Ban Sang Khong is a handicraft village on the other side of the Khan river. We walked through town passing some men working on a giant paper-mache boar. Crossing a bridge brought us to a road which alternated between muddy and dusty. At one house we noticed a guy making a large conical bamboo basket. Another older man was making brooms while the women were all busy embroidering cross stitch pieces.

We knew we'd arrived in the village when we saw screens with drying paper with leaves pressed into it in front of shops. There were also many textile shops with large looms and weaving areas. We stopped in one where I noticed some beautiful contemporary silk weavings. Outside there was a black kettle where silk was being boiled with dye. I looked at the pieces. The woman working in the shop was the designer-- occasionally she ran out to check the silk. Several women were weaving outside. The scarves and runners were dyed with natural dyes. The colors were silvery blues, golds, grass green ,and golds. She told me how the silk was Lao silk and all pieces were made in Laos (locally) She had weavers work on site but embroiderers and women who crocheted pieces worked elsewhere.