Lung Tam Craft Workshop

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The Lung Tam workshop is a co-operative run by 120 women from the Hmong tribe, making clothes and accessories in the old way, by hand without chemicals or modern machinery. Here you can see each of the stages of the production from making the thread to the dying of the fabric.

Hmong clothes are replaced each year traditionally. It is considrered that the person is lazy if they still wear last years outfit. Therefor making new clothes has always been a tradition and sign of social status especially with a wifes ability to shine by creating intrequate patterns on outfits.

Alas like the Ao Dai of the Vietnamese Kinh that used to be worn by everyone in 1990, the traditional Hmong clothing is heading the same way - now mostly worn just for celebrations and special occasions. This workshop aims to keep alive the traditions of the Hmong tribes.

Designs

The designs are from the one of the oldest members of the collective and using her memories of her family going back 100 years. They have a selection of bags, wallets tote bags etc for sale.

Weaving and batik

At the workshop there are two main demonstrations going on. One is the weaving and the other is the very steady hand that draws the hot oil / ink on the fresh batik cloth.

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That is me, weaving the traditional way on a hand loom. The process is slow and takes a whole day for a single item of clothing.

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Many of these designs date back 100 years as one of the elder women of the collective wanted to show new people the old ways