Houey Hong, a small, quiet village on the outskirts of Vientiane, still bustling on a Friday morning just like the city center itself, with shopkeepers, construction, and motorbikes. But take a couple of left turns down the poorly weathered dirt roads and you’ll find a compound of eight buildings, seemingly still, buried amongst the quiet of the trees.

Walk inside the compound, and an operation comes to life. The Houey Hong Women’s Vocational Training Centre offers half-day, full-day, and even three to six day courses in all things weaving and dyeing. The owner, Ms. Chanthasone, has combined the need for training in weaving, dyeing and tailoring for women from rural areas who are disadvantaged, poor and/or who have a disability with the hope of reviving and supporting Lao’s traditional crafts, such as natural dyeing and traditional weaving.

Located a mere 35 minute bike ride from our apartment complex in Vientiane, we hailed a tuk-tuk for 10,000 LAK each ($1.20) rather than arrive at the compound dripping sweat.  Upon arrival, one of the women sat us down to choose from the many patterns for dyeing scarves. Not having any idea what I was doing, I chose a fairly simple pattern, and the woman patiently helped me fold the scarf in an exact manner to replicate the pattern. Then, using two small pieces of wood, we bound the folds together tightly enough that it would prevent the area beneath the wood from taking on any of the dye.

Julia and Mitchell working on their folding, while I mess around because mine was easy!

After we had all folded and bound our various patterns, we were told to dunk our beautiful silk scarves in cold water before moving on to the dyes. If you can imagine a sophisticated and intricate tie-dye, that’s basically what the process consists of. We donned these thick rubber gloves and I was brought to a large concrete trench, surrounded with giant holes in the concrete that acted as vats for the blue dye.

Learning how to do indigo dye

Dunking and scrubbing away….

I was to dunk my scarf in a vat of clumpy, green water and it was going to come out a beautiful, dark blue? I couldn’t believe it, but I began dunking and scrubbing that white scarf in the green water. I was then instructed to pull apart the various folds without moving the wooden pieces to allow the dye to seep into the folds. After two minutes of vigorous dunking and scrubbing, I was instructed to wring out my scarf and allow the dye to receive some oxygen, before dunking the entire scarf again. I repeated this process perhaps ten times (I really am not good at dyeing apparently) before the woman allowed me to rinse the scarf again under the cold water. I then hung my scarf to dry and we moved onto the looms.

Left: Rachel standing between our scarves as they hang-dry.    Middle: My beautiful blue scarf!

The looms were intimidating. I’ve seen small looms of course, like the one I had as a kid to make potholders, but never looms like this. I sat in one of the looms and stared at the many strings for a few minutes before understanding what the woman was trying to explain. I strung the beautiful purple string I had chosen, onto this little boat-like thing called a shuttle, and sent it from one side of the loom to the other. I did this all while pushing two different foot pedals and pounding the strings together. I’m sorry, this may not be a “oh-my-gosh moment” for other people who have done this sort of thing before, but I had a seriously awesome, oh-my-gosh moment. Their intricate weaving is such a beautiful art form and I was so proud of myself for having made just a small piece of fabric!

Top: One of the loom rooms; Left: Me at my loom; Middle: Julia’s weaving project; Right: My finished product!

Afterwards, we watched a few of the master weavers who were working on various sinhs (the traditional Lao skirts). We learned that a master weaver can complete approximately 15 centimeters of an intricate design in one day. Fifteen centimeters. It takes these master weavers an entire month to finish a single sinh. I had an immediate and overwhelming sense of appreciation for the sinhs sitting in my apartment closet.

Two of the master weavers working on sinhs

We left Houey Hong with our completed scarves, pieces of woven fabric, and the appreciation for the fact that we were able to learn about and experience such an important piece of Lao culture.

If you ever find yourself in Vientiane, I highly recommend that you check out Houey Hong Women’s Vocational Training Centre!

ດ້ວຍ​ຮັກ (With love),

Claire