The Jacket Project: Local Meets Fair Trade

TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles is collaborating on a very special project that transforms fair trade, artisanal fabric from Thailand into one-of-a-kind jackets designed and sewn in Canada.

The Jacket Project brings together TAMMACHAT co-founders Ellen Agger and Alleson Kase with Nova Scotian dressmaker Theresa Eagles to create unique jackets, each a work of art that connects women across the world. Two designs will be available at TAMMACHAT's November 2012 shows in Nova Scotia.

See photos of the first jackets in our blog post here.

Ellen loves her new indigo jacket!

This is the first organic silk jacket created as part of The Jacket Project.
It combines a silk dyed with stick lac with a beautiful,
ikat (mudmee) fabric, traditionally woven
to be worn as a wrap skirt.

Another organic silk jacket features fancy buttons
and will look great with a silk scarf.

Theresa and Alleson enjoy a break on
a beautiful Nova Scotian fall day.

The Jacket Project's goals are:

• to bring together the artistry of handwoven cloth created by talented Thai artisans with the creative design and sewing skills of our Canadian team
• to enjoy the collaboration, the design process and the excitement of transforming the cloth into wearable art
• to support rural craftswomen -- both in Thailand and Canada

Woven in Thailand, designed and handcrafted in Canada

Theresa's skilled hands guide the fabric.

Made from organic silk or cotton fabric handwoven by women artisans in Thailand, the jackets are designed and handcrafted in Canada. Details from Chinese coin layered buttons to intricately patterned ikat panels, along with the subtle variations in handwoven cloth, make each jacket unique. French seams are used in the silk jackets.

The textured, organic cottons are spun by hand, then dyed with authentic indigo. The highly skilled silk artisans raise heritage varieties of silkworms and create the hand-reeled yarns in their villages, not in factories. Each piece of fabric is woven by hand, using these artisanal yarns, and transformed into a jacket that displays its artistry. See how the cloth is made in the photos below.

Our first jackets -- a collection of handspun, indigo organic cotton and organic silks -- will debut in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Nov. 10 at TAMMACHAT's Ethical Gift Show - Halifax. They will also be available in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia on Nov. 24 at TAMMACHAT's Ethical Gift Show - Mahone Bay.  This small collection of unique jackets will be available only at TAMMACHAT shows.

Theresa loves working with the ikats (known as mudmee in Thailand).
Each piece of ikat fabric is a work of art in itself.

Theresa lays out each piece carefully to use
the cloth most effectively.

TAMMACHAT works with a dozen women’s weaving groups in Thailand and Laos, visiting them each year to discover new textiles and design new products. These artisan groups continue to practice traditions passed from mother to daughter for generations. The Jacket Project uses fabric from 3 of these artisan groups.

Theresa Eagles, who worked for Suttles and Seawinds in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia for 20 years and sews with well-known artist Kate Church, brings years of experience to the project.

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The indigo and ikat artisans

 

Ellen enjoys the ikat artisans
who create designs large and small.

This artisan skillfully ties the yarns
into an ikat pattern before dyeing.

The dye maker stirs the pot of locally grown
indigo leaves.

Tied yarns are dyed with indigo,
then the strings are removed.

The intricate pattern emerges as the cloth is woven.

Aew, who helps these weavers market
their handwoven products, takes a break with Alleson.

Alleson and Aew discuss designs with the artisans.

This piece of ikat fabric is used in our cotton jackets.

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The silk artisans and their organic silk cloth

Mulberry trees and bushes are grown organically.
Leaves are fed to heritage varieties of silkworms
who eat voraciously for a month and must be tended carefully
until they are ready to spin their cocoons.

This artisan reels (unravels) the cocoons by hand,
creating fine silk yarns that are
then twisted to strengthen them.

Local dye materials colour the silk yarns:
young coconut, jackfruit wood, butterfly pea flowers.

Award-winning yarns show hues only nature can offer.

Artisans use traditional floor looms,
made locally from tropical hardwood
and sustainably harvested bamboo.
Both cotton and silk are woven on these looms.

Cerise organic silk, coloured with stick lac, an insect resin,
is used in several of our silk jackets.

This golden silk is shot -- the weft yarns are
coloured with coconut husks and
the warp remains an undyed cream colour --
giving depth to the cloth.

Our thanks to:

• Pattanarak Foundation (through whom we first met Aew) and Napafai, Aew's social enterprise that works with the indigo ikat weavers
• Panmai Group and Prae Pan Group, the Thai women's weaving co-operatives that create the handloomed organic silk and cotton fabrics
• Theresa Eagles -- for the pleasure of working together
• Wayne Eagles -- for the photos of Theresa's working hands
• Kate Church -- for introducing us to Theresa

You can learn more about these and our other artisan partners in our Blurb books, free to preview and available in hardcover, softcover and as ebooks.

Panmai, Part 2: Natural dyes -– pinks and purples

During our January visit to Panmai's shop, we also chose more than 3 dozen silk scarves, concentrating on a range of reds and purples to round out our displays in 2012. Panmai weaving co-operative is known for its luscious colours: deep golds, brilliant reds, regal purples and deep ebonies. Silk slurps up dyes better than most fibres, especially when using natural dyes, and Panmai doesn't skimp on the concentrations of their dye baths. Curious about how the variations within a hue are made, I set aside 4 scarves to ask how their colours were achieved.

Mali, the group's shop manager, knows her natural dyes well. Krang, a dye known as "lac" or "stick lac" in English, is made with the help of a small insect. The Laccifer Lacca beetle is put on a branch of the Rain Tree (Samanea Saman) where it creates a resin which can be cut from the branch after the insect develops and flies away. This wart-like growth, deep brown in colour, is the central ingredient in many of the pinks, reds and purples found in Asian textiles, especially silks. Its appearance – in its raw form – belies the beauty of the colours it will yield when master dyers apply their skills to it.

krang (stick lac), ready to be prepared for the dye pot

Some pinks and purples created by Panmai from natural dyes

1. Violet (scarf #1 below): After immersing in a concentrated dye bath of krang, the silk yarns are  washed in water from a particular well in one village. While the salty tasting water is not good to drink, it transforms the usual magenta of krang into a clear, violet-purple.
2. Orchid (scarf #2): Underground water from the same special well is used along with krang and wood from the Sappan tree (caesalpinia sappan) to create this orchid purple with a hint of pale brown.
3. Heliotrope (scarf #3): Here the dye bath was super-saturated with 12 kg of krang to colour 2 kg of silk yarns.  
4. Magenta pink (scarf #4): Only 2 kg of krang are used to dye 2 kg of silk yarn but Sappan wood was also added to the dye bath.

4 tones of purple and pink from krang and sappan wood

On this trip we have been told by more than one group that the price of krang has risen sharply this year. This is especially significant if the groups' members can not harvest enough for themselves and must buy it from others. Some groups are experimenting with using more sappan wood and other local dye stuffs to achieve pinks, reds and purples.

This is a glimpse into the complexity of making and using natural dyes. Each dyeing yields slightly different colours, depending on the time of year – even the week when dye materials are collected and processed – and depending on the artistry and skills of the dyer. The water used, the mordants used to set the dyes, water temperature and mineral content, the amount of dye materials to silk threads – all work in a seemingly magical way to bring forth colours to dye for.

We realize how fortunate we have been to receive such detailed information about many of the dyes traditionally used in Southeast Asia. In the coming year we hope to collect much of this onto one page of our website for easier reference.

In the meantime, we'll be working to get these and other fabulous new items back to Canada for you to see.

Ellen

Panmai, Part 1: Long-term relationships are the heart of Fair Trade

While the standards stipulated by the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) guide our business practices, they also highlight the heart in our work. Nowhere is this more evident than in our annual visits to the artisan groups that create our products: our time together personifies the WFTO commitment to maintain "long term relationships based on solidarity, trust and mutual respect." A case in point is our relationship with  the weaving co-operative Panmai Group.

We first met Panmai in 2003. As often happens in our work, we were introduced to them by members of another co-op. The familial network of weaving groups in Thailand and Laos, particularly those established more than 2 decades ago, is deep and wide. Like the babies we see in Thailand, we are passed from the embrace of 1 family member to another, making us wonder whether or when we might stand on our own!

Last month when we arrived at the offices of Panmai, Mali and Ung jumped up to greet us warmly. We left the glare of the sun-baked street, entered the cool shade of their shop and exchanged hugs. With us was our good friend Pii Yai, a volunteer board member of Prae Pan weaving co-operative, who had been pleased to give us a drive to this small market town in Roi-Et, Thailand.

Pii Yai, Alleson, Mali and Ung in Panmai's shop

Mali, whose name means "jasmine," has worked with Panmai for more than 20 years. Ung, whose demeanour reflects the stillness referred to by her name, is a more recent staff member with 10 years service to the group. Between them, they coordinate the production of orders, maintain inventory records, keep the accounts and do all the marketing. This includes attending craft fairs and staffing their only retail shop, which also serves as the offices and warehouse for the group, whose members live scattered amongst villages in Roi-Et and the 2 neighbouring provinces of Surin and Sisaket.

After our greetings, we pore over the inventory on hand – piles and piles (!!!) of organically created silk scarves are safeguarded in glass-fronted, hardwood cabinets. While we're already familiar with most of Panmai's designs, we're always keen to see new designs and, especially, to develop new ones together. This too is one of the tenets of Fair Trade: to develop new products and new markets with the aim of increasing the income of marginalized small producers.

Indeed, we have planned to discuss a new product on this trip. We pull out a sample of a travel-sized jewellery pouch that has been made for generations in East Asia: 8 small pockets clustered around a central well that is secured into a lovely blossom by a drawstring. It's perfect for safe, easy and mobile access to rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces. When I first saw this blossom pouch, I immediately thought of how lovely it would be in Panmai's signature organic silk.

We explore the dark cupboards, hunting for the perfect colours. We are delighted to find an iridescent pink "shot" with gold – its warp yarns, dyed deep pink with stick lac, are enhanced with a golden weft (crossing yarns) dyed with organic coconut husks.  It is a perfect jewel for anyone's jewels!

handwoven organic silk

Ellen and I then choose an undyed organic silk for the lining, but Mali and Ung advise us that the contrast is too stark, so we reconsider and settle instead on another pink silk "shot" with undyed yarns, resulting in an overall soft pink.

Next, we need a price and an estimate of the making time. Ung makes a call to Jong (whose name remarkably means "clear, diligent, perfect work"). She's not a member of the co-op but has worked with the group for over 20 years as their sewer. We met her on a previous visit when we developed our Silk Squares for quilters and other fibre artists. (See our blog post of Feb. 3, 2008.) Before we thought it possible, Jong arrives on a motorbike from her village nearby.

A team effort in designing the new jewellry pouch

While Mali and I measure the sample pouch we have brought, Ellen goes online to search for layouts to get the most number of circles (the basis of this design) out of a given piece of fabric. Instead, she finds a vague (not vogue!) pattern for the pouch itself. Together, we briefly examine the pattern on our small screen and then Jong disappears upstairs with some silk remnants that Mali has already dug out.

TAMMACHAT's new Travel Jewellry Pouch - prototype

An hour later, Jong emerges with a lovely prototype of the travel jewellery pouch! The making allows us to approve the design as well as allowing Jong to accurately estimate her labour time and cost. Mali adds the cost of the silk fabrics and guesstimates the satin drawstring cost. Ung adds a few baht for managing the project.

We have just witnessed how an experienced and effective production team at Panmai operates. With their combined 50 years of experience, no accountants or computer modeling were needed yet we're all satisfied that a fair price has been arrived at.

These will be mailed to us in Chiang Mai in late February, in time to bring them with us in our luggage to Canada in late March – a truly co-operative effort.

Alleson

#12: Panmai Group's silk magic

Jan. 13, 2010

This is our 4th visit in as many years to Panmai Group’s shop in a small market town in Isaan (Thailand’s Northeast region) that’s central to the villages where Panmai members live and work. Upon arrival, we’re warmly greeted by office manager Malee and her assistant Oom. Pun, a former staff member, is also there; she’s made a special trip from Bangkok to facilitate our order. We present gifts of dried strawberries from Chiang Mai and a card of Nova Scotia art quilter Laurie Swim’s work. Malee and Oom know Laurie’s work from a previous visit when we took them to her website to show them why we cut their precious silks into small squares – for art quilting! [Have a look inside our photo book about Panmai.]

We immediately notice that their stock is lower than last year. Oom has recently returned from a colossal handicraft and food fair just outside Bangkok. Much to our surprise, we learn that sales were good – a refreshingly different story than what we’ve been hearing from other weaving groups this trip with the effects of the global recession apparent.

Most noticeable is the small amount of silk fabric in stock. We learn that this is not a coincidence but a choice: the co-op is no longer stocking large amounts of fabric, which makes good sense in tighter economic times. It also makes sense when one considers the supply and demand of the village-raised silk yarns that Panmai members weave.

The limited fabric selection concerns us, though, as we had planned to this year to stock up on our 100% Silk. 100% Art. silk square packages. We share our concern with Malee and Oom, as well as our plans to have a TAMMACHAT booth at Quilt Canada 2012 to be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, just an hour from where we live. At Quilt Canada 2008 in Newfoundland, these silk squares were extremely popular and our plan was to feature a new selection of patterns and palettes in 2012.

Through our discussions, they agree to put aside for us a metre or 2 of any fabrics woven for special orders in the coming years. This should provide us with the variety we need without creating problems for the group, as they won’t need to set up their looms to weave the small quantities we need.

A group of Panmai members who dropped off their weavings

at the shop while we were visiting.

Our 3 days with Panmai are busy days filled with making orders for silk scarves in their always popular colours of deep cranberry, rust and eggplant, plus new colours and designs that we develop together. Our orders are a mass of details that require a myriad of decisions. Just a few:

• Colour
  Can they make turquoise? No. Lavender? Of a sort. Can they make this year’s “must have” colour – i.e., grey? Yes, of course. At this time of year? Yes, but not the particular shade that comes from butterfly pea flowers, dok anchan, which are now setting seed.
• Size
  Which designs come in standard sizes because of the set-up of the loom? Most of them. Which can we play with? In width, only a few. In length, most.
• Weight of silk
  Is the yarn made from the inner, middle or outer filaments of the cocoon, or a combination of 2 of these?
• Stiffness of the handwoven silk scarf
  Is it made with 1- or 2-ply yarns? The 2-ply yarns are preferred by Thai buyers but yield a stiffer scarf.

These detailed discussions are part of our learning each visit – this year we focus on the information we need to make custom orders for our new lines of silk scarves, along with custom orders of silk fabric. We tell Panmai about the growing interest in “eco fashion” and they teach us how best to order fabric by the metre for emerging “eco designers.”

Ideally, we should give the co-op plenty of notice of large orders so they can ensure an adequate supply of organic mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms. The co-op now has only a handful of members who raise silkworms and hand-reel the silk (i.e., sericulture), but they have a practice and a system to buy yarn from neighbouring villages. Nonetheless, hand-reeled, village-raised silk yarns are becoming more and more difficult to obtain, as the market is flooded with less expensive, factory-produced silk yarns (or silk “look-alikes”) from Vietnam and China.

On the 3rd and last day, I discover, quite by accident, several bags of tangled silk yarns – in regal purple, soft gold, vibrant raspberry, deep rust, fresh leaf green, coffee bean brown. We learn that the Panmai’s members who live and work in Khmer villages are particularly skilled at creating the vibrant colours that draw us to Panmai’s silks.

With Pun and Malee, I spend my last few hours in Kaset Wisai teasing apart silk yarns to create 3 sample cards of these extraordinary naturally dyed silk yarns: one for Panmai’s shop, one to send to the weaver to match a particular colour request and one for TAMMACHAT. I’m in heaven!

Ellen (Nok Noi)