Hello,

I'm trying to find a sustainable weaving community that can supply me with hand woven cotton rugs about 182cm x 60cm and 3/5mm thick. I would like the process to be all organic and naturally dyed in the traditional style. I'm happy to travel to remote villages to source the product and establish a connection but I'm finding it very hard to find out where to go!

Does anyone know of any villages that hand weave cotton rugs or of a supplier that has what I'm looking for?

I have tried contacting the WEAVE foundation and Prae Pan group with no success.

Thank you in advance for any help,

Sophie

This type of blog may be useful but I suspect that silk weaving is more common than cotton.

http://thaifoodandtravel.com/blog/ne-thailand-weaving-villages/

http://www.tammachat.com/2011/01/photo-essay-cotton-weaving-in-northern.html

Please do not cross-post over multiple forums, duplicate threads have been removed.

I've left this thread as it has a reply.

Thank you for your help @sceadugenga,

Yes my research has mostly come up with silk weaving communities which unfortunately isn't what I'm looking for. I know that there are sustainable weaving communities that weave cotton on large looms in Thailand they are just very hard to get in contact with. I have found a few blogs where they have photographed what I am looking for being made so I've been directly contacted them to find out more information but I have not been hearing back from anyone. I'm starting to think I might just have to drive around Thailand looking for these villages or go to India and source them there!

Hopefully I will get lucky and someone on here will know where I need to go

I'd say that using what sources you have as a guide and driving around is the way to go.

Central Asia would be my choice if looking in other countries, cotton seems to be a big deal there.

Renu Nakhon in Nakhon Phanom province has a tradition of cotton weaving. Dunno about rugs, though.

My GF's moo ban in Khon Kaen used to have several large looms and they wove narrow, baby style blankets but all the yarn they used was imported, synthetic blend. Now closed down as they could not compete with the Chinese products flooding local markets.

I just read in BK Magazine about a trendy shop in Bangkok's Thong Lo district that sell's men's and women's shirts made from 100% domestic Thai cotton...B2000+++ each.

According to this website, Thailand only produces 02% of it's cotton needs, imports the rest.

http://www.cottonguide.org/cotton-guide/market-profiles-the-structure-and-characteristic-of-the-thai-cotton-market-a-macro-view/

There's the Khao Tao Professional Handicraft Centre in Hua Hin.

They're mentioned in this story here and there's some video of them weaving organic cotton.

http://aecnewstoday.com/2015/asean-media-gothailandgoasean/#axzz4BclBYErI

Thank you so much for all of your helpful advice!

I have decided to travel up to Chiang Rai next week to look for some cotton weaving villages.

Can anyone recommend a good rural home stays with the option of learning how to weave? I've found a few I am looking into but would appreciate any further insight.

I doubt if anyone else has ever come to the Chiang Rai forum looking for a homestay offering weaving lessons so I suspect that you're breaking totally new ground there.

Please let us know how you get on.

Contact Doi Tung project of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation.

Not sure about rugs, but a very nice lady and her son run this place. They might be able to help out on this topic.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/sunday/Lively-tapestries-from-a-fading-past-30273906.html

Not sure about rugs, but a very nice lady and her son run this place. They might be able to help out on this topic.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/sunday/Lively-tapestries-from-a-fading-past-30273906.html

Another link here on TVF.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/874557-lively-tapestries-from-a-fading-past/?hl=museum

You can try this if heading up north..

http://www.handmade-chiangmai.com

Or this organization that tries to market handmade goods from local Thai villages

http://www.thaicraft.org/

A lot of the thick cotton rugs and table mats etc come from Pasang.

English extremely dodgy on this OTOP page but you get the general picture !

Sorry link won't paste - computer problems

Is this the one?

http://www.traveldojo.com/pasang/

You'll have to copy and paste, active link is probably removed.

Nope, it's good...