Sometimes I find wonderful pieces such as this traditional Lao skirt or sinh. The design was worn in my grandmother’s day and this particular one is unusual as the bottom hem (Tiin Sihn) has a beautiful, silk patchwork imbedded it.

This silk, Sinh Mai Korm, has a stripe vertical design and is produced using two-colour twisted yarns. These were very popular during the 1950s among city women and was worn by wealthy or high-ranking women during the time as they were expensive, labourious to make and therefore, highly-prized. Woven with fine silk of metallic and silk thread in a supplementary weft, the silks for this  skirt, like most during the era, was most probably imported from France or Japan. If you fancy this piece or to use it for a particular application, please email me.

After waiting a while for a perfect hand-loomed Lao fabric to land on my doorstep, one finally did. On the quilt composition below a dark navy, Lao IKAT weave dominates. This is the first of many quilts and throws that we have in production. They are designed and manufactured in Melbourne, Australia. These quilts are padded with 100% Australian cotton and wool wadding. We have also been taking orders for custom bed and lounge throws, designed specifically to match exisitng decors. We love to work closely with clients, where possible, to lovingly create timeless pieces so that they can be enjoyed with a sense of pleasure and pride.  Please keep an eye out for these throws when we list them!

Why not change the mood of your interiors? Lift your spirits and change your moods, add a splash of gorgeous colour with beautiful tactile materials. Lounge around on lazy Sundays in style, with a couple of limited edition handmade silk cushions from our collection. Save the home renovation for another day, our thoughtful interior touches will instantly transform your home!  Subscribe with us for exclusive deals on furnishings! Need to co-ordinate a style? No problems, contact us us to speak directly with our designers or for a free, no obligation quotation.

Hi everyone. Today I am designing some quilts and throws. You have probably noticed that the website has a spot for quilts, ready to be filled. At the moment we have a beautiful selection of Lao hand-loomed, 100% silk throws but I would like to supplement this with one-off, contemporary designs, using natural fabrics such as sustainable/organic hemps, natural wools and soft cottons and silks. These will have either 100% Australian wool or cotton wadding as seen below. This wadding is a perfect thickness and adds weight to the throws that is great for those chilly nights on the verandah with a cup of tea. The convenient lap size is also perfect for a lazy night in front of the television and is stylish enough to leave out, draped over the lounge. Stay tuned for more!

Just added to the collection this afternoon are these gorgeous pure linen and silk cushions. Fully lined in 100% Linen/cotton, these quality cushions are a fabulous addition to your decor. Oatmeal linen with chocolate vertical lines is matched with a decadent chocolate silk. Like many of our cushions, these are reversible and go well with your existing interior and also other items in our collection. Our cushions are high-quality and you can feel it in the material choice, weight and textures. Check these out amongst our other feather cushions.

I was just piecing these together the other day and previously blogged the composition. Just added to collection are these stylish French cotton and silk cushions and cushion covers. These are fully lined in 100% linen/cotton and we have limited numbers. They are a stylish addition to any decor and like all of our cushions are of a luxury quality. Check them out in our feather cushion collection!

We have been busy in the studio designing cushion neutrals. We call them neutrals because they can be co-ordinated with any interior, regardless of existing decor. The colours are those that usually already exist in a home so it is easy to match. You can see these in our cushion collection along with a selection of hand-made silk and cotton textiles from Lao. This 100% Linen and 100% chocolate brown silk composition will be added to our collection by tomorrow. I like the soft texture of the natural linen. It has no inherent imperfections and is super smooth. These will be lined in a 100% linen/cotton fabric and finished with an invisible zip. Stay tuned to see the finished product!

As you probably already know, we have been on the hunt for organic linens in Australia, so if anybody knows a friend who knows a friend, please let us know! We are getting rather close though. It is very difficult to source at the moment in Australia, as I suppose there hasn’t been much demand for it. I’m hoping that will change.

For those of you that didn’t know, Lao was formerly a French colony. It began around 1890 and continued long after 1945, the year that Lao declared officially its independence from colonial rule. As a result, the french presence in the Lao landscape remains. The gorgeous French colonial buildings in the old capital of Luang Prabang are a reminder, as are the axially planned streets of Vientiane with its own Lao Arch de Triumphe below. Everywhere you go there are freshly baked baguettes, albiet, not very french-tasting ones, but baguettes nonetheless.

We were trotting along the blistering hot streets of Vientiane in the Lao winter when we came across what we thought was a mirage. A gigantic, beautiful french colonial mansion that had its own rainforest! It was, in fact, the headquarters of Carol Cassidy, an American who arrived with the UN Development Program in 1989 and, to cut the story short, helped to revitalise the weaving tradition in Lao that had lay dormant due to war and cash crop farming of opium. 

We are currently in the process of hunting for a physical address. We have a few options that we are entertaining that will make for perfect addresses for our relocation.  As many of you know, we  operate a multi-disciplined studio, so we are hoping  that our new premises will allow us to expand and showcase our creativity. I am also a ex-restauranteur/architect/interior designer/ameteur photographer/lover of life, so the space will be designed to inspire and delight in more ways than one by exciting all the senses. Please keep in touch with our latest news through our posts or please join our mailing list. 

I’m loving these two fabrics right now. The blue striped french cotton fabric is a thick fabric with a bit of spandex in it for a bit of give. It is beautifully soft and the chic colour goes with almost everything! I even love it next to the linen. The natural 100% linen stripe is soft and natural. It’s a fine, quality weave that will make great cushions with a linen/cotton lining. These lovely pair make me think of a cold, sunny Paris day. Ahhh. . . . .

The studio had been buzzing with activity. We are in the process of sourcing gorgeous organic, sustainable linens and cottons. Although we have found some, it has been a bit of a frustrating process as there aren’t many suppliers in Australia that have them yet. We have dropped a few hints in and around town so hopefully the numbers will increase soon! We have found some beautiful linens and cottons that will work beautifully with our existing range in our projects and will work well as a neutral backdrop to our coloured silks and patterned fabrics.

We paid a visit to Tessuti in Flinders Lane this morning and it is always a pleasure. They stock wonderful designer fabrics that we love to just go and touch. We are hoping to be able to use some of their quality fabrics soon.

On an unusually lazy Sunday afternoon yesterday I put down my computer and decided to do some beading and embroidering. This cute little pin cushion looks lovely enough to eat. Made with a teeny weeny organic cotton/hemp remnant piece, it is jeweled with colourful, faceted Czech and glass beads. It is embroidered with a meandering aqua thread, stuffed with remnant pieces of silk and its sides hand-stitched to finish. These last little bits would have ended up in the rubbish and now I have an instant jewel. This is my first pin cushion, that I have ever made and owned.

We are constantly on the prowl for sustainable, organic fabrics. Our Cotton-canvas range use 100% organic hemp/cotton and we use natural materials for all of our products. Many items in our ranges are composed of hand-made fabric pieces that take weeks and sometimes months to weave on a loom. Check out the latest additions to the collection like the Woven Grid cushions that are available in two sizes and the striking black and white wool cushions. We have been listing neutrals and wool basics to complement both our range and your own interior and are available in many colours. Don’t forget our cushions are also available without the feather inserts if you already have your own or we can custom make sizes to suit your needs. 

We offer discounts for purchases of two or more cushions or cushion covers, please contact us.

What a wonderful sunny day in Melbourne! It’s a very exciting time in the studio preparing for numerous projects and fitting out apartments. We work closely with design teams and our boutique custom-made range for specific projects allows interiors to stand out from the crowd. We’re thrilled that we are able to provide competitive prices and meet tight building deadlines to ensure that project marketting isn’t delayed. If it sounds a bit like a pat on our own backs – it is! Go team TT!!

Not a bad day hey? This was taken in the superb Australian landscape down at Outlook Hill in the Yarra Valley. Wonderful sunrises and sunsets in a clear sky in Melbourne is a perfect escape to recharge busy batteries.

Last week on my Sunday vintage fabric shopping trip, I picked up this fantastic off-white piece of cotton canvas. It has colourful strands of dyed cotton interwoven into the fabric itself. The little vertical off-white bits that you can clearly see below appear like the strands have been sewn onto the fabric but in fact, the strands are looping under and over and you can see this on the reverse side. I’m going to make this into a set of neutral cushions backed with an organic cotton/hemp canvas – double sided of course. Easy-going cushions that are easy on the eye and decor – reflective of the easy-going Sunday that I bought it on.  Keep an eye out for them, they are limited edition so they won’t last!

It’s time for soft, warm winter fabrics. This composition incorporates a black and white woven Lao fabric that contrasts beautifully and transforms a simple olive wool into a striking piece for your home. Remember that our cushions are double sided so you can mix and match. The dark olive felt is very soft and is 100% wool. The cotton front is thickly woven so it is  perfect weight match to the wool back. The first photograph is indicative of the colour of the olive wool, more so than the second. I hope to list these cushions by the morning and I hope that you like them.

On our way around the cosy streets of Vientiane last Christmas, we stumbled across a huge french colonial mansion which we thought we would have a stickybeak in. We were delighted to find these weavers in the process of planning and making gorgeous silks. These hand-dyed silks are being dried in the hot midday sun in Vientiane, waiting to be spun for weaving. They are stirred in a giant pot with organic natural plant dyes that have been formulated over many generations to perfect the desired colours.

Then silks are the spun by hand using this wheel by a couple of very patient women. This system had remained the same since my grandmother’s day.

As you can see, the weaving process is even more time consuming than the dyeing and spinning processes. The pattern for the silk is carefully planned with vertical strings and the article is painstakingly constructed, line by line. This process takes weeks and months to finish a piece, depending on intricacy of design.

The piece below from our own collection is an exquisite example of the finished piece. Hand-made and constructed in the same fashion, it makes for a special gift or a piece to treasure. Many of these shawls are kept in homes as hangings as well as worn on the body. Although they may be displayed as throws on couches, these prized silks are never laid out as table cloths as they are too precious.

About a week ago I posted some fabric compositions alluding to some new cushion designs that were in the pipeline (http://textiletheory.com.au/archives/933). Well, these are done! These 40×40cm cushions come filled with 100% duck feather inserts for that plump, luxurious finish. They are lined in natural linen and have zip access for easy removal. They are designed to be double sided so that you can reverse them any time you please to co-ordinate with your own cushions or change they way they look together. These are a striking design and I love the contrasting colours – well, I suppose I would, I did design them =). . . in any case, they look and feel beautiful! Visit them here - http://textiletheory.com.au/collection/feather-cushions

This picture is indicative of what our studio looks like at the moment! We have fluffy 100% duck feather cushions everywhere – it’s very tempting to pile them in the courtyard and jump onto them from the roof like those soft, coloured balls that kids love. We have taken orders to make smaller sized cushions and floor cushions for both indoor and outdoor use. All materials of course will be natural cottons, hemps & Linens. Don’t forget that we can tailor design something for you so that you can be guaranteed that you won’t see it in a store anywhere else.

For those that know me, they know that I love Japanese designers and design. This Lao silk and cotton throw is amazing in texture and intricacy of design. It is winter-weight heavy and its inherent structural quality, immediately reminded me of Japanese kimonos and the obi. This piece arrived on my doorstep like an anonymous donation but was in fact from my grandmother to share with you. I haven’t seen many of these around at all, particularly on my last trip to Lao. It could be an older design which young Lao women of today may consider ‘vintage’ as the motifs of today are very minimal and simplistic, possibly reflecting their changing beliefs.