{"id":3403,"date":"2014-02-20T01:32:55","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T00:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/?p=3403"},"modified":"2016-11-30T20:32:19","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T19:32:19","slug":"the-phrae-wa-weavers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/the-phrae-wa-weavers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Phrae Wa weavers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/88340364?portrait=0&amp;color=ffffff\" width=\"521\" height=\"293\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Red is the color.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Far away from the beaches overcrowded with tourists and Bangkok madness, I have travelled to the <strong>North East of Thailand<\/strong>, in <strong>Isan<\/strong>, a rural area on the Laotian and Cambodian borders. In of Isan&#8217;s province, in\u00a0<strong>Kalasin<\/strong>, we can find a unique silk called Phrae Wa.<\/p>\n<p>This textile is so rare that <a title=\"Splendid Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles\" href=\"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/2013\/12\/splendid-queen-sirikit-museum-of-textiles\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Her Majesty the Queen Sirikit<\/strong><\/a> has expressed the wish to promote and support its production, to ensure a local and international awareness. Each year, is even held in Kalasin <strong>the Phrae Wa Silk Festival<\/strong> to pay tribute to the queen&#8217;s commitment and to offer a week of festivities such as fashion shows, contests for the most beautiful piece and weaving demonstrations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Phrae Wa<\/strong> is a unique style of handwoven fabric, made specifically by the <strong>Phu Tai<\/strong> community women who live in this area of Thailand. These women wear their designs in various ways : as a scarf, but also as a sarong or a belt and they also use them to adorn their dark shirts&#8217; collars and sleeves.<\/p>\n<p>The wraparound skirts are woven in the ikat technique, called <strong>Mudmee<\/strong> in thai, and they&#8217;re decorated with a striped border. The traditional shawl, the &#8220;<strong>Pha Phrae Wa<\/strong>&#8220;, is divided in two sections: the main part is in brocade &#8220;Lai Lak &#8220;, and the edge is a thin stripe pattern known as &#8220;Lai Thaep&#8221;. It is worn asymmetrically, draped over one shoulder and tied at the back.<\/p>\n<p>The silk yarns are colored with natural dyes and the textiles have traditionally <strong>a red background<\/strong> obtained with organic <strong>lacquer<\/strong>, coming from lac insects excrements.<\/p>\n<p>With the brocade technique, silk yarns are handwoven, inserted as additional wefts, in order to create <strong>patterns<\/strong> contrasting with the red background canvas. On one piece of cloth, you can find up to a dozen of different patterns, each expressing symbols and beliefs of the Phu Tai\u00a0community. For example, the typical snake motif &#8220;lai nak&#8221; represents the ancestors. Phu Tai women keep wearing their traditional dress for ceremonies and to attend <strong>local festivities<\/strong>, such as the Bun Bang Fai, the Rocket festival which takes place at the beginning of the rainy season , but also for weddings or healing rituals.<\/p>\n<p>With the recognition of the Phrae Wa\u00a0uniqueness, Phu Tai weavers have preserved their ancestral textile culture which is<strong> the pride and symbol of their community<\/strong>. They are now selling their designs across the country \u00a0developing weavings in less typical colors from purple to beige. They thus are able to <strong>provide higher incomes<\/strong>, in one of Thailand&#8217;s poorest area.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Back to Thailand page\" href=\"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/thailand-splendor-of-textiles\/\" target=\"_blank\">Back to Thailand page<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Red is the color.\u00a0 Far away from the beaches overcrowded with tourists and Bangkok madness, I have travelled to the\u2026<br \/><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/the-phrae-wa-weavers\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-the-cover","category-thailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3403"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5906,"href":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403\/revisions\/5906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tissusetartisansdumonde.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}