Ock Pop Tok

Hello!!

Today was a really rewarding day for me at Ock Pop Tok.  What was that, you say?  Yes, Ock Pop Tok, which means "East Meets West." It is a store and crafting center started together by a Lao weaver and an English photographer.

At the crafting center you can work with Lao weavers and dyers to learn their arts!!  This is what I did today and I'll walk you through how it went.

Disclaimer: photo heavy.

Second disclaimer:  I'm sorry for any typos/glaring or egregious spelling and grammar errors.  There's never an excuse but I am typing on my iPhone and yesterday's blog post was written at 2 a.m. when I woke up and found a disgusting black millipede type snake/bug in my bed - yes, IN MY BED !!!  It was pitch black, no one nearby, no phone to the front desk (in case it like morphed into a giant mutant millipede...so I couldn't go back to sleep and I blogged in the middle of the night).  Anyway, long way of saying, excuse me for not proof reading.

Okay, back to the day.  It started by meeting at the town store at 8:30 in the morning.  Here is some scenery from the city center on the walk there: 

This umbrella move on the moped seems to be popular:

Tuk Tuk: 

Store fronts:

Time to clean the dragons:

This is the Mekong River with mountains and mist in the background:

And this is the Ock Pop Tok city center store with some of their goods on display:

Goods: 

From the store, a tuk tuk takes you to the crafting center.  Sooo...this was actually my first tuk tuk ride so that was sort of cool!

View from inside the tuk tuk:

The road to the crafting center may be bumpy but once you get there it is oh so cute.  True to the name, there are Easterners and at least one Westerner, who I saw today, working there: 

I was given a "welcome drink" of bell fruit tea:

Then we (me and a Finnish girl with a beautiful accent) were given a tour of the premises. Hanging from the ceiling was this dragon made of fabric: 

Chan was our guide and he was awesome.  He was like my private teacher for the whole day too.  He taught us the silk making process, which starts with these silk worms!!!!  Here they are eating and getting ready to build cocoons:

Then, when they make cocoons, they are put in this configuration.  The cocoons (seen as the yellow fuzzies below) are boiled to get the silk.  Apparently it takes like 50 cocoons to get one long thread of silk so thousands and thousands of these guys are needed to get the job done.

Next, we learned about the raw materials needed to make different colors of dye (like the ones used in these gorgeous scarves): 

We saw some Master Weavers weaving:

On big looms!

Then we went to the dyeing portion of the day.  This is the colorless silk gathered before it is dyed:  

We chose our colors and then worked with the natural materials needed to actually make the dye.  I chose pink, orange and yellow.  For pink, we needed this bark: 

First we had to like machete it into pieces so the color would be easily released when boiled:

This is my cut up pile of bark:

Next, the dye was made by boiling the bark.  Often different things like a mineral or a rusty nail are put in the water to "fix" the color.

Seeds are ground to make orange, the color of the monks' robes in Luang Prabang and Thailand.  This is me grinding seeds, which was actually hard work!!!  

Lemongrass was used for the bright yellow:

Next, we dyed the silk:

Then we rinsed it and wrung it out:

It was then hung up to dry!!  These are my beautiful colors!!  

These are other colors made there that can be used for weaving, which is what I did in the afternoon:

After I picked my colors, Madame Phan and I spun the silk onto spools: 

Spools (I think I focused the camera on the wrong thing but you get it):

She then started up the loom for me and taught me how to use it.  This type of loom that is unique to Laos.  They have been using this same method of weaving for the past 1,000 years according to my teacher!!

Then it was time for a lunch break.  The food was so good!  I got the vegetarian lunch which included pumpkin and mushroom salad (bottom right), tofu salad (bottom left), squash soup and sticky rice.  Then, I got dragon fruit for dessert.  This was my first dragon fruit experience !

Dragon fruit:

Then it was back to work.  It took three more hours to complete this scarf.  This orange pattern here is really complicated to make.  I can't really explain it but think of the loom as a strategic game of Cat's Cradle.  Every time you move a string on the loom (which is made of nylon strings), it changes the pattern of your weaving.  It was definitely hard work!!!  I really came to appreciate this skill.

Now, this picture really isn't the best but, for now, this is the best I could do.  Here is the finished scarf.  Madame Phan hand rolled the fringe herself:

And, on a different note, as promised, the elephant pants that are all the buzz over in Laos.  These are from the evening market.  They also have fabulous elephant shorts.  Everyone is wearing these harem pants though!  It's like passing off pajamas as real clothes.  I'm not complaining:

So tomorrow the family who runs the guesthouse invited me to accompany them to the monks' alms giving ceremony.  I am really excited to attend because it's supposed to be beautiful.  I also think it will be extra special to go with a Lao family!  

Tonight, I'll continue to bathe myself in deet, crawl beneath the mosquito net and pray that millipede doesn't find his way back on the bed!!!