From cotton flower to thread

Local cotton

The Na Sang 1 cooperative, near Dien Bien in Vietnam, set up by Entrepreneurs du Monde in partnership with Opportunity for Women, weaves from cotton flowers. This cotton is local because it comes from the plantations of the neighboring village, it is cultivated in a traditional way with very few chemicals (only a little herbicide). It does not require water because it is cultivated during the rainy season; it is planted in late May or early June and picked by hand in November.

This cotton is quite fine and gives beautiful bright colors once spun and dyed.

5 Steps to Getting Cotton Threads

Step 1: Once harvested, the cotton flower is separated from its seed using a kind of mechanical press, made of solid wood by the women. This step is quite long and requires a lot of strength in the arms.

Step 2: The cotton is softened by whipping it with a bamboo. Pang does it with great elegance!

Step 3: Using a kind of bow and a hammer, the cotton is carded. You can hear a little music when this is done.

Step 4: The cotton is wrapped around a metal rod to make a small tube. This step looks easy like that, but it is not so simple to make a homogeneous tube.

Step 5: The cotton is spun using a wooden spinning wheel. This gives a cotton spool. Add the small tubes of cotton rolled into a tube to the spun cotton, be careful not to go too fast and end up with only a little cotton in hand and the thread in the air!

Step 6: If necessary, several cotton threads can be assembled to make a thicker and stronger thread. Roll them on your leg, then add buffalo fat before using a spinning wheel to tightly wind the threads together.

Step 7: The cotton threads are then washed, dried and then ready to be dyed!

Cotton is the traditional material used by Lao minorities for weaving

The Lao minorities of the Dien Bien region have always woven their patterns with cotton threads! So they know how to spin it, dye it and weave it! In order to prevent the cotton threads from breaking during weaving, they dip the dyed threads in rice water to harden them, they can also add candle wax if necessary.

And here are some beautiful local cotton threads, which have grown in the traditional way and have been spun by hand!

Opportunity for Women has chosen to respect this traditional way of growing and weaving cotton because it is local, with few chemicals, requires a reasonable amount of water (only to wash the threads), and therefore respectful of the weavers and the environment! We are convinced that there is much to learn from the ethnic groups who still have the knowledge and the means to set up a local and sustainable textile industry.

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