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Lumduan

"I was born in Chiang Mai, where my family farmed our land in a small village. I left school at the age of 15 to work sorting tobacco leaves to help support our family. Then I worked at an enterprise creating silk. In my spare time, I'd crochet and embroider things for my friends and for our house. While working, I met my Australian husband and we lived in Bangkok for the next five years. We made bedcovers, wall hangings, cushions and other quilted goods from silk, which was woven on specially-made handlooms that are 60 inches wide. Screen-printing in up to 20 colors enhanced the pieces, and my sister, our family and other villagers who were skilled seamstresses did the detailed sewing and quilting. At one point, half the people from our village living in Bangkok assisted us.

"Our eldest daughter Dao was born in Bangkok in 1982, and four years later, her sister Fon was born. Shortly after that, we moved the family back to our home village. For many years, I just raised the children but continued with embroidery and crochet as a pastime. As the children grew, I began to hand-dye fabrics for garments sewn by my sister.

"Our eldest daughter Dao used to design clothes and embroidery patterns while she was at the university, but now she is a stewardess and has no time. Her younger sister Fon is majoring in social sciences at the university, and earns pocket money selling her handbags and small items at a bazaar. Together we design and make some of the bags. Fon likes the colorful atmosphere and loves to meet people, so she enjoys this. When she was 15, Fon was Miss Teen Thailand but decided not to continue modeling or performing, and seems happier just going to school and making her designs.

"Now my husband has stopped working in Bangkok and stays full time with me. The children are grown and I have again started designing and making bags and cushions and other things. My husband helps me with some design and pattern making, and if I need anything done on the computer.

"Having lived most of my life in the village, I feel very close to the traditional way of life of northern Thailand. When we lived in Bangkok, after several years we still did not know our neighbors. Here in the village, there is always a ceremony going on somewhere marking births, deaths, new houses, graduation from college or entering the monk hood. We know everyone in our community, and people are helpful to each other. For example, when the canals need cleaning or common land needs clearing, all the men get together and make a day of it. I still remember my mother – when we were in Bangkok – saying she wanted to go back to the village because, if she died in Bangkok, no one would come to her funeral. Happily that day has not yet come.

"I think modern life seems very stressful for young people with so many new things to distract them. But my own kids seem to manage alright. However for myself, I like to take it a little easier, so the village suits me very well and I don't miss big city life at all.

"Many of the villagers are involved in creating and crafting things – sewing, making umbrellas, pottery, mango wood vases and a hundred other craft and art objects, so when I design something, I decide who can help me make it. For me, that is half the fun, visiting other people in their workrooms, dropping off fabric or picking up finished products.

"I learned my first embroidery, knitting and crochet skills from my mother and grandmother and the women of the village, as did most of the other girls there. My own embroidery designs are usually based on floral patterns, sometimes from books, sometimes from the garden, as I love gardening. And I like very much to use silk as the base fabric as I have always loved its luster and sheen, and have worked with it much of my life. My husband is also a great admirer of silk, especially Thai silk.

"I think of my embroidery and designs as craft rather than art. I just enjoy creating nice patterns with nice colors. Mostly I work in silk with embroidery thread, though we also use very finely woven high quality cotton for pillow covers. We create handbags, small bags, cushion covers and other textile items.

"We also create designs for bags made of woven plant leaves such as bamboo, palm leaf, ramie and water hyacinth. We create the designs and give them to my cousin next door, who has the cloth woven in different villages specializing in that particular material. In the same way, we create other crafts using elements of Thai traditional materials and skills.

"I think Novica is an excellent idea. Before it was so difficult to find buyers for silk goods when the customers were overseas. Now we can design and make nice things and find buyers at prices that make it worthwhile. This helps keep the children in the village, rather than having to go to the city to make a living."