Houey Hong: a Centre to skill up Lao women

                   

Learning and living heritage

Learning to weave complex patterns

The Centre was established in 1998 with grants from Japanese organisations, the Association for Supporting Women and Lao Children, and the Association for Providing Jobs for Lao Women.

As Lao women play a key role in developping the country's economy, the Foundation aims to improve gender equality by assisting skilled women to participate in their communities.

The Centre is all about vocational training, training trainers and reviving Lao traditional crafts such as weaving and dyeing. 

It also established an extensive database of natural dying plants and recorded old patterns and traditional weaving techniques from different regions across the country.

To find out more about Houey Hong 

Or drop in at True Colour their shop in Vientiane to see their work.

Now for the professional indigo dyeing workshop

In Laos, silk farms are situated in the North of the country, up in the hills. When the skeins arrive they are first boiled and dried before dyeing.

The indigo comes from Northern Laos.

It's quite a physical job.

Dyeing with ndigo takes time...

Skeins are soaked and stirred in the indigo vat and dried several times to get a darker shade of blue. 

One of the many indigo vats at Houey Hong Centre.