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Laos Essential Artistry Posting Page
Saturday, March 7, 2009
 When we were in Muang Vaen in December mainly to order some silk textiles in a design we particularly liked, we of course had the opportunity to purchase silk textiles that the weavers had available for sale in the village. It's quite a fun process really and in a more "sophisticated" way reminds me of the Tai Dam women in Muang Sing in the northwestern part of Laos. Above you can see us in the home of the Lao Women's Union leader in Muang Vaen where a number of women have gathered and brought handwoven silk textiles they've woven, or their daughter or mother have woven, and when the "process" begin the women will quickly try to place their textiles in front of the buyer (here it's Elli) and it can quickly become overwhelming and hard to "objectively" make decisions. Well, in the photo below you can see how the Tai Dam women do the same thing, but on the streets of Muang Sing, and whenever a tourist shows an interest in the cotton textiles they have for sale they quickly pull them out of bags and drape the unsuspecting potential buyer. It can be fun, they think it's fun, but it can be a little disconcerting. And we do have some great textiles we've purchased from these talented lades on our site.  But I digress. I began this post wanting to share an example of some motifs woven into one of the silk textiles we purchased this last December in Muang Vaen. The first photo below shows a section of the textile with a wide variety of motifs woven in. The second photo shows the same photo, but I've created numbered areas isolating various motifs. Because the border lines may make it difficult to see a motif clearly, that's why I included the first photo so one can look at the description of the motifs following the photos and look at the corresponding numbered area and then if you want, you can look at the borderless photo and see the motif in more detail. The description of the motifs is provided by Elli Findly who has traveled with us the last two years to Huaphan Province and who has been researching the meaning of the motifs in the textiles from this region.   1. pregnant saang-hong or sometimes called a siho (elephant-lion,), with naga trunk: pregnancy indicated by double ngueak in belly and baby saang-hong on back. 2. Filler design made of hooks (khor), but when mirror-reversed like this it makes a khoam (lantern) (like an eye) 3. A line of decorated plant seeds 4. A single decorated plant seed 5. A curly tailed bird (nok hang khot) with plant on end of tail; also a bird with feathered tail (nok hang suay) – both birds combined; bird is crested also. 6. ? 7. ngueak/naga head (has eye and crest) 8. also a ngueak head, crested with an open mouth 9. baby saang-hong, with bird tail (curly kind) that ends in plant branch; such figures emphasize the bird aspects of the saang-hong, by placing it in a tree – hence all the branches 10. Double headed “S” shaped ngueak (naak song huea) 11. another curly-tailed bird (nok hang khot) 12. naga heads 13. naga head - uncrested by: Laos Essential Artistry 
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