FLASH BACK to Muang Sing Nov 2018. This is one of a series of stories about what it's like when we visit our friends/producers around Laos.
I had a group of textile enthusiasts onboard and thought we may spend a morning with our Akha producers making pompoms. On trips before, we have turned up to discuss designs. The formula is when we show at Meeba's house, her porch is our designated studio, the signal goes out. From the spaces between houses appear women carrying bulging shoulder bags, ready with supplies of beads, jobs tears seeds, cloth and thread to see what tasks we are asking of them now. This time was different, as we tried to explain, this time the visitors wanted to make things.
Confusion was in the air. I could see Meeba could not comprehend. But fortunately one of our Akha aunties was sitting there making a pompom. So we latched onto her and with our trusty guide's linguistic skills they got it, yes, we all wanted to make one of those pompoms.
Since then we went back in 2019 with another small group and we made pom poms. Regularly, on tours with us, are textile enthusiasts, they craft a lot, and you would think everyone remembers how to make a pom pom. However the magical thing about all sitting around watching the Akha women make their pom poms, is they make them with speed and flourish, and it's a little bit different.
We sit around and laugh at our inability, their agility and everyone gets ideas. We laugh a lot. We try on their clothes. They laugh at how big we are. We laugh at how small they are. We create a new product to sell, pompom and Job's Tears' seeds earrings.