In Luang Prabang I did a weaving class with a local lady in her village. I got to use her loom, learn a new skill and create my own scarf which I cherish as a unique souvenir from my time in Laos.
Throughout our travels, whenever I’d seen hand weavers I was always in awe, and could never quite fathom how they did it, so I wanted to try myself!
I booked through Backstreet Academy and ended up having a private class as there were no other people booked on. I was so lucky to be able to have fascinating conversations with the local people about life in general and learn loads about the craft. The experience lasted half a day and was roughly 4-5 hours from pick up to drop off and cost me just $30.
They send an interpreter to pick you up to take you to help you communicate with the lady offering the class. She is from the Laos ethnic group, and the interpreter was from the Hmong group. Laos is made up of 50 different ethnic groups (Laos takes the majority at 53% of the population).
The colours I got to choose from for my scarf were all naturally dyed with plants. I chose white (because it matches more clothes!), and a pinkish colour (made from boiling coconuts!). I chose my pattern, and then the lady taught me how to spin the cotton myself to prepare it for weaving.
The lady started the scarf off and then taught me how to take over. She learnt to weave from her mother. Within this village, one of the ways someone will choose who to marry is based on their weaving skills!
I was incredibly slow at first, you have to use both feet and hands and make sure you coordinate them correctly to get the right pattern. Just as I thought I got the hang of it and became much quicker, she laughed and told the interpreter I wouldn’t find a husband based on my weaving!
Me and Lee, the interpreter chatted as I weaved about our different upbringings. Just as things would feel slightly similar, I’d be reminded of the fact we were brought up worlds apart from each other. He does this as a part time job to fund university, and to practise his English. He asked if I had a part time job too through Uni, and I told him I used to work at McDonald’s. His face was blank he had no idea what McDonalds was, so I said it was like KFC (sometimes more common in Asia) – blank again! I got over my shock and just said it was a restaurant, and we gained some more common ground.
These funny moments kept coming when he casually asked if my boyfriend would pay my mum money if we got married. I laughed and said she would find it very strange if he did, and he told me it is customary in Hmong culture. It was fascinating to sit with him and keep comparing different aspects of our cultures. We chatted about lots of topics from school, shamans, and death.
It got to the difficult pattern part of my scarf, and the lady made the pattern by pulling down the bamboo sticks to correspond with the pattern I would be weaving at the same time. She swapped the sticks every time I weaved a single thread – I have no idea how she knows which pattern to do it in!
In a lovely twist of events, since I got home, I learnt that my maternal granddad used to be a Silk Weftman in Lancashire, UK. This means he would have set the looms up to create the patterns. Maybe it’s in my blood that I was so interested in weaving!
To my horror she smiled and said ‘this is elephant’. I hadn’t chosen this pattern, and didn’t want a scarf that was a version of the tacky elephant pants we all know and (don’t) love! It was always going to be this pattern as the bamboo was set up like this unbeknown to me, so there wasn’t anything that could be done.
In the end, it didn’t look too bad (thankfully!). I was more focused on being amazed I’d managed to create a scarf thread by thread to care (husband or no husband!)
If you’re interested in learning more about different crafts belonging to the groups in Laos the TAEC museum is a really good place to learn about some of the customs of some of the main ethnic groups. Entry is just 25 000 (less than £1!) and there’s a free informative guided tour at 3pm on Tuesdays & Fridays.
Done something similar whilst on your travels? We’d love to hear about it – let us know in the comments.