The Never Ending Threads – The Journey from the Traditional to the Contemporary Weaving of Thailand

On Thursday, June 19 at 10:30 a.m. Khun Jarupatcha Achavasmit gave a very interesting talk about Thai textiles. The lecture was at the William Warren Library, at the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok, and was organized by The Thai Textile Society. Khun Jarupatcha talked about modern fabric designers who bring new ideas to weaving. Traditional Thai weaving in cotton or silk is already intricate and beautiful. Add fabric dye, or digitally print on the fabric, and weave the threads slightly differently, and the fabric becomes modern art.

Khun Jarupatcha is a fabric designer and teacher. The first designer she talked about is Lady Lea Dingjan-Laarakker. Lady Lea combines fabric dying with weaving. She paints the warp threads, which are attached to the loom before weaving begins. She uses environmentally friendly dyes from Switzerland. Lady Lea has a background in western painting and that brings something new to the Thai silk weaving.

Next Khun Jarupatcha talked about Sasiwan Damrongsiri of Chabatik. She works with ikat weaving, also known as mudmee. She does modern things with the motif such as enlarging the scale of the design from 1 millimeter to 1 inch so the design looks different.

Next the talk included Nussara Tiengkeit who has a boutique in Chiang Mai called “Nussara.” Her idea is to create spaces in the fabric for a new effect, by leaving out some threads during the weaving. The new look is so popular that it has been copied and can be seen wherever tourists buy souvenir textiles and wall hangings, such as at the Emporium.

Other modern designers discussed were: Kachama K. Perez, a fiber artist trained in Japan, Kent Gregory of Sop Moei Arts, and Elisabetta Ziller, a 21 year old student from England, who looks at traditional textiles with the question, “Why does it have to be this way?”

The lecture was in English, but with many Thai university students there, we had some questions and answers in Thai at the end, with translation. One question concerned the fact that the traditional weavers are older people. We don’t see many young people at the looms. Does this mean traditional weaving is on the way out? A good answer came from the audience. A university student (a young man) thought that if we are even asking this question, chances are there is interest and it will not die out.

Another student wondered if the beautiful modern art created by these upcoming designers will catch on around the world but be out of reach for the typical local customer who used to use it in daily life. No one had an answer for that one.

Remember Bangkok Fashion City? Bangkok was supposed to be a fashion hub. It was ended by the government in 2006. Khun Jarupatcha had some beautiful clothing in the fashion shows though! One cute dress had a woven geometric print she called “gridlock,” named after the traffic jams in Bangkok.

Currently, Khun Jarupatcha works as part of a design team at Thailand Carpet Manufacturing. She uses leftover yarn from industrial carpet production and hand weaves it into the “Royal Weave” line of carpets. How did Khun Jarupatcha learn to weave? She went to the village of Bang Rai and lived there for two months as a “girl who wanted to learn how to weave.” It all adds up to a passion for Thai weaving that made for a very interesting lecture.

History of Bangkok Quilt Group

Doris Gregory started our group in 1998. She taught several of us to quilt. We met at her house every Tuesday, where sewing machines were always set up, rulers and mats on the table ready to use. Doris created beginner patterns using Electric Quilt and made copies for everyone.

In 2001, Linda thought our group should make quilts for charity, specifically AIDS babies, and one of our quilt members took up the idea and then we were all at Doris’s house ironing and cutting and as they say the rest is history. To date our quilt group has made and distributed over 500 quilts. We put together pre-cut kits, patterns, batting and floss. Members of the group supply the labor. We also provide four quilts each year for our International School Bangkok students to take as house warming presents when the students work with Habitat for Humanity on week without walls.

When Doris moved back to the U.S. in 2003, the group decided to meet at a different person’s house each month. We have a coffee morning, every Tuesday morning, when International School Bangkok is in session. When school is out most people travel or go on home leave.

We sent 26 quilts to Le Refuge, a center for girls in Chiang Mai. Here are the girls from Le Refuge with their quilts in 2005.

In October 2005 we sent quilts to Laos with Kathleen and then took the rest to the Pakistani Embassy for earthquake victims in Pakistan. In 2006 we made quilts for Children of the Forest in Sangkhlaburi. Deb and Linda drove up there with the quilts and Deb became involved in teaching the children how to sew and do crafts, on an ongoing basis. In 2007 we gave quilts to the El Shaddai 2 Family in Sri Racha.

Marjolein’s beautiful quilts were in an art show at International School Bangkok. In October 2006 various quilts made by our group members were displayed at a crafts show at Tang Hua Seng department store.

People come and go, and when someone leaves we make a quilt for them. In the past we have made an elephant quilt for Margaret, cups and saucers for Bonnie, Thai houses for Cheryl, butterflies for Mary Ellen, friendship stars for Judie, plates for Barb P., paper pieced hearts for Bev, lanterns for Terri, bookshelves for Kathleen, signature blocks for Ellen and Rose, and coffee cups for Deb:

Mystery object

This is a mystery gift from Linda to each of us in quilt group. What is its real use? And what other uses can you find for it? It is a solid piece of wood with carvings on it, and it is 2 inches long (6 cm). Can you think of a quilting use?