Hello, Im new to Hive and this is my first post. I live in Thailand so I think this AEAN community is a good place to start. I love all things to do with art and design. I love learning about the traditional art of my home country and today I would like to introduce readers to a weaving art that is very special in my province of Trang in South Thailand. Pandan plant weaving.
Many regions in Thailand have a weaving culture with many different plants and products. In Trang we use a plant called Pandan. Pandan has many uses and is well-known in Thai culture. We use it as an air-freshener - often it is found hanging in public bathrooms. It's also an effective insect repellent. In cooking we use it as a food colouring and a flavour (it's sometimes known as the "Vanilla Of The East")
In the Muslim communities near the seaside areas of Trang it's harvested to be woven in to matting. From those mats we make make bags but mostly we leave the mats as just that - a strong and durable mat that is made from all natural fibres and will last a very, very long time.
I visited some of these local communities recently to meet the ladies that weave the Pandan. I had an idea about using some of their weaving to incorporate in to my furniture designs. The patterns they create are intricate and unique to each village. I loved it and ordered as much as they could make for me. Mostly they used different natural dyes to colour the Pandan leaves before creating wonderful woven matting and I found it very inspiring to see such an artistic talent right here on my doorstep.
I know now that Pandan weaving is not unique to Thailand but here in Thailand I believe that my province of Trang is the only place you can find it embedded deeply into the local culture. We have been weaving Pandan for generations here and I hope that this skill and talent is passed on to the next generation too! I look forward to sharing more stories of traditional art and culture from my home here in Thailand. Thank you for reading.
