A Weaver in Ban Xang Khong

Yesterday we crossed a river over a bamboo foot bridge and hiked to a craft village to visit a local weaver. She told us that the original of her buildings was her mothers. It was a lovely french colonial building with a classic mustard color. The bottom of this was a gallery and she lived in the upper level. In front of this was an open air building containing four looms and a variety of hand weaving tools like spinning wheels and other implements. All really rustic considering the very fine quality of the work.
Across a small lane was a new building she designed in keeping with the colonial home, open to the rafters and using old timber and beams. It housed another gallery.
On the other side of this was a delightful and serene garden with a small kitchen house fronted by a shady verandah housing a low table and cushions. Over the railing of the verandah were the peels of oranges hung to dry later to be burned as a mosquito repellant.
She invited us to take tea in her garden on the verandah and served us roasted peanuts with bits of lemon grass in them .
Everywhere you looked it was a visual feast. There were many antique Laos implememts and baskets and lots of other wonderful things. Everything was placed in such a pleasing manner, in fact she had it in spades. She spoke wonderful english which she taught herself , no easy feat. She was 31 years old.
Many Laos weavers now use commercially spun fibres and chemical dyes. They are also using part cotton and part silk to keep the prices lower. Her work was all handspun silk and the bulk of it was colored using natural dyes. She does all the dying, most of the spinning and some of the weaving. She designs everything and employs some village women to do some of the spinning and weaving providing local employment.
We bought two gorgeous vegetable dyed scarves to keep us warm as it's quite chilly morning and evening here.
After an afternoon of sharing stories while she played with her cats and tended to a few passers by we reluctantly left in flurry of goodbyes. We got the feeling we could have stayed for days and it would have been just fine with her.........