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October 2014 Newsletter
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This email marks the relaunch of our website and the addition of an online store to the site. We frequently get emails about selling online and shipping from Bali, and we are now able to fulfill those requests. Read more about this below.

 

Articles are also included about current field work in the Field Notes section, and the Textile of the Month features one of the pieces from the new online gallery.

Our New Website

When we started re-building our website last year, we thought it would take a few weeks, as all the material was already in the old website. Ten months later, we are finally launching the new site. There was so much information in the old site, it took a lot of work to move it. So, why did we go to all this trouble? First, the old site was showing its age! Second, we wanted to reorganize the site to respond to how people were using it, putting the most frequently visited areas in the top line menus. And third, we wanted to respond to the requests for an online retail section: This last part had been a goal of ours for years.

(Also, our apologies to those of you who have visited the site over the last couple of weeks, who will have noticed it was down a lot of the time. One of the plug-ins on the site got hacked and all sites using that plug-in got shut down by Wordpress as a precaution. It then took a while to fix.)

Ama Namah Benu, raja of Boti, proof reading the Bebali Foundation book on the useful plants of Boti

Field Work
 

Our field work season has been very busy this year. After a long buying and research trip across Timor in early May, our Balinese staff celebrated their 10-day Galungan festival. June saw concurrent field work in Sulawesi and again Timor, followed by Lembata. It was an intense schedule before the Ramadan fasting season, when travel becomes more challenging as all our favorite food vendors will be closed during the daytime. 

 

Since August there has been field work in Flores, Timor again, Sumba, Java, and Kalimantan. Currently we have staff on the road in Savu and Flores again, before a final long trip around Timor to wrap up the field trip season before the weavers put away their looms and get out their hoes for the agricultural season.

 

We haven't yet written up any Field Notes from this work yet, but hope to do so soon!



Textile of the Month

 

Lau Pahudu 

Ceremonial Tubular Sarong (2013)

Tied by Hiwa Ranja Rudung

Dyed by Ina Jilik and Ata Hina

Woven by Hawu Rima

Rindi, Sumba

Warp Ikat, supplementary warp patterning with beading

Handspun cotton, natural dyes

64 x 146 cm (25 x 57 in)

Code # T01.SU.RE.205 

 

Designed by Tamu Rambu Hamueti, this textile is from the Uma Penji royal household of Rindi. It is in the same tradition as the 2010 Lau Pahudu Hada (code # T01.SU.RE.160), blending techniques and motifs from the villages of Pau and Rindi. Both display extraordinary detail of ikat work and dye saturation, but with the current cloth this has been achieved on handspun cotton. 

 

Lau Pahudu means a tubular ikat sarong with supplementary warp patterning. The ikat motifs in the main ikat bands are Wala Ai, a flower, and Karihu, which is a seashell representing the bounty of the sea. The Karihu motif relates both to the mythological time when the ancestors crossed the ocean to arrive in Sumba, and to the actual time during the 19th century when Rindi was founded. As such it may only be used by high ranking families descended from the village's founder.

Best wishes,
from William, Jean, Pung and everyone at Threads of Life and the Bebali Foundation
Threads of Life's new online store. Prices include import duty and sales tax at destination. 
Prices do not include shipping from Indonesia.
 
Thank you to everyone who reviewed us on TripAdvisor: now ranked #3 of 50 places to shop in Ubud
 
Threads of Life is a fair trade business that uses culture and conservation to alleviate poverty in rural Indonesia. The heirloom-quality textiles and baskets we commission are made with local materials and natural dyes. With the proceeds from the Threads of Life gallery, we help weavers to form independent cooperatives and to manage their resources sustainably. 
Donate to
The Bebali
Foundation

 

Threads of Life's nonprofit partner, the Bebali Foundation, works with the same communities as Threads of Life to support cooperative development and environmental sustainability. The Bebali Foundation trains weavers in the establishment and maintaining of credit unions, and the sustainable cultivation, harvesting and use of dye plants. Its groundbreaking dye plant and dye recipe identification and documentation is the backbone of ongoing work to safeguard endangered indigenous weaving traditions, and the livelihoods they represent, from extinction. To support the Bebali Foundation, please donate at www.bebali.org via Give2Asia, PayPal, or bank transfer.

 

Umajati Retreat
 

Open since July 2012 and rated #6 of 224 speciality lodgings in Ubud on TripAdvisor

 

Surrounded by tranquil rice fields, Umajati is a lush garden property hosting two elegantly converted 100-year-old Javanese teak wooden homes that provide 21st century living in 19th century houses. Each has a kitchen and several private garden spaces around a shared swimming pool. Umajati is just 10 minutes north of Ubud and offers daily, weekly or monthly rentals hosted by Balinese house-keepers and cooks who specialize in healthy and vegetarian food. 

 

www.umajati.com

1-bedroom house, 

USD 190 per night. 

2-bedroom house, 

USD 245 per night. 

Weekly and monthly rates are available on request.

 

Threads of Life 
on TEDx
Weaving a new approach to poverty alleviation: William Ingram at TEDxUbud
Weaving a new approach to poverty alleviation: William Ingram at TEDxUbud
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