Well, this is my last post for Thailand and Laos – 🙁

I just love looking at people weaving.  Perhaps I want to be a supervisor rather than a weaver! Well there is plenty to see in Laos. Looms and weavers at every turn.

One nice experience involved a group weave effort by three girls. Weaving can be a lonely business and it’s much more fun if you can share it with your friends. Each of the girls were taking turns to weave the cloth. While one was weaving on the loom the other two were winding the bobbins from the skeiner. One was turning the winder’s handle and the other guiding the yarn onto the bobbin. When they were tired of their jobs they swapped around. I hadn’t seen this type of group effort before but it makes so much sense it’s probably done all of the time, everywhere.

Handweaving continues around our world but its reasons for production and viability are always changing and challenging. The very finest of cloths which were woven for the royal courts are now not needed and are now in collectors hands. And increasingly we are all happier? with factory produced, all the same clothing which can be turfed out when the fashion passes and costs far less to make or buy. Beautiful baby wraps rich with patterns were once a common site in Laos but now they are commonly made from toweling. Probably easier to wash and care for and you don’t have to make it. We all have to do what works for us and our families so there is nothing wrong with these decisions. But it becomes a most fascinating adventure to learn how these cloths are created and to learn more about the processes and cultural settings for our own cloth weaving.

Below are two videos of the three girls working together to weave a cloth.