the order. Bai’s brother will take photos and video of the sinhs, scarves and tdin sinhs being woven so we can post these later to help our customers understand the process involved in weaving sinhs.

UPDATE! Check out our new post on Dec 7 on our new Vientiane Fashion and Wedding Sinhs!

 

 

Recommended Reading List for Laos Tour (June 2010) Participants - 1st Book

I occasionally come across reading lists about Laos, but it’s pretty apparent they’re put together generically, culled from looking at books available on Amazon, etc. What I'm doing now is putting together a list of recommended books I’ve read that I think really have value in providing important insights about Laos. The list when it is finished will be added to our tour information located  here.

The first book I would recommend is Naga Cities of the Mekong: A Guide to the temples, legends and history of Laos, written by Martin Stuart Fox with photographs by Steve Northup. The book is published by Media Masters in Singapore, so isn’t on the Amazon “shelves,” though it is readily available from other resellers. It's probably about half the price if you bought it in Laos or Thailand, but even at $35 I think it's worth it. Martin Stuart-Fox has written many books about Laos, probably the most popular is The History of Laos, so he knows what he is talking about. And his passion for Laos is clearly evident in the Naga Cities of the Mekong. The book is quite interesting and is a good read and amazingly the photographs are quite good and closely pertain to the text on the page they’re displayed. I learned an incredible amount  from reading this book.

On our tours we've been focusing on the two Naga cities of Vientiane and Luang Prabang. The third, Champasaak is located down south near the Cambodia border and if time and money were no object, I would love to have tour participants visit Champasaak too, especially to visit Laos’s second World Heritage site, Wat Phu and the Khone Pha Pheng waterfalls on the Mekong River which stymied the French from their quest in the late 1800’s of gaining a backdoor into China. And of course I wouldn’t mind taking everyone up to the Boloven Plateau where the finest Lao coffee is grown!

As is written in the introduction, “This book tells the story of these three cities [Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Champasaak], their periods of greatness and decline, and the legends of their naga protectors. It tells of kings and peoples, and of the temples and palaces they built, may of which still remain and are described, each in its historical context.”

Of course here at Laos Essential Artistry we have a passion for the textile arts and nagas are not only one of the most popular motifs woven into Laos textiles, but they are embedded in the psyche of most Lao, including of course Lao weavers. The naga is such an important motif in Lao textiles that Viengkham Nanthavongdouangsy, one of the two sisters who are owners of Phaeng Mai Gallery, wrote a little book called Weaving Cloth, Weaving Nagas: Lao Woven Textile Motifs where she wrote that "The Naga is the most outstanding and dominant motif in Lao woven textiles, artistically created with imagination and respect. It has been so inseparably bound to the livelihood of the Lao people that whenever weavers speak of their work the term "Naga" is spontaneously mentioned first, as in the phrase 'Weaving Cloth - Weaving Nagas."

In the photo below I've outlined a double-headed naga woven into a silk textile by master weavers at Muang Vaen. Each textile tells a rich story in the motifs woven into the textile and here you can see how the nagas are joined at the tail in a diamond shape. Both nagas and the diamond shape are often considered protective and powerful motifs in the Lao cosmology and woven together like this one can imagine their significance. And since both nagas are carrying spirit/ancestor figures, their protective nature is clearly amplified.

But back to Naga Cities of the Mekong. The key word here in looking at the book is context. The book is rich in context and the outstanding photographs add more depth and meaning for the reader. Highly recommended!

Lao Sinhs Need to be custom measured and sewn

We often get asked if we have sinhs pre-sewn and ready to be worn. Unfortunately that's not the way it works. Yes, in the old days women would wrap the sinh (material) around their waist and then tuck it in or wrap a cloth belt around the sinh to hold it up. An example is in the photo above of Bai dressing in the traditional clothes (sinh and blouse) of a Tai Wat woman, a small tribal Tai group located in northern Huaphan Province (somewhat similar to the Tai Dam style).

But for many, many years sinhs have been custom sewn and it is crucial that the seamstress has to take three measurements of the woman who is going to wear the sinh so the sinh will fit correctly and look stylish, without wrinkles and mis-matched patterns. You can see in the photo we use on our Lao Sinh Section that the sinhs of the two young women on the right display perfectly, while the one on the left shows some wrinkles, which ideally, if sewn correctly, will not show.

In the three photos below you see Bai being measured for a sinh that the woman will sew for Bai. The three crucial measurements are the waist, hips and length, which vary of course with each individual.

Our hand-woven silk fabric is beautiful in its own right and the fabric doesn't just have to be used for sinhs. The average sinh fabric length is call in Lao "pheun neung" with one "pheun" being about 30 x 70 inches. But if you want the sinh fabric to be sewn into a sinh for you then you'll have to locate a seamstress that will sew the sinh for you

We had a manual for sewing sinhs translated into English this last June in Vientiane and will be referring to it in future posts.

 

 

Carol Cassidy Video Explaining Pattern Creation on the Loom in Vientiane, Laos

As we've mentioned in other posts we are very excited to announce that we will now be carrying Carol Cassidy’s Weaves of Cambodia Rainbow Silk Scarves. If there is anyone is who synonymous with the best in Lao textiles it’s Carol Cassidy. Just type in “Lao textiles” in Google and see who is the first person/business listed. Laotextiles.com is Carol Cassidy, and her gallery in Vientiane is always a must see for anyone interested in Lao textiles.

We’ve known Carol now for about ten years and although these gorgeous silk scarves are woven in Cambodia, not Laos, all the principles we value with Laos Essential Artistry are more than upheld in the weaving and finishing of these beautiful silk scarves.

When we were in Laos in June we shot some video of Carol explaining how patterns are created on the loom, which a skilled weaver then weaves into her fabric. It seems so complex that it appears magical to watch a weaver at the loom as she weaves these incredible patterns into a textile. It's not an easy process to understand, but we think if anyone can demystify the complexity of the techniques used, it's Carol. And in fact watching this seven minute video we think will give viewers an even greater appreciation for the artistry of Lao weavers.

We encourage anyone traveling to Laos and Vientiane to visit Lao Textiles: Carol Cassidy. It's in an amazing old French Colonial Building and be sure to ask to walk out back and see all the weavers at their looms. It's an intoxicating experience!

We always stay at the Vayakorn Guest House when we're in Vientiane and it's across the street from Carol's Gallery and the photo below is taken from our room on the third floor. Her gallery includes the old French Colonial and the buildings to the right and behind it.The second photo shows a street view of Carol's Gallery.

Welcome to the Laos Essential Artistry Blog

Welcome and sabaidee! We consider this blog like our own multimedia loom where we can weave together stories, photos, videos, and music in a way that that will help our readers and customers better understand our passion for Laos and why we've created a Yahoo store to promote and sell the finest in handwoven Lao textiles and Lao handicrafts on the Internet! We hope through our blog the Lao weavers, Lao artisans and Lao galleries that we represent, “the individual yarns and varying patterns,” are woven together cohesively and meaningfully in a way that makes them come alive. Have any questions? Email us at peterlaos@hotmail.com or you can call us at 916-996-4553