The Power of Traditional Crafts

Traditional crafts have always been part of my creative world.  Be it textiles, leather, wood, paper, glass, metal, pottery, ever will I be captivated by the ingenuity of age old creativity.  There is no doubt that the asthetics of such hand made crafts is very high up my pleasure scale, and yet I have come to realise that there are numerous less tangiable factors at play.  

I'll start with a factor that has always been deeply rooted in communties - 'story telling'.  Human beings love a good yarn, and we gleen immense pleasure from both hearing and telling! Wherever humans have resided, there have been meeting places where stories have been eagerly told and retold.  The aptly named 'Yarn Market' in the pretty Somerset village of Dunster is one such building.  Built for medieval wool merchants to keep their goods dry, many an embellished sheepy tale would have been told here!

Chatter within these historical venues has been key in keeping crafts thriving for centuries, creating strong identities for cities, towns and villages alike.  I have long derived inspiration and pleasure from seeking out the modern world 'craft market' equivilant, chatting with those who take pleasure in sharing stories about their creativity and skills.  The tales I have encountered have given me huge insight into people and cultures, and they have equally helped me to make sense of my own world.  Even in the depths of France with limited local language, I enjoyed a most ameniable conversation with a braider in a medieval market.  With just a few common words and lots of pointing, the level of communication we achieved was most satisfying!  I am ever amazed at the sense of connection from even the briefest of chats:)  

Engaging craft chats around have also landed completely out of the blue.  A trip to Rome some years ago led to me to the unassuming entrance of a shop on Via di Panico, close to the River Tiber'.  With only a hint of textiles in the tiny window, I was totally transfixed as the wonders of 'Passart' came into vision.  My eyes darted around with excitement as the owner told the story of his stunning braids and tassel making for the Vatican.  I was enthralled in an instant and a spark to learn more about the skills of Passementerie was ignited.

How the power of chatter effortlessly nutures and supports - I only have to think of my textile workshops and the wide range of topics that are aired in a day.  Working with hands brings openess, and frees to the brain to explore possibilities that we may never have found on our own.  As my textile work has evolved towards tradtional textile techniques, I have noticed how workshop chatter has changed.  The conversation is slower, and students are reminded of childhood textiles and of crafts that they watched their mothers and grandmothers working with.  These enriched conversations can be surprisingly illuminating, and solutions to problems of all kinds quietly reveal themselves.  

Which bring me to my own experience of working traditional crafts.  Having started my texile adventures on a hand Singer sewing machine before I reached double figures, my meandering journey or exploration has been varied.  Having explored lots of what technology has to offer contemporary textiles, I have come back full circle.  Tradtional crafts give me a slowness and rythmn to working, where results agreeably take a fair while longer, yet they are rewarding in a way that only first hand experience can reveal.  

Plus the required tools and materials can be simple and portable.  With just a hook, hessian and wool remnants, I spent many hours mastering the technique of 'rug hooking' during the Covid years.  At a time when my mind was constantly racing, it felt incredibly soothing and watching a simple design emerge gave me immense pleasure.  Better still, I was making good use of yarn remants from a local rug making company that would otherwise have gone to landfill.  Repurposing and making use of existing supplies is at the heart of many crafts.

For all the pleasure that comes from owning and making traditional crafts, there is one benefit that by far outweighs all others - human connection.  Crafters are typically kindly souls who love to share, and history gives an added connection.  I've met so many interesting and generous people through my experiences of tradtional crafts. Plus I've been delighted to find that I can happily travel alone to unknown places and a new friend will be awaiting :)  

Helping to create meangingful experiences of traditional crafts has added further meaning to my creative world.  My venture this year is a Heritage Craft Escape, where I am delighted to be collaborting with others in the delightful Yarn Market Hotel in Dunster this autumn.  Come along and experience first hand the story telling, inspiration, nuturing, support, rhythm, soothing, pleasure and human connection that traditional crafts have given to my life, and those of many others.  

Heritage Crafts in Medieval Dunster

After a gruelling winter dominated by leaden skies, the arrival of Spring days has been a sensory delight.  It was on one for the first bright days that I pointed my car west towards Exmoor, an Area Of Natural Beauty that I believe is at its very best early and late season.  I love to savour long shadows across the dramatic landscape, and my first expedition this Spring involved numerous stops on route.  Exmoor villages also have a huge 'lost in time' charm and my final destination of Dunster, with its many medieval buildings and castle, is without doubt a jewel.

I vividly recall my first visit to Dunster village on a school girl holiday.  I had cycled with a friend from nearby Minehead on an ancient bicycle, and aching legs were forgotten in an instant when we turned the corner into the main street - a view that is as striking today.  Small shops, cafes and hotels continue to thrive and it takes a surprising amount of time to wander up the street to the castle entrance.  With a 1000+ year history, imposing Dunster Castle with formal gardens and extensive parkland offers more delights.

It took me a fair few visits to Dunster to get past the castle grounds, where there is much more to explore in the pretty winding streets that lie beyond.  This fully restored Dovecot is next to a striking Tithe Barn where local events are held.  Add to this pretty Memorial Gardens, Doll Museum, Watermill, Lovers Bridge, and the many pleasures of charming shops, nearby Dunster Beach and Exmoor, a trip to Dunster need to be savoued at a leisurely pace and a single day visit is simply way too short. 

One of the most photographed buildings is the Yarn Market proudly standing at the bottom of the main street.  I love to stand inside and imagine its working history, and all that will have happened within.  This Grade 1 timber framed building was built in the 17th century to support a flourishing cloth trade that centred around Dunster.  It specialised in trading woollen cloth known as kersey or broadcloth, and there was a cloth named after the village called Dunsters  With my long love of all things wool, you can kind of get why this building calls me!

I'm therefore delighted to collaborating with with fellow Somerset artists, Philippa Reid and Jane Hardstaff at the nearby Yarn Market Hotel this autumn.  A super friendly and traditional hotel that prides itself on helping visitors to get the most from their stay through activity breaks.    Our Heritage Craft Escape feels a perfect fit for this delightful location and our offerings of heritage quilling, book binding and passementerie offer the opportunity to recharge and learn new skills to enjoy over the winter months ahead.  A short day will be spent learning the basics of each of three crafts, allowing a little afternoon time to enjoy all that Dunster has to offer, and an option for working in the evening for the enthusiastic!  No experience is required and all materials and equipment will be provided, alongside excellent food.  Do come along and join us in this all inclusive escape making beautiful creations and lots of happy memories :)  

Passementerie

Like many of my life enhancing experiences, my start with 'Passementerie' was quiet and unassuming.  It began with making simple 'Kumihmo' cords after a friendly chat at a memorable Woolfest event with ladies from The Braid Society.  It was a sweltering June day and small movements with my hands felt very soothing and pleasurable.  My purchase of a simple foam braiding disk that day kept my fingers happily occupied for a week, and it soon resulted in a beautiful wood marudai - how I love the sound of the wooden 'tama' bobbins gently knocking against each other while weaving.  This form of braiding has its roots and a long history in Japanese culture, and it felt very fitting to make accessorising bags and pouches for my equipment in much loved vintage kimono fabrics.

The word 'Passementerie' took a while longer to come onto my radar.  Originating from the French word 'passement', it started as a collective term to describe decorative trims and buttons for lavish 16th century clothing and furnishings.  With apprenticeships that lasted 7 years, the skills involved were considerable.  The modern day interpretation now includes all manner of decorative braids, cords, trims, buttons and embellishments from a variety of cultures.  Many of these crafts have quietly called me and next up to learn was 'lucetting'.  

What a pleasure it is to make strong and beautiful cords with a simple wooden weaving fork.  Like so many passenmenterie crafts, lucetting is very portable, although you need to be reasonably static to include beads!  It's said to originate back to the Viking era, and it enjoyed a 17th century resurgence when clothing pre buttons was often tightly laced.  Here I am lucetting!

Wooden tools have greatly added to passementerie  appeal, although my next aquisition took a bit more energy to master. At first glance an inkle loom looks pretty complicated and looking at warping up through heddles, I wondered what I had got myself into!

Thankfully an instruction session with Somerset inkle weaver Sophie Fovergue got me on track, and learning how to use the loom was actually very achievable, I have happily gone to weave a number of different designs, generally in cotton thread for stability.  Using 4ply and double knit cotton yarn oddments has made it a very affordable craft, with the resulting bands growing surprisingly quickly.  All the same, I was glad that my next passementeie experience required only my precious hands - finger loop braiding.

A much appreciated online session by The Braid Society started me off, beginning with off-cuts of cotton yarn and two fingers.  Surprisingly within a few days I was using all 10 fingers and my feet!  It was a pleasure to work this technique with lots of different types of yarns and I was very pleased with the pretty effects that could be achieved, albeit that the length of the cord is limited by arm length!  As similarly was the case learning to make Yorkshire buttons in another fun online session which grew a life of it's own.

I've also enjoyed weaving funky braids, inspired by passementerie braids that have long adorned high end furnishings and clothing.  Once made with a silk or linen 'gimp', I've been deligthed to find that any cord or yarn with a solid structure works well.  Better still, no special loom is required and these braids were all woven on an old picture frame :)  I love that these crafts are so accessible and that with a few tools and that wonderful things can be created with a few tools and a little starting knowledge.  Here I am on a sunny afternoon enjoying making a striking braid bracelet.

These simple woven buttons opened a huge new passementerie door, and they have given me and many others hours of pleasure.  Requiring only a simple cardboard template and any kind of smooth yarn, they are such a delight to make a teach.  They can be 'filled' with wool or a button, making them a brilliant way to use up old buttons from bulging family button boxes!  The buttons here are woven in a mix of wool and perle yarns - variegated make for pleasing colours that organically emerge.  I will be ever grateful to Gillian Dye for teaching me this techique and I later posted my own instructions on this site.  I have been amazed that they have been viewed by thousands, who I hope have equally enjoyed.

I've gone on to weave many different button designs and here are a few of my Dorset, Shirtlace and Death's Head button creations.  Each design has a fair bit of history, and pre the industrial revolution, their making would have provided megre incomes for those with good eyesight.  Traditionally woven with linen, wool yarn, silk fashioned around metal, wood or horn rings and forms, my examples here are made in a mixture of perle cotton, wool and silk, and they are stored in a wooden box - of course!

I also added tassel making to my passementerie repertoire, following a visit to Rome with my late husband.  I was wowed to find a shop making 'Passart' tassels for the Vatican, and I was instantly hooked!  I had made simple tassels for many years, however surely 'skirted' tassels were going to be a big step up?!  Thankfully like all crafts, quality instruction came to the rescue and passementerie maker Anna Crutchley provided a brilliant introduction.  Understanding materials and how to use all became clear with Anna's excellent guidance.  

Tassel heads, called 'moulds', are traditionally made with wood and they was be wrapped with thread or painted.  A tassel 'skirt' made with multiple strands of cotton is wired at the top on a board and then wrapped around a cord.  It can also be fashioned in other ways to create other decorative items like 'rosettes', mixed and matched with other passementerie items.   I was also pleased to purchase Anna's 'cord twister' which makes the most beautiful cords from standard sewing thread - suddenly those old Sylco sewing threads have a massive appeal!

I feel very happy to be continuing with passementerie play this year, and sharing my knowledge and skills with others.  I am particularly looking forward to teaching on a Heritage Craft Escape at the Yarn Market Hotel in the Somerset medieval village of Dunster this autumn - more on this link.

Textiles in Thailand

This winter found me taking up my most ambitious textile adventure yet - a first visit the country whose name translates to 'land of the free'.  Thailand has been the winter stomping ground of artist and natural dyer Elisabeth Viguie Culshaw for many years, and her shout out for a small group to join her for the first time called me loud and clear. This display of sumptious silk at the Jim Thompson House was just one of the many many rewards.

Having a little prior knowledge about Thai silk, I was highly delighted to find that the Jim Thompson 'Silk' House Museum was just a five minute walk from our Bangkok hotel. Thompson, an American architect by trade, designed and built this prestigious Bangkok home in the 1950s, collecting and repurposing old Thai teak buildings and creating a magestic and traditional home surrounded by lush gardens.

Thompson began working as a silk trader after WWII, producing and promoting vibrant high end silk fabrics.  His pioneering work transformed declining Thai silk production into a global luxury brand, and lifted many people out of poverty.  Following his unexplained disappearance in Malaysia in 1967, his house packed with Asian art and antiques became a musuem and it makes for highly interesting and tranquil visit in bustling Bangkok.

No surprises that my eye was swiftly drawn to this silk Thai pillow.  Traditionally constructed in hand woven colourful cotton fabric and filled with 'kapok' seed fibre from the Asian 'Ceiba pentandra' tree, I could feel a early doors UK project stirring! A vibrant silk exhibition space adds to the house visiting experience, along with a high-end retail shop and a charming farm shop selling affordable local artisans crafts.  

And so to the the topic that filled many of my Thai days this winter - indigo.  A plant that has been revered and passed down through generations for over 6000 years, indigo production flourishes in Thailand, most particulary in the North East region.  Our first group outing brought us to the Hands Across Culture - Kramm International Symposium in Central Bangkok and I found myself peering at plated indigo dyeing ingredients in wonder!

The Thai word most used for indigo is 'Kraam' and the variety grown in Thailand is Indigoera Tintoria, which differs from Persicaria Tinctoria, the Japanese indigo plant generally grown in the UK.  Indigo 'vats are produced using an indigo paste, lime bark to maintain alkalinity and and often tamerind - the latter is one of various fruits used to aide fermentation.  I came to learn much about these products and many more natural dyes in following days.  So with a little encouragement from textile artist Dudee4Me, here I am on day one of our activities, straight into indigo blue despite my unsuitable clothing - at least I had rubber gloves on :)

What was quickly evident, is just how powerful Thai indigo vats are.  My experience of Japanese indigo has been dipping fabrics many times to achieve a blue of any depth.  These cotton and rayon pieces dyed by conference delegates achieved this depth of deep blue with just two short dips!  Thai indigo was evidently powerful stuff and I was super keen to learn.

These simple tie dye pieces were only the tip of the indigo iceberg at the symposium, with a stunning exhibition of contemporary household and fashion items in every imaginable shade of indigo blue.  How fabulous it was to see quality creations by Thai textile artists, clearly demonstrating that natural dyes and high end products can absolutely go hand in hand.

Prach Niyomkar of Mann Craft was one of the main contributors at the symposium, and it was a delight to later spend time in his stunning garden in Sakon Nakon.  Known to many as Mann, he introduced us to his incredible natural dye space, packed with plants I have long loved, only ever read the names of, and many of which I had never heard of at all!  I was transfixed the first time we walked around the garden, what a wonder it was to be cocooned by lush foliage and flora at every turn, most of which could be used as material for natural dye.  As we would come to learn, the palette of colours available from Mann's garden is considerable.

Here are just a few of the amazing flora that my eyes relished for the first time on that magical morning.  From top left to bottom right: 

Tithonia Diversifolia (Mexican Sunflower), 

Bixa Orellana (Lipstick Tree), 

Saraca Indica (Asoka Tree), 

Senna Alata (Candlesticks)

To be introduced to such a wide array of new plants was incredibly exciting, and oh to have spent the rest of my winter in this garden, learning about these and many other beauties, and the natural dye colours they give.

Mann had already set up indigo vats prior to our arrival and they sat 'blooming' in dappled sunlight awaiting our attention.  While a glorious sight to behold, I was learning fast that the skill, knowledge, care and attention to get vats to this stage is considerable.  Indigo dyeing in Thailand is a cultural practice handed down the generations, and after a long period of decline it is thankfully now enjoying a resurgence through the dedication and passion of artistans like Mann.  His clay indigo vats were very asthetically pleasing, however, vats are typically much larger for dyeing quantity materials for the commercial market.

While Thai indigo vats require only gentle heat to kick start, many dye plants require considerable heat to coax the release of their colour.  My group spent many an hour in the dye garden peering into aliminium pots on woodstoves, enjoying the aroma of wood smoke and plant material!  The gathering and preparing of plants for a dye pot can be a lengthy task, selecting fruits, flowers and bark at the right time and with minimal environmental impact.  While the former was kindly done for us, there was much chopping and squishing of the chosen materials to correctly prepare them for boiling.

The preparation stages are to be savoured, and Golden Shower fruit was one of the natural dye materials we patiently worked with our hands.  Cassia fistula is the National tree and flower of Thailand, and is revered for vibrant yellow flowers symbolising unity and presperity.  Blooming from March to May and its bark, leaves and fruits yield natural dyes from yellow through to browns.

It was without doubt a weighty task to produce all of these cotton and linen fabric samples dyed with a combination of Indigo, Golden Shower fruit, Myrobalan leaves, and Santol and Peltophorum bark.  Mann and Elisabeth worked tirelessly to facilitate this throughout our two garden days, and keep track of which dyes, mordanting and modifiers had been used on which samples.  As shown on these samples labelled by group member Sue, an extensive and interesting pallette of colours was achieved from just 4 dyes, widened by the use of mordants and modifiers.  Aluminium Suphate and Aluminium Acetate were used as pre mordants, and Aluminium Sulphate as a post mordant.  Lime and Ferrous Suplate were both used as modifiers.

Quality natural dye end products by Sakon Nakon artisans, typically in cotton or rayon, wowed me throughout my delightful Sakon Nakon days.  Mann's textile work was an exemplar of this, and his contemporary combining of the indigo blue spectrum with other natural dyes was hugely appealing.  Like many Thai textile artists, Mann has a wide range of dyeing, spinning and weaving skills I was delighted to bring home a few of his creations.  

Artisans specialising and collaborating were clearly at the root of the successful creative ventures we had to pleasure of visiting.  The North East of Thailand particularly specialises in indigo, beginning with bountiful production.  This huge field of Indigoera Tinctoria at Baan Ton Kram at Chiang Mai was quite a sight to behold, and our group learnt a little about its seasonal growing, harvesting and production, and along with the lesser grown wild Indigofera Suffructicosa.

The production of the valuable indigo paste for Thai textile artisans is a craft in itself.  Fresh indigo leaves are usually harvested in September/October, and the leaves are soaked and fermented in large tanks for several days until the water turns green.  Lime is then added and the mixture is stirred vigorously to oxidize.  After resting, the the liquid is removed leaving the powerful indigo pigment that can be kept for up to a year.

Studio ChiangDao Blue similarly produces high quality indigo, alongside dyeing and workshops in a most atmospheric studio.  Working with indigo for artisans like owner Siripohn is deeply spiritual, and supports a way of living and working with indigo that transcends processes and finished results.  Our glorious afternoon starting with a home cooked lunch, followed by rolling, folding, dipping and washing will be ever etched in my memory.

Similarly our morning at Ban Donkoi, a creative community hub in Sakon Nakon which extensively uses indigo and other natural dyes to design and and create sustainable fashion.  Weaving leader, Mrs Thawil Upri, showed us around the hub, a model community supported by a Thai Royal initiative, and consisting of  7 local groups who specialise in growing dye plants and cotton, making natural dyes, and spinning and weaving.

Their textile processes include specialist 'tie die' weaving where the loom warps are tied before they are dyed dipped in indigo and other locally produced natural dyes.  The complex and stunning weave designs that result from the many weavers are quite astounding and as can be seem with this very informative eBook, they produce a vast number of intriate designs and motifs.

Cotton is the primary weave fibre for Donkoi, along with some rayon.  The cotton is grown as one of the add-on crops that provides additional income after seasonal rice planting is complete.  With pre and post moranting, cotton takes up natural dyes well, indigo and other tannin rich plants particularly.  The formulas for each plant have been handed down and knowledge is shared within the Donkoi communities.  These few photos do very little justice to the quality of the end products the community produce.

Cotton has been grown in Thailand for thousands of years and continues in the North East, where organic and sustainable farming is worked by local communities.  Crops such as Gossypium Herbaceum are planted in October/November, with harvesting and producing in February/March.  The growers, spinners and weavers are very often women and the income generated much improves the quality of living for their families.  There are a number of different coloured varieties of cotton, including green and brown and it is typically handspun.

Prang Rojanachotikul, a long standing textile artist and educator, works extensively with hand spinning cotton and weaving, and she has pushed out the boundaries with her innovative creativity.  She has developed a very interesting technique with cotton yarn inspired by ancient Thai manuscript covers that she call 'Jandok' wrapping.  Her samples of geometric designs were both stunning and inspiring.

We spent a very pleasant afternoon with Prang in Chiang Mai, learning how to create a simple geometric design with cotton yarn.  Starting at the centre, the braiding involves wrapping around the bamboo sticks in a way that felt like knitting cast on.  With a fiddly start holding the sticks steady, watching a design emerge was very satisfying, and I our afternoon passed in a flash.

Thai silk production similarly dominates around the North East, and with my abiding passion for silk, I was delighted to find examples of stunning weaving throughout my Thai travels.  This stand by the Detail Cultural Network Community at the Bangkok Symposium had a exceptional display of beautifully woven silk scarves and few of my group could resist making a purchase - myself included!

Our visit to the Queen Sirkit Sericulture Centre in Sakon Nakon gave us insight into the natural dyeing of silk.  A protein fibre that takes up natural colour with ease, this stunning array of silk fibres made for an impressive display.  Silk must by dyed at much cooler temperatures than cotton to retain its natural lustre, so cool indigo VATS are perfect.  Simple washing of the fibre is all that is required beforehand and the range of natural dye colours that the centre had produced went from a light golden beige through to the deepest natural dye black I have every seen.

Sericulture is the term given to the farming of silk worms for the purpose of making silk.  Mulberry leaves are the staple diet required and the centre has specialised in cultivating the shrubby Mulberry bush trees typical of Thailand.  The larvae are fed on Mulberry leaves for around 30 days, at which point they are moved onto a rattan frame where they will begin to spin a cocoon.  It takes around 14 days for the pupa to  metamorphose into a moth, and then it secretes a fluid to break through the protective cocoon.

While silk production such as Eri allows the full 4 stages of the life cycle, Mulberry silk moths sadly never get to leave their cocoons as their natural exit damages the silk.  Boiling cocoons to achieve this feels very unpalitable, and also that the moth pupae is widely eaten in Asia as a tasty snack!  As someone who has a genetic love of silk, the only way to deal with this troubling fact is to keep the end result in mind - one cocoon produces a stunning filament of between 900 - 1,300 metres.

Brown is another colour that features frequently in the Thai natural dye pallette.  Thankfully less than fond memory of a school uniform colour subsided when I moved to the Somerset Levels close to 20 years ago.  I have greatly enjoyed learning about tannin rich plants such as walnut and alder and throught that I was aware of most brown natural dye shades - until I saw this striking display of printed and painted textiles.

This source of warm brown natural dye was to be a complete surprise, and I imagine many will look at the adjacent photos and will be none the wiser!  This is the fabulous flower of a fruit that I love to eat and I was interested to find out that these flowers are routinely cut from the tree as it promotes better growth.  So to reveal exactly what fruit this is - my much loved banana!

Our group spent a glorious afternoon, with 'Banana Blood' textile artist, Tang Kanidha at her studio a little way outside Bangkok.  What a privilage it was to spend time in her inspirational space, and to experiment with painting and printing with banana flower sap.  It seemed incredible that the sap of the young flower could be used so creatively, and better still that it is actually a product that would have otherwise gone to waste.

It has taken a fair while to process my mega textile experiences this Winter - this is a very condensed account!  All credit to our illustrious leader Elizabeth for organising such highly engaging and memorable textile experiences.  The Thai people we met were all so very hospitable, and genuinely grateful for our interest in their skills and creativity.  

As I looked out at the majestic Doi Chiang Dao mountain on our last afternoon and reflected on my Thai days, how fortunate I felt in my first visit to the 'Land of the Free'.