weavers

Thus far I have gotten to meet with several great textile and craft groups here and observe their process. Recently I also got to go to the province for the first time and talk to weavers who work out of their homes. the majority of weavers work this way, from home, the way it has been done for a thousand years. They will work on one piece of cloth for a couple of months, and then hopefully sell it, because that is their entire income for those two months.


This is a natural dye farm. It is run by a community organization which is trying to teach people to make a textile product which is completely sustainable to Cambodia, where cotton is grown, spun, woven, dyed with all materials from Cambodia, and made into clothes, all here. so far, everything is done here, except growing cotton. Before the Khmer Rouge, a lot of cotton was grown here. But they destroyed that industry, along with everything else.

Indigo plants, with a k’mong hiding in them, apparently they are really “ch’ngang” (delicious)
(the bug, not the plant)

This is the ikat process where the weaver meticulously tie bundles of thead, dyes them using natural dyes, then weaves them into a pattern in cloth. one piece of fabric which is enough to make a traditional garment usually takes a weaver about a month to make. Below is the finished cloth.