TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles

 www.tammachat.com

handwoven beauty ~ fairly traded

TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles is a fair trade social enterprise based in Nova Scotia, Canada. The co-founders, Ellen Agger (photo) and Alleson Kase, are passionate about handwoven, naturally dyed textiles and about supporting the women in rural Thailand and Laos who create them. These skills - passed down from mother to daughter for generations - are now at risk of being lost, especially the skills of creating hand-reeled silk yarns. We support this small-scale, village-based sericulture and the organic production of these silk yarns by accessing markets for this work in North America and beyond. Each year, we travel extensively in Thailand and Laos, meeting with women's weaving groups and development projects that work with village groups, collaborating on new designs, learning from each other. The work is rewarding, the women sericulturists, dyers and weavers are highly skilled artisans and the textiles -- truly "slow fashion" -- are beautiful.

We organize fair trade eco-textile events.
We wholesale to select shops that value fair trade and art quality, handcrafted textiles.

Mission:  TAMMACHAT’s naturally dyed silks and cottons combine contemporary styling with traditional skills to bring you timeless fashion accessories and home décor. Each piece is exquisitely handwoven in limited editions. Each purchase helps a woman artisan in rural Thailand or Laos celebrate and sustain her culture, family and community.

What's most important to us is:

• to support women artisans through fair trade (including building long-term relationships and ongoing commitments)
• to support their efforts to use sustainable practices that protect their environments and their health, and
• to help preserve these cultural traditions.

Location:  Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada
Online stores:    
   TAMMACHAT 
   Etsy 
   BLURB photo books 
   Ethical Ocean
   Source 4 Style  

Blog:  TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles

Other Social Media:  
   Twitter

   YouTube
   LinkedIn 
   Ethical Fashion Forum

Memberships: 

  SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates)
  Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council
  BALLE-Nova Scotia (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies)
  Ethical Fashion Forum
Languages spoken: English, a little Thai, Italiano, Français

Eri silk scarf from central Thailand. Handspun silk, natural dyes.

From TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles. 

TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles on Facebook

Tags:  weaving, handwoven, naturally dyed, social enterprise, fair trade, organic, silk, cotton, Thailand, Laos

Laos Essential Artistry

www.gotlaos.com

Laos Essential Artistry is a husband and wife business. Peter is an educator in Sacramento and Bai is currently a waitress in a several Thai restaurants in Sacramento.

Mission:  Laos is our passion and we are proud to feature some of the finest in Lao silk textiles and handicrafts. All our textiles are hand-woven or hand-embroidered and reflect artisan excellence, coming from weavers, artists, and galleries where we have taken the time to establish personal, professional and principled relationships.

At Laos Essential Artistry we understand that the quality of a textile is dependent on the structure of the weave and not just the visual appearance of its fibers, and we like to think that all the weavers, artisans and galleries that we represent, “the individual yarns and varying patterns,” are woven together cohesively and meaningfully in a way that provide the opportunity for people to develop a better  understanding and appreciation of these incredibly talented weavers and artisans in Laos.

Location: Sacramento, California, USA

Online Store: Got Laos 

Brick and mortar: Our goal is to eventually open a Thai/Lao Restaurant and gallery where we will be able to exhibit our textiles. Currently if anyone wants to look at any of our textiles give us a call and we'll arrange a time for you to see the textiles. Contact information can be found on our  website.

Blog: Laos Essential Artistry

Languages spoken: Lao and English

 

Handwoven Naga scarves from Laos Essential Artistry

Tags:   Laos, Lao textiles, Hmong textiles, Mien textiles, silk texiles, handwoven, handwoven textiles, Lao paintings, natural dyes, embroidery, weaving