Laos is a Buddhist country and most families will weave a new prayer flag, Pha Tung, for the New Year festivals. Although many women in Laos have a loom, some families will commission a Pha Tung from a specialist weaver. This is a true cottage industry with almost all the activities from feeding the silkworms (on mulberry leaves), harvesting and spinning the silk, dyeing (using vegetable dyes made from local plants, leaves and roots) taking place in the garden. Women usually weave fabric for clothes and bedding for their dowry and good weaving skills are highly regarded. Most of the Pha Tung that we collected are woven by named weavers who’s photos are on the labels. Some of the geometric patterns are highly stylised but contain images such as Nagas - mythical water snakes seen throughout Lao culture, bringers of good fortune.

India is a treasure store of traditional crafts. For over 30 years we’ve been travelling to India and been amazed by the diversity of decorative skills applied especially to wood carving and fabrics. The variety of Indian cottons and silks is seemingly limitless and any visit to Delhi should take in the textile collection at the Craft Museum near Pragati Maiden.
Wood carving is an important decorative and cultural tradition in most parts of India. In the forested north, houses are wholly or partly built from timber and decorated with floral and geometric carving.  Masks are used in ceremonial and religious contexts and human and animal figures carved into decorative details.
We’re gradually adding to this web site a beautiful collection of woodcarvings, embroidered cottons and woven silks. In addition there are stone and other decorative and ritual items, silk weavings from Laos, paintings.
You'll also find beautifully finished hardwood meditation stools made in our workshops in Sheffield. At www.naturalbed.co.uk you can see our carved Indian beds and the contemporary beds we make in Sheffield and www.himalaya_diaries.co.uk with accounts and photos from our walks in the Indian Himalayas.

Autumn 2009, this new site is in the process of being created, at the moment some categories are empty - new products will be added every month over the next year.

Subtle earth tones, luminous silks, old blackened wood, faded paint. A handwoven silk weaving could be just the thing for your stairwell, an embroidered silk panel may be the finishing touch for your bed. If you’ve got a small empty alcove how about a marble camel or a carved wooden pineapple finial.

On these pages you’ll find painted wooden shrines, lacquered chapatti rolling pins, a carved sandstone Buddha head, painted Tibetan door panels, Madhubani tribal paintings from Bihar, woven silk prayer flags and hangings from Laos, carved wooden mirror frames, a wooden horse with painted sati handprints, vases and boxes inlaid with camel bone, fiercely carved wooden masks, old Gujarati beadwork door surrounds, visionary drawings by Gond tribals from central India, an embroidered Indian hanging large enough to surround a courtyard, Magar carved wooden figures from Nepal, luxurious silk quilts, carved wooden Ganesh statues and Khajuraho carved wooden panels, a fine old inlaid spinning wheel, stone Jain Buddhas2......


 

Himalayan Diaries
At www.himalaya-diaries.co.uk you can link to a travel diary with photographs of some of our journeys through the Indian Himalaya, Tibet and Jodhpur. Trek the high altitudes deserts and passes of the Buddhist regions of Zanskar, Ladakh and Spiti; drive along the old Tibet-Hindustan route through Kinnaur; wander the lanes of the blue painted town of old Jodhpur in Rajasthan and glimpse  the main towns and monasteries of central Tibet. These diaries contain personal accounts and reflections along with useful travel information and a comprehensive photographic account of these fascinating areas.

Natural Bed Company

Closer to home our websites www.oakwoodenbeds.co.uk and www.naturalbedcompany.co.uk show the contemporary wooden beds we make in Sheffield and the quilts, bedspreads and duvet covers we design and make in India. You can order online or visit our store in Sheffield’s Devonshire Quarter where we also sell lighting, clocks and bed linen: silk and cotton duvet covers and quilts.