Thailand
12 Camels: Take a seat by chance - Nanu Youttananukorn and Lidia Vajda describe an exhibition in where Thai designers and makers were randomly assigned three legs to make a unique stool.
What the Thai cave rescue tells us about “Mai pen rai” - Moo Baa the Wild Pigs is the name of the children’s soccer team stuck in Yellow Cave in Thailand. My heart is with the children and their parents as the experts weigh the best time and manner to remove them from the cave. But this incident seems to illustrate many positive aspects of the Thai […]
Green Touch: Asia Eco Craft Design Exhibition - “” Green Touch: Asia Eco Craft Design Exhibition explores the philosophy and implementation of eco design in contemporary craftsmanship. Highlighting the spirits of “local sourcing” and “hand making” within the context of traditional crafts development, the exhibition tackles eco-friendly ideas in contemporary craftsmanship such as material research, production technology, development of multiple functions, as […]
Garland #6 – Where’s your village? - For the March 2017 issue, we journey to Southeast Asia. We discovered two things about Thailand. First, three out of every four people live in a village, which continues to be an important source of inspiration and faith for designers and artists. But isn’t urbanisation inevitable? These stories help us reconsider the role of the […]
From Prao to Melbourne – Lanna culture in the world - Prao village This story is a true memory from my childhood in 1987. I grew up in the village called Prao, a small village in the middle of forest and mountain, located in the northern of Thailand. It takes about one and a half hour to drive to the north from Chiang Mai City. The […]
Where is your village? - While villages can take radically different form depending on their host country—from the Indonesian kampung set in a lush valley to a hamlet off the coast of New Zealand’s south island—they do share a common difference from the ubiquitous city. Most people who live in a village are likely to know each other’s name. Relations are not as dependent on financial transactions: there is often collective work towards a community space, such as a temple (in Britain, a place must have a church to be called a “village”). And often there is a set of traditions associated with that place, including myths, rituals and craft skills that make the most of materials at hand.
Craft classic: Khao Tom Mud - Each year, the Thai craft organisation SACICT hosts the International Innovative Craft Fair in Bangkok. This is a wonderful destination for discovering the evolution of Thai craft. The Kanita coin purse inspired by the traditional Thai dessert is just one example of the new products emerging in Thailand from the love of its traditional culture.
Quarterly essay – The colonisation of cute – exploring the work of Vipoo Srivilasa - Alice Pung has written poignant memoirs of her life growing up in western Melbourne as the daughter of a Chinese Cambodian refugee family. Unpolished Gem provoked this response from The Australian: “Pung makes everything she writes about shine”. And for the sequel, Her Father’s Daughter, The Monthly wrote, “Pung has an extraordinary story to tell and the […]
The Rohingya story in Thailand, through embroidery - Jakkai Siributr travels to Switte, in the Rakhine province of Myanmar, where the Rohinga begin their journey as refugees. The embroideries that tell this story involve a conversation between different ethnic perspectives in contemporary Thailand.
From gallery to temple: contemporary art for the Kra-tin ceremony - Watanya Siriwan offers her services as an artist for Kra-Tin, a ceremony to support a Buddhist temple by making clothes overnight, from harvesting cotton to assembling the garment. Her textile sculptures move between the gallery and the temple in a particularly Thai manner.
Can craft and design coexist in southeast Asia? - In 2016, the Craft Reveals conference in Thailand brought together key minds and hands to consider the future of craft. Sali Sasaki argues that the blinding effects of economic development in Southeast Asia should not take over the lucidity that is necessary to achieve a balanced coexistence between craft and design.
The road to Kilombu crosses many borders - Where is Kilombu? A Paraguayan-Brazilian artist living in Thailand collaborated with a Chinese ethnic silversmith to produce amulets for a special place in the world that embodies cultural freedom. 
Launch of Thai issue in Melbourne - Join the crowd! Garland is very pleased to welcome you to the special launch of our Thai issue #6. Saturday 18 March 2017, 3-4pm Craft Victoria 31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. RSVP by 13 March – Facebook or marigold(at)garlandmag.com. 
For the love of Lao – Studio Naenna - Ansie van der Walt profiles Patricia Cheesman, the founder of Studio Naenna, a remarkable business that now provides work for weavers from northeast Thailand and Laos. It began when she was charmed by Laotian hospitality.
Love, loss and the sea: The mermaid in Southeast Asia’s Ramayana - Chandrica Barua recounts the story of Suvannamaccha, the Golden Mermaid, who appears in Southeast Asian depictions of the Ramayana.
Psychometry: Series of PaAo ancient casting bronze hand ornaments with AR - Rudee Tancharoen cast a series of rings in Ban PaAo that were augmented by Peeraphat Kittisuwat, evoking the natural spirits that inspired them.
Other Possible Worlds: Threading together Thai communities - Luise Guest writes about an exhibition at 16albermarle Project Space and Delmar Gallery of Thai artists who skillfully and delicately bind together disparate elements of their world.
Pui ✿ Sharing happiness with Sukhothai ceramics - Witiya Pittungnapoo admires the unique celadon designs from a Thai maker that reflect the royal Sukhothai culture.
The Messenger Through The Twilight: A clay apocalypse - Raksit Panya introduces five Thai ceramic artists whose work foretells an archeology of the present.
Kan Doenthang: Lost wax to recover a disappearing world - Rudee Tancharoen shares the lost wax casting work made with the village of Baan Pa-Ao for the sake of staying in touch with a grounded way of life.
Phayao a Porter: A jacket from Jakkai to Vipoo - Thai artist Jakkai Siributr is using lockdown to take commissions for artfully embroidered jackets. One of these is for the venerable Vipoo Srivilasa.
Remembering Yellow Cave can help us survive a pandemic - Louis Katz finds courage in the memory of Wild Boar Soccer Team rescue and the spirit of the world ceramic community.
To catch a flower: Love triumphs in the marriage of Sang Thong - Vipoo Srivilasa invokes the romantic tale of Sang Thong to celebrate a love that breaks through social barriers and Edward Colless heralds "animated, capricious sprites and bristling bouquets".
Hanging issues: Collaboration between photography and Lana paper making - A Kurdish photographer, doing a PhD at Melbourne's RMIT University, learns paper making in a northern Thai village in order to realise the emotions of the images gathered from the conflict in the Middle East. Rushdi Anwar shares the thinking behind this unique artistic alchemy.
From Thailand to Turkey: Ceramics bloom in Eskişehir - Sukumarl Leksawat (Tuk) is enchanted by the welcome in Turkey, where she finds many similarities with Thailand. The city of Eskişehir provides a site for Thai orchids to bloom in the Turkish sun.
Quest for the lost bronze casters: A journey to Ban Pa Ao - A dinner party conversation sets Rudee Tancharoen on a quest to find the lost casters of northern Thailand. She discovers an ancient village who welcomed her visit. 
From Isan to Paris with silk and water hyacinth - M.l. Pawinee Sukhaswasdi Santisiri shares her journey to the northern province of Isan in her quest to develop products in silk and water hyacinth for the Paris market.
Thailand residency: A string of flowers – a sequence of events - Jess Dare takes up a residency in Thailand to understand the culture of the garland. She faces a dilemma. How can a jeweller, who makes works of lasting value, respond to the culture of the garland which is so ephemeral?