Ellen Agger's Posts - Ethical Fashion SOURCE Network2024-03-29T06:10:49ZEllen Aggerhttp://ethicalfashionforum.ning.com/profile/EllenAggerhttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1960811395?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://ethicalfashionforum.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=2dxdkdmwtyame&xn_auth=nohandwoven silk fabrics available in Apriltag:ethicalfashionforum.ning.com,2010-01-30:2622461:BlogPost:360132010-01-30T01:30:00.000ZEllen Aggerhttp://ethicalfashionforum.ning.com/profile/EllenAgger
Handwoven, naturally dyed silk fabrics created by women's weaving groups in rural Thailand (fairly traded by TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles) will be available in April 2010. Many are hand-reeled and organic (produced without any chemical inputs at any stage of their making). Ask about custom orders: ask@tammachat.com.<br />
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For a sneak preview of the fabrics, visit our …<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/9255099@N08/sets/72157623278837738/" target="_blank"></a>
Handwoven, naturally dyed silk fabrics created by women's weaving groups in rural Thailand (fairly traded by TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles) will be available in April 2010. Many are hand-reeled and organic (produced without any chemical inputs at any stage of their making). Ask about custom orders: ask@tammachat.com.<br />
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For a sneak preview of the fabrics, visit our <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/9255099@N08/sets/72157623278837738/" target="_blank"></a><a class="noborder" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1976362029?profile=original" target="_blank"><img width="300" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1976362029?profile=RESIZE_320x320" alt="" width="300" height="199" hspace="10" style="float: left;"/></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/9255099@N08/sets/72157623278837738/" target="_blank">Flickr page</a>. (Please note that the colours will vary from computer to computer.)<br />
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In fair trade,<br />
EllenNew video: sustainable bambootag:ethicalfashionforum.ning.com,2009-07-28:2622461:BlogPost:195432009-07-28T15:21:56.000ZEllen Aggerhttp://ethicalfashionforum.ning.com/profile/EllenAgger
Bamboo is touted to be a sustainable fabric, yet it must be highly processed with large chemical or mechanical inputs to create soft fabrics. Instead, we found a much <b>more sustainable way to use bamboo</b>: harvest it in ways that you can continue to harvest over long periods of time, soak the bamboo, then peel the skin and weave it into <b>baskets</b>.<br />
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I just posted a new video on TAMMACHAT's YouTube Channel: <i><b>Weaving Organic Bamboo Baskets in Laos</b></i>:…
Bamboo is touted to be a sustainable fabric, yet it must be highly processed with large chemical or mechanical inputs to create soft fabrics. Instead, we found a much <b>more sustainable way to use bamboo</b>: harvest it in ways that you can continue to harvest over long periods of time, soak the bamboo, then peel the skin and weave it into <b>baskets</b>.<br />
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I just posted a new video on TAMMACHAT's YouTube Channel: <i><b>Weaving Organic Bamboo Baskets in Laos</b></i>: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/tammachattextiles" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/user/tammachattextiles<br />
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<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1976357891?profile=original" alt="" width="533" height="800"/></p>
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Description of the video:<br />
Join us on a tour of a village in Vientiane Province, Laos, home to a 250-member basket weaving group. Working with the support of Saoban, which helps village groups market their crafts, men in the village harvest bamboo sustainably from nearby forests. Women then skillfully weave the peeled skin of bamboo into handwoven baskets for many uses, bringing much-needed income to this village. You can buy handbags made from these baskets, fairly traded by TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles at <a href="http://www.tammachat.com" target="_blank">www.tammachat.com</a>.<br />
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Comments welcome.<br />
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In fair trade,<br />
Ellen Agger<br />
TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles<br />
<a href="http://www.tammachat.com" target="_blank">www.tammachat.com</a>Updated Online Shop: fairly traded, handwoven, naturally dyed textilestag:ethicalfashionforum.ning.com,2009-06-05:2622461:BlogPost:134302009-06-05T18:30:00.000ZEllen Aggerhttp://ethicalfashionforum.ning.com/profile/EllenAgger
<p style="text-align: left;"><img align="center" alt="fairly traded silk scarf from Laos" height="600" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1976357600?profile=original" width="400"></img></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><img align="right" alt="fairly traded silk scarf from Thailand" height="186" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1976357888?profile=original" width="200"></img></p>
Just updated...beautiful, new textiles in <a href="http://www.tammachat.com/shop/online_shop_home.html">TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles' Online Shop</a>: silk scarves, fun bags, silk squares for quilters and other fibre artists. All fairly traded and crafted by hand by women's weaving groups and development projects that work with village groups in rural Thailand and Laos. Visit our Artisans page and Travel Blog…
<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1976357600?profile=original" alt="fairly traded silk scarf from Laos" align="center" width="400" height="600"/></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1976357888?profile=original" alt="fairly traded silk scarf from Thailand" align="right" width="200" height="186"/></p>
Just updated...beautiful, new textiles in <a href="http://www.tammachat.com/shop/online_shop_home.html">TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles' Online Shop</a>: silk scarves, fun bags, silk squares for quilters and other fibre artists. All fairly traded and crafted by hand by women's weaving groups and development projects that work with village groups in rural Thailand and Laos. Visit our Artisans page and Travel Blog for stories about these artisan groups and how we work with them.<br />
Free shipping over $49 CAD; contact us for shipping costs outside North America. (We're located in Canada.)<br />
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Ellen Agger<br />
Co-founder, TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles<br />
Stories & Online Shop: <a href="http://www.tammachat.com">www.tammachat.com</a><br />
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<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1976359891?profile=original" alt="fairly traded silk scarf from Thailand" align="left" width="300" height="250"/></p>TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles: working with rural women weavers in Thailand and Laostag:ethicalfashionforum.ning.com,2009-05-12:2622461:BlogPost:99942009-05-12T10:31:03.000ZEllen Aggerhttp://ethicalfashionforum.ning.com/profile/EllenAgger
<img align="right" alt="naturally dyed, handwoven silk scarf from Thailand" height="200" hspace="10" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1976358317?profile=original" width="184"></img> <a href="http://www.tammachat.com">TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles</a> brings fairly traded, naturally dyed, handwoven textiles to Canada and beyond through our <a href="http://www.tammachat.com/shop/online_shop_home.html">Online Shop</a>. We work with rural women's weaving groups and development projects that work with village groups in Thailand and Laos. All this work is small scale, home-based work and produces an important secondary income to women who primarily work as rice…
<img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1976358317?profile=original" align="right" hspace="10" alt="naturally dyed, handwoven silk scarf from Thailand" width="184" height="200"/><a href="http://www.tammachat.com">TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles</a> brings fairly traded, naturally dyed, handwoven textiles to Canada and beyond through our <a href="http://www.tammachat.com/shop/online_shop_home.html">Online Shop</a>. We work with rural women's weaving groups and development projects that work with village groups in Thailand and Laos. All this work is small scale, home-based work and produces an important secondary income to women who primarily work as rice farmers.<br />
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Important to us is to tell the stories of some of these weavers. Our <a href="http://www.tammachat.com/Tammachat_travel_blog.html">Travel Blog</a> chronicles our time spent with several of the weaving groups on our most recent trip to Thailand and Laos. We have created <a href="http://www.blurb.com/user/store/ellenagger">books</a> about the 2 longest running women's weaving coops in Northeast Thailand, Panmai and Prae Pan Group, and have developed 2 slideshows that tell the stories behind the textiles we sell: "Social Fabric" and "Women Weave: Organic Cotton Along the Mekong." Photographs on our website give a face to the women behind the textiles we buy.<br />
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<img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1976358242?profile=original" alt="Panmai weaving coop members raising silkworms" align="left" hspace="10" width="160" height="114"/>There are lots of challenges in working in this part of the world: language (although my partner speaks Thai); different ways of doing business (e.g., no "just in time" production, as handweaving an order of 12 silk scarves takes 2-3 months); different business tools used (they're masters with mobile phones, but don't use the internet at all, as they have limited access to it and don't read or write English); variations in natural dye colours (which makes custom orders interesting but difficult if we're making it for a customer who is used to chemical dye consistency); and it goes on.<br />
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Another challenge for us as fair traders who work with small scale, home-based artisan groups, is to identify which products we can reliably source. To do this, we must travel and meet directly with the weaving groups. They have been our teachers as we develop long-term relationships. We have learned how they work, and what their needs and capacities are. For example, it takes 3+ months to weave 40 metres of plain weave silk fabric, which means we can only make custom orders with long lead times that include time for planting seasonal mulberries bushes used to feed the silkworms. Organic cotton produced in Thailand is grown from heritage varieties of cotton that must be handspun; this means only textured organic cotton fabric is available in small quantities seasonally.<br />
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<img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1976358463?profile=original" alt="Thai weaver at her loom, weaving an organic cotton scarf" align="right" hspace="10" width="160" height="110"/>The groups from whom we buy, particularly the silk producers in the Northeast of Thailand, are facing uncertain futures with competition from cheap "silk" from Vietnam and China; as well, the weavers are generally older women whose daughters and granddaughters are not interested in continuing these generations-old weaving traditions unless they can see that it can generate much-needed income for their families.<br />
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Unlike England, Canada is just starting to open up to fair trade textiles. We're working to generate interest and support the movement to know more about the products we buy and consume; to open up international markets for women artisans in rural Thailand and Laos; and to celebrate and help them sustain their weaving traditions, families and communities. We hope this forum will help us do that. Visit our <a href="http://www.tammachat.com">website</a> to learn more.