Posted by Agnes Iley , Saturday, January 8, 2011 9:45 AM
Understanding the textile world
About ten years ago we went on a holiday to Thailand. We travelled around the country for about four weeks, with our backpacks. We went somewhat “off the beaten track” and met some wonderful people. Midway through the holiday we stayed for a few nights with a lovely Thai family in Sukothai.
Our host was very kind and took us to see some wonderful sights and places. On one of these trips we came across a very poor area of Sukothai. A village of wooden houses on stilts, underneath the houses the women of the village were weaving cloth in traditional designs. They were working on very simple looms and I was amazed how fine the fabric was they created. It looked like the cotton they used was dyed in the village as well, long lengths of it where hanging everywhere. However the language barrier stopped me from finding that out.
We choose two pieces of fabric which traditionally would be used as scarves and our host started haggling for us. We felt a little embarrassed. Of course you are supposed to haggle in Thailand, but things were already cheap in our (spoiled western) eyes and it was clear how much work went into creating these scarves. So we left a good tip (to the dismay of our host, who thought we were to soft).
At the time the idea was that I could use the fabric for one of my projects, but I’ve never had the guts to cut into them. So for the past ten years they’ve been used as table runners.
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