Ethnographic Fabrications

Over the 35 years of my importing career, I have been blessed to be able to travel for months at a time allowing ample time to pursue artisans & truly get to know the people. It was my intent from the start to work  directly with the artisans, not to buy from middle people. I wanted to see the life style of these crafts people as well as to get to know them not as a tourist but as a respected peer.

Traveling involved a lot of free time due to waiting whether it was at airports or to meet people or traveling around. I have always loved to create my own embroidery designs that I sewed onto various pieces of clothing. I found that this was the perfect past time at those waiting times.

One day early in my career, I was in a small village in Northern Thailand. I  pulled out my embroidery hoop  & became very absorbed in my project. Suddenly, I was surrounded by a group of hilltribe women looking over my shoulder at my embroidery. I had so much fun sharing with them even though we didn't have words to share. I realized how the Language of Stitches is universal.

These women were not used to seeing foreigners. They were curious but scared of me. Now I was a woman they could relate to. After this event, I was intentional in pulling out my craft in order to break the barriers. This accidental technique allowed me become good friends with many other people as the years passed in my career.

I am delighted to present these tribal textile pages. I am in awe of the textiles these skilled craftspeople  create.

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Creativity is Intelligence having Fun!....Albert Einstein

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