I started this morning in the presence of a Master weaver who taught me to weave a silk placemat. I undertook this experience at Ock Pop Tot, a social enterprise (which makes a lot of money as advised by the Australian sales manager). Weaving is the lifeblood of Laos for many women & a large part of what this organisation does is protect traditional crafts but also give the women in the north of Laos some work, purpose & hope. A lot of Laos was previously growing opium. The Laos government has put a stop to a lot of this growing in the last decade or so which is a good thing but there are whole communities with nothing to do & no skills except those learned in the drug trade.
OPT, among other social enterprises, has invested in these communities & taught the women to weave or enabled a distribution channel for their weaving & other traditional crafts. OPT also invests in the communities overall by building schools & infrastructure which mean that these communities can continue to exist. It is very laudable & after having learnt the basics of weaving, I understand why most of the weavings on offer are soooooooo expensive but even knowing the back story, it is hard to justify the costs asked, although I am attracted to several of the wall hangings on offer.
My weaving course started with a more typical Laos experience. The 8.30am tuk tuk transfer didn't turn up. Upon enquiring, I was told it was due between 8.30 & 9.00am, silly. Hmmm, doesn't the class start at 9? 9/9.30 - same, same! I am coming to understand this cultural phenomena but struggling with the way it plays out. I don't really care if the class starts at 9 or 9.30 but I care that I had to get up at 7am to pack because we were leaving LP today, have breakfast & be ready at the requested time. If I had been told there was a variance in time, I would have walked there, ridden a bicycle or stayed in bed longer. I honestly believe that when people make arrangements here, they believe them to be true at the time. However, when the anointed time arrives & the plans change, the combination of them being laid back, buddhists (don't like or 'do' confrontation, except to smile) & not having a sense of urgency or customer service orientation mean that they rub up against tourist expectation. When the tuk tuk arrived at 9.20am, I got in expecting to turn left. Instead, we turned right & drove 10 minutes in the wrong direction to pick up 2 people who were at one of the other shops to then drive back 15 mins to the weaving centre. My 9am class started at 10.15am after a slow welcome tamarind tea (delicious). It is ok for this sort of thing to happen occasionally but it has happened at every tour or experience we have been involved in in Laos, except the drivers we have had from Avis who have always been on time or early.
The weaving started with a discussion about the colours of the dyes, each meaning something different & all equally beautiful so one couldn't really go wrong. I was asked to choose between 2 traditional patterns, one representing strength & the other good health. I chose the strength one as it looked easier. The class was held in an open gallery looking out onto the Mekong (now my favourite river). It was a beautiful combination of sensory pleasures - river views, the taste of the tamarind tea, the varied smells coming from the dyeing process, the feel of the silk & the clack, clack of the weaving loom.
I then chose my 2 silks from a cupboard full of glorious-coloured silks. I was taught how to spin this silk so that it was suitable to weave. This was a fairly easy process once I got the hang of it. The hard part was sitting on the tiny stool & then getting up again! With silk now spun, it was time to learn to weave.
I felt sorry for the Master weaver. Surely she had other things to do! She was a good teacher & I was soon weaving away by myself with the occasional correction thrown in by her. Initially, it was restful & surprisingly relaxing as I had to weave 22cms of the same pattern so it quickly became relatively easy to do. Sooner than I expected however we got to the first pattern which necessitated the second colour being introduced. This got a little trickier & the weaver spent a bit more time at my side. There were several patterns to learn which required concentration-counting & remembering numbers of rows, which colours used etc. After a couple of hours I was back to the plain colour and finally I was finished!
While I had been weaving, another class had been learning to dye silks. This seemed like very hard work with a series of barks, tree roots, leaves, flowers & berries having to be cut, squeezed, boiled & then used. It was incredibly laborious but produced beautiful results.
The traditional crafts all seem incredibly labour intensive but produce beautiful outcomes. The difficulty for these women is the same as for craftspeople everywhere, managing the value proposition & trying to get back in $ what you have put in in terms of your time to produce the works. It's not easy - maybe I will buy a weaving!
Top 5
1. Learning a new skill - love it!
2. Gaining an appreciation for a traditional craft
3. Understanding how all of the gorgeous colours are made, the derivations were really interesting
4. Being able to take the time to appreciate this experience on many levels
5. The sense of accomplishment with learning a new skill & having something to show for it. I will use my new silk placement with pride
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