Newsletter | Textile Traders

+44 (0)1588 638712

If you'd like to receive an occasional email about Textile Traders, World Textile Days or Di's Travel Blog, just..

Hemp and Indigo and Some Spring Shows - Published 31 Mar 2022

Our regular newsletter for customers and subscribers

Indigo and Hemp and Spring time Shows
A reminder of where we'll be around the country this Spring and one final snapshot of northern Thailand

Before I leave northern Thailand behind both physically and mentally, just one more snapshot of life there. On the day before we have to start packing, I hop onto the back of Sean's scooter and we head out of Chiang Mai and up into the hills for a visit to Ban H'mong Mae Sa Mai. (otherwise known as Win's village)

I met Win and his family about 15 years ago at his stall on the Sunday walking market. He sells indigo batik made by some of the women in his village and always used to sport an eye catching hat. The hat did its job and got us talking.

My travel companion that time was Jacqui Carey a braid expert who was documenting braid techniques in the Golden Triangle area. We had some very memorable encounters and experiences on that trip.

We were invited up to Win's village. I soon realised it was the same one Jim and I had visited several times before when searching for traditional hilltribe indigo batik. We had bought a set of wax tools from the local blacksmith and had watched a lady called Chong spinning hemp, preparing her wax melting pot, waxing her hemp cloth and indigo dyeing the long batiked strips.
She was one of the few still making these batiked hemp panels which are part of the magnificent pleated H'mong women's skirts. I included her photo in a Batik Guild book along with some of her work. So Win, Jacqui, Jim and I went back to the village with a copy of the book for her (there's photos below)

Win tells me when the annual H'mong New Year would take place and which village would be taking its turn to host the festivities. I've been able to go to a few of these and the costumes are spectacular.

2022 is very different. The Sunday market has only just re-opened and the women have not been making batik, so Win is still selling off old stock. People's priorities have changed and the villagers have had to rely solely on their agriculture for income.
Anyway we can't leave Thailand without a visit so we head northwards and upwards past strawberry gardens and tourist destinations (looking neglected and empty) The popular elephant village is now imploring visitors to come in and feed some of their numerous elephants. Elephant parks sprang up all around Chian

g Mai in the last decades but there have been very few tourists to support them these past two years. Elephants are very expensive to keep without an income. A couple of monks told me that many Thais buy food online and can watch the elephants being fed online. Its a novel solution.
We're lucky enough to do it in person.
After this brief distraction we turn up a winding mountain road and the large village of Mae Sa Mai comes into view. We park near the village school and look out at the view. I'm scanning for signs of textile production and sure enough - and somewhat to my surprise I see far away some indigo panels on bamboo poles. (it helps to know what you're looking for)
We make our way to a small house where long deep blue freshly dyed waxed strips are drying in the sun.
Two women are sitting near their indigo tub chatting away together. They have just finished their dyeing as their indigo blue dyed hands show. Now they are stripping raw hemp and twisting short strips together to make into a long length of yarn ready to weave. This is painstaking work and its just one part of the many processes of making the lovely hemp rolls which we buy in Chiang Mai's H'mong market.

It may sound corny but I feel really privileged that we've been able to see traditional hemp fabric making and plant indigo dyeing still happening now in 2022. If I am ever tempted to forget how much work, patience and skill goes into making the traditional hand made textiles we sell, I cast my mind back to scenes like this. This trip has been full of little gems like this - weaving ikat and brocade on home made pedal looms, weaving baskets, producing hemp, applique and embroidery, pompom making, waxing batik with tiny wax pens and with teakwood blocks, indigo vats and indigo fields... its still all out there, if you know where to look.

And now we are firmly back in Shropshire and our parcels are beginning to arrive from Thailand. We have events coming up in the next month. Come and see us if you can!
Saturday 2nd April World Textile Day South east in Leatherhead

Saturday 9th April World Textile Day East in Norfolk.
In the morning I will be giving a brand new talk alongside Magie Relph of The African Fabric Shop. "Batik and Waxprint - a journey from Java to West Africa."
Saturday and Sunday 23rd/24th April Wonderwool Wales, Builth Wells. A wonderful show we have missed so much and now its finally back again.
And also on Sunday 24th April The Antique Textile Fair in Fallowfield, Manchester. Jim will be there with a stand of our vintage textiles.
In May we'll be in Oxfordshire (near Banbury) and in Scotland (near Stirling)

For a look at some of our new stock, come into the shop, find us at a show or take a look online. www.textiletraders.co.uk

Copyright © 2022 Textile Traders, All rights reserved.

unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences

Other recent newsletters

7 Mar 2022

Textile Traders Roadtrip

25 Jan 2022

A Report from Chiang Mai

10 Jan 2022

Travelling in the Time of Covid...

9 Dec 2021

Christmas discount and last posting dates

27 Nov 2021

Save the Date for World Textile Days next year

10 Jul 2021

New indigo fabrics in and new shows coming up

1 Jun 2021

Keeping you all up to date

5 Apr 2021

Javanese Batik Part 2, World Textile Days, and Shop opening!

6 Mar 2021

Java - Batik's Global Headquarters!

20 Jan 2021

Hibernating through another lockdown?

29 Nov 2020

So... moving on from 2020!

8 Nov 2020

Remote shopping on Whatsapp and a call from "Maison Dior"

28 Sep 2020

World Textile Days coming up

6 Sep 2020

Schools back and the long summer is over

1 Aug 2020

Looking Forward to more Days to come?

12 Jun 2020

The Next Best Thing to World Textile Day Scotland!

My Order

No items

Our Newsletter