New blog on SE Asian looms

1 Aug

Hi guys, just sharing with you a new blog, Simplelooms, focusing on my travels in Southeast Asia and recapping the different looms, the tools and the relationship of the pattern device to the weaver. Those of you familiar with my blog in the early 2000’s will remember I lost a lot of organized teaching information when Apple discontinued mac.com

I’m smarter now (I hope) and will rebuild that resource with my photos and videos. It will be slow but it will come! I will continue my dye blog and will keep the SE Asian blog separate. Enjoy this first installment!

Regards Deb McClintock

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4 Responses to “New blog on SE Asian looms”

  1. Janette Gross August 2, 2013 at 3:39 am #

    Thanks for this! I am going to Northern Vietnam in October – with Serena Lee Harrigan. Any suggestions?

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    • debmcclintock August 2, 2013 at 12:07 pm #

      Enjoy! Here’s a link to my trip
      last year with Serena, I think you are going to the central and southern areas

      http://www.mytripjournal.com/DMCVietnam2012

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      • Janette Gross September 26, 2013 at 3:05 am #

        Deb:

        I read it all through and thanks so much! I leave next week, and am very excited. I guess you were focused on the looms, but if you had any other words of wisdom to impart about what to purchase (I read Kay’s blog as well) and how to prepare, I’d love to know. Did you complete your notes online at night? Is the electrical connection good enough to run your device? Your videos were awesome. Did you take lots of back up batteries? Did you take gifts?

        thanks for any information you can provide.

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  2. debmcclintock September 26, 2013 at 3:25 am #

    Answers below with your questions, safe travels and enjoy!

    I read it all through and thanks so much! I leave next week, and am very excited. I guess you were focused on the looms, but if you had any other words of wisdom to impart about what to purchase (I read Kay’s blog as well) and how to prepare, I’d love to know.

    The blankets and skirts are wonderful, not sure where you will be but you will see some beautiful weaving. Besides all the awesome weaving watch for the Hmong indigo work and the Yao embroidery. Stunning! Your holiday shopping will be done after this trip.

    Did you complete your notes online at night?

    I take a written hand journal usually and capture notes during the day on village visits to key in my photographs. Critical phrases that I need to remember and notes to help me remember photographs. Keep a map on hand to mark where you have been. Take photos of village name and write down highway #’s. It all runs together. I always try to pick up local maps or hotel brochures in each general area to help me remember where we were. I also use the service mytripjournal.com It is nice to map things out and upload photos for family. It is an older software but still works well.

    Something different this time I did in addition to my written notes was to use my phone to take notes. It was easier and I could resend my notes to myself each day in case my phone was stolen. I kept the phone on airport mode and just used the camera and note function. Kept battery use down on the phone. It worked great and I just filled in my notes in my tripjournal.com when I got home.

    Is the electrical connection good enough to run your device?

    Yes, take several adapters for the country in case you forget one in the hotel room (ask me why I say that). Recharge as much as possible.

    Your videos were awesome. Did you take lots of back up batteries?

    Thanks, I had rechargeable batteries and always recharged them at night. I also kept regular batteries in my camera case in case I ran the rechargeables down. I kept notes on what photos were on what SD memory card. I rotated cards and kept them separate from the camera in case the camera case was stolen. I’ve never had a theft but you do hear about them and I would be heartbroken if I lost hours of photos and videos. I had my nice camera and my phone camera. The phone camera came in handy one time when I ran out of battery juice. Not as nice a resolution but hey, something is better than nothing!

    Did you take gifts?

    On this particular trip, no, I did not take gifts. I just paid the requested price for textiles and did not try to bargain down. Normally, I take travel size shampoo for the ladies and crayons, pencils, notebooks for the kids. Most gifts for kids I try to give to the local school teacher or make a donation to the school. When I’ve collected enough eyeglasses here at home I take those also and find the local nurses who will connect up with vision docs to get glasses to the proper patients. Reading glasses are also nice.

    thanks for any information you can provide.

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