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Textile Traders News - Finally! - Published 31 Jan 2019

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2019 and a newsletter finally!

I've just looked back and realised that I haven't put out a newsletter since last February!! (What? You didn't even notice?)
Since then we have done a whole year of World Textile Days around the country as well as talks, a couple of other textile shows and a whole month in Ireland in Big Green Van.
The 7 World Textile Days all went very well again with lots of keen and enthusiastic participants and some great guest speakers helping us out. Our theme was "Teamwork - Working Together" which is what we do as a group and what many people (mostly women) around the world do to make their amazing textiles.
In the talk I did, I showed how ikat textiles are made in northeastern Thailand and in Sumba, Indonesia. These are to totally different cultures but there are lots of surprising similarities between them.
Here are a few photos of last years events. And a link to our website where you can check out all the dates for this year's EIGHT World Textile Days!

I spent November and December in Northern Thailand again this year and enjoyed it as much as ever.The highlights were a 3 day meditation retreat in the cool forested mountains near Pai, and a trip to Phrae where wonderful indigo textiles are made. Now there is even a "boutique" hotel in the village called "The Indigo House". There is still only rice porridge with pork or chicken for breakfast, but at least you can get cappuccino! (yes, I know, and I apologise for my shallow priorities)

As I write this I'm sitting next to the Mekhong River in a place called That Phanom in northeastern Thailand. Jim and I are about to dive deep into indigo growing country, and I will report back. After that it's on to Indonesia to greet a small group who are coming out to do a Java Batik tour. I will be back in time for the first World Textile Day of the year at Llanidloes with a big pile of new fabrics and a rack of exciting new clothes!

NEW STOCK!

Lots of wonderful rolls of hand woven hemp in all kinds of colours - turquoise, purple, terracotta, reds, blues, greens. We'll have plenty at our shows this year and to order on the website too.
I bought some metres of extra wide machine woven hemp too and this will be arriving very soon.

The women in the villages in the mountains to the north of Chiang Mai continue to make their indigo dyed batik cloth but instead of waxing it all by hand they are adapting a quicker way of applying the wax. Using copper wire stamps, they can make these lovely deep blue and white batiks
You can also buy them by the metre or as fat quarters and smaller sample sets

Nice little bags made from old and recycled embroidered clothing are getting less easy to find, but I found a big box full at a shop I know so snapped them all up

Also I was very pleased to find a small pile of these hand embroidered indigo dyed head cloths from SW China.

I've also got some plain white 100% cotton and linen/cotton mix scarves. These are great for dyeing and batiking, shiboriing and however you would like to decorate them.

I've been to the hilltribe silver sellers and got lots new silver earrings, rings, pendants and bracelets, made by Karen silversmiths in the traditional designs of the various people who live in the mountain regions of Northern Thailand. New designs!