OFFSETTER PAMELA, UK | Interview with co-op, Isan silk weavers...

Pamela, Offsetter and passionate ethical advocate with particular interests in sustainability, photography, design and textiles, talks to Rosanne Trottier, CEO of Sawang Boran, a social enterprise supporting cottage weavers in north-eastern Thailand.

Sawang Boran and the Isan silk weavers – A social community business in Thailand

Rosanne is a traditional "knowledge anthropologist" turned business person.  She collaborates with weavers of the north-eastern Thailand region, OfIsan, in order to sustainably develop their hand woven products through cultivating artisanal knowledge and excellence, natural colours and fully organic processes.

Golden Isak Silk: The raw material for all Sawang Boran products.

©(2010)Sawangboran

Rosanne’s adventure with the community of Sawang Boran started when she was given a length of Isan silk, a gift of love and art made specially for her.  The story since, is one of a social business to revitalise and honour a deep artisanal culture, when modernity has already modified much of traditional life.

The village community Sawang Boran works for, is one of many silk-producing villages in the province of Khonkaen, source of some of the best silk in Thailand – if not in the world. The raw silk, typically yellow (see picture above), produces exceptionally soft, strong and shiny yarn best woven on hand-looms as it is not very amenable to mechanised processing. The designing, dyeing and weaving skills of Isan women make up one of the world’s valuable repositories of ikat creativity, in a remarkable, and complex, female culture.