These exquisite scarves are crafted by hand from superior quality Thai silk by these women who control every step in the process of their creation, from raising the silk worms to spinning and weaving the luxurious threads on their looms. The colors vary slightly as a result of the hand-dyeing process and one silk thread may consist of up to three different complementary colors, thereby creating a very unique effect when woven with other similar threads. Each product is truly distinctive and individual.

Although some silk is brought in from outside to meet peaks of demand, the group mainly uses silk from silkworms raised in the village. Mulberry leaves are gathered from trees and fed to the worms before they form into chrysalises. These buds are soaked and unwoven to produce the silk threads.

The silk is dyed by hand in small vats heated by a wood fire and then hung out to dry. Once it is dry, the silk is hand-spun onto a large spool. Then several threads of complementary colors are spun together into a single strand, creating an iridescent effect.

The thread is then woven on traditional looms made of wood and bamboo. The different patterns within the scarves result from the weaver's skill. Although each set of scarves adheres to a general pattern, no two scarves are exactly the same - each one is a work of art.

The colored cotton thread used to create the straps on our products is brought in from local markets, and the weaving is all done using backstrap looms. From these simple materials and machinery, a surprising variety of patterns can be created, but the widths are limited to the size of the producer -- they can be as narrow as 1cm.

The weaving is done with a variation of the backstrap loom which uses minimal equipment and the producer's body. She sits on the floor and wraps the required lengths of base thread around her body and a stationary object to create the warp. Then she builds up the weft pattern in different colours using only her hands, balls of thread and the memory of dozens of different patterns and colour combinations.

The traditional women's clothing uses a wide combination of techniques. One outfit will include appliqué, reverse appliqué, cross stitch, pompoms, tassels and minute embroidery stitches.

To create a traditional skirt, a heavily embroidered bottom edge of cotton hopsack is then attached to the strip of batik. This section uses ribbons, appliqué and cross stitch to create a heavily textured pattern in bright colours, usually red, orange and yellow on black. The skirt is then hand pleated, using 6m of the fully embroidered cloth.

The double spiral of the red Eyemask is created using reverse appliqué. This design and technique are specialties of the White Hmong. Two different colours of fabric are tacked together and the double spiral design is cut out of top piece. The artist works around the cut edge using a tiny blind stitch that leaves the bottom fabric showing through but no visible stitching.

The starburst pattern of the green Eyemask is made by the Green Hmong. The technique is a normal appliqué with the cloth pattern built up over a background fabric and the edges blind stitched under. The finishing touch is a series of tiny top stitches tacking down the center of the design.

The various products made from Karen fabric all have one thing in common, they are woven by hand from cotton threads which are hand-dyed in natural colors. The Karen tribe is well-known for its skillful techniques in naturally dyeing and hand weaving cotton fabrics. Their hand-dyeing techniques use natural materials, usually different kinds of bark and leaves, sometimes even mud, to create a variety of natural colors. Since the amount of moisture in the trees varies from rainy season to dry season, the natural hand-dyeing process often results in colors of many different shades depending on the time of year. To stabilize the colours, some may use a small amount of chemical dye.

These weavers use backstrap looms, which are unique from standard looms in that the weaver sits on the floor and wears a strap around her back which is connected to the loom. She is able to put tension on the strings by leaning back into the strap, thereby becoming part of the loom.

The colored thread and fabric used to make the designs is purchased. However, the entire design is sewn by hand using a particularly difficult stitch called "couching" which this tribe is known for. A heavy thread is placed along the edge of an appliqué cut from a colored fabric and a thinner thread painstakingly tacks down the heavier one. This creates a wonderfully textured border. The appliqué designs are stylized representations of local phenomena such as butterflies, rainfall and waterfalls.

The Akha also create beautifully complex and colourful embroidery patterns. The stitching is so complex that some women can perfect only one or two different stitches in their lifetime and each woman can recognize her production in a stack of products. The patterns are created on 2 weaves of cloth - the wider weave allows for patterns that we use on items like the Yoga Mat Bag. A large area can be covered while maintaining the regular patterns that support and outline the appliqué couching. The thinner weave concentrates the cross-stitch into intricate patches that we use to accent smaller pieces like the Wine Carrier and the Maxi Shopping Bag.

All of the design stitching is done by hand through these long, tedious processes to create these beautiful unique designs which are then taken to another cooperative to machine finish.

Although the Akha tribe is famous for the couching technique, the skill is lost in many villages. Izara Arts hopes that our design ideas will generate new sales to renew interest in the skill. We conduct training courses for women who want to relearn.

These products are made entirely by hand using a special folding technique that is unique to this tribe to create these recognizable designs. The thin fabric that is folded to make the designs is purchased because it has to be of such fine quality. Traditionally, the base fabric of Lisu clothing was hemp material.

For their signature technique, long pieces of brightly coloured fabric are folded and tacked down in narrow strips. Additional lengths are added until a wide band of overlaid strips is created. Each of these strips is tacked down with tiny invisible stitches. These bands can be as thin as piping where it takes 8 strips to create a pattern ½ inch wide. Sometimes shapes such as triangles, diamonds and squares are created. Finishing touches can include silver beads, bells and tassels.

The Mien techniques were sadly missing from our product range for a long time because the densely worked cross-stitch embroidery has been copied by many of the other hilltribe groups and is difficult to work into a modern, desirable design that is affordable. Also, their numbers are small so it wasn’t easy to track down the villages.

The Mien is the tribe most often seen in full glorious traditional costume that consists of trousers with heavily embroidered legs, a long indigo-dyed tunic with a spectacular pompom ruff and an intricately wrapped turban.

There are a couple of techniques that can be ascribed to them. They embroider with a stitch that is worked vertically so looks like weaving which they work from the back so the pattern is not seen until they turn the cloth over. They also knot a string to create a “lace” that is used to outline a vaguely diamond-shape appliqué used mainly on a special occasion apron. We have seen them creating this border lace in pairs using a cat’s cradle kind of manoeuver and on a pillow-shaped frame with recognizable spools and weights.

However, their tassels and pompoms are such immense fun that we hope to create more products featuring them. Look for the tassels on the Wine bags and a new design pompom ruff on a WorldTote. Their lace-bordered appliqué is already one of our WorldTote designs.

Last year, we were introduced to a Paluang community near Chiang Dao, just north of Chiang Mai. The Paluang are the seventh recognized minority hilltribe of Thailand. The Paluang are refugees from the Burmese military junta and number between 5,000 and 7,000 people. Although recognized as an ethnic minority, they still have limited rights.

This community formed after illegal, cheap labourers were abandoned in Chiang Dao district in 1983 after a reforestation project completed. In 2008, 400 people were squatting on a quarter acre of land. They survived by contract farming, labouring and selling handicrafts to the occasional passing tourist.

Makhampom Foundation has been working with this and other communities in the Chiang Dao region since 1998 to promote identity rights, community cultural development, and economic self reliance. Izara Arts supported their recent fundraising efforts, which helped the villagers raise 700,000 baht (US$20,000) to buy land and materials to build their new village.

Izara Arts conducted a handicrafts survey to establish what skills and capacity exists in the village. The Paluang believe they are descended from angels (kinaree) expressed in the strings of pompoms on the sleeves of a velvet bolero jacket. They decorate with silver in hammered squares, clusters of 3 beads and belt. They are expert weavers and create a sarong skirt with horizontal stripes.

In December 2008, the villagers were invited to contribute to our new product: the WorldTote. Now that the community is settled in their new homes, we hope they will start producing hand woven cotton for the WorldTote exterior fabric and the Wine Carrier.