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We’re going separate ways today; Valerie’s booked on to a Dyeing and Weaving course and John’s climbing up a waterfall and visiting a bear sanctuary.

Dyeing and Weaving

Warning: there are some of you who will not want to read this - you fall into the same group as the rest of our tour group, none of whom could be persuaded to join me (and we all know how persuasive I can be)!! However, there are others who I know would have joined me like a flash if they had half a chance, and it is for them to read on ...


Oh what wonderful luck! Finding that there’s a wonderful place that is trying to help the locals in producing high-quality, high-end woven products. Seriously tempting everywhere you look. And what was even better - they do courses! Unfortunately, I could only book onto a one-day course, as the other days were booked out, but 8am saw me taking a tuk-tuk into Luang Prabang to spend the day on a dyeing and weaving course. There were 3 of us doing the course, me, Louise, an Australian, and Willie from Limerick. There was also Lisa, another Australian, who was doing the first of a two-day course (she was making a scarf, whilst we would only have time to weave a placemat)


After an introduction to silkworms and how they create the silk, which included seeing the live worms and the moths mating, and an overview of the different natural colours and what creates them we were ready to go.
Luckily it was raining - normally on the course, you dye in the morning, and then after lunch use your dyed yarn to weave your placemat. Due to the rain, we wouldn’t get our yarn dry in time, so we could dye one set of colours and then choose others to weave with. We were like kids in a candy store!

I was soon taking berries out of seed pods similar to chestnuts and bashing them in a mortal and pestle. In fact, I wasn’t bashing hard enough, so was told to do it harder. I think they rather regretted that when the terracotta bottom fell off! Eventually I had a paste which was boiled up and then the silk (which had already been treated with alum) dropped in. We then boiled up some leaves for green, some lemon grass for yellow and some indigo for blue. At one stage Willie looked at me and said ‘you’re really enjoying this aren’t you?’ ... because I had a smile plastered right across my face. Also my hands were stained orange, which is always a good sign that I’ve had a good time dyeing!

After a delicious lunch by the banks of the Mekong, we started our weaving lesson. First we had to roll our spools of yarn, and then sat with our own teacher at the loom. It was fiddly at first getting the rhythm correct: right-foot down, pass bobbin towards the left, left-foot down, bang the work, pass it right, right-foot down, bang it, start again ... doesn’t that sound simple?! Once that was mastered (well, almost!), it was how the pull to bobbin through properly to keep the tension tight and the sides smooth. It seemed like every time I thought I’d got the hang of it, something would go wrong.

After 20cms, we had to insert a pattern. Luckily our teachers sat with us to help us untangle the complicated set of strings that set the pattern. And then on the home straight - only another 20 cms to the finish! Boy, were we proud of what we produced (I’ve told John I want to frame mine!)

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Comments

[Laura and Josephine]

:O :O
Mum and moi would have loved to spend this experience with you Miss. Valerie! I Can't believe you got to see the production of silk and the dying of it, I would have been in ore! Mum is really jealous to be honest. She cant see me typing this other wise she would have made me delete that comment :P but yes she is very much jealous! And yes i hope the next time we step into your loving home that we will see that master piece :) Love Laura and Josie xx