Imbun shows the natural way

Imbun shows the natural way

A Phayao community draws on its long experience with nature to make globally popular clothing and linen

To many, Dok Kham Tai district in Phayao conjures up an image of a place rich in culture and tradition, where local arts that use natural colours and natural cloth speak of strong community bonds.

Angsumalin Buntha, co-founder of Tumlay-Imbun Co, shows off a fabric produced from natural plants grown locally. (Photos by Saiarun Pinaduang)

Tumlay-Imbun Co, a community enterprise which produces eco-friendly hand-made arts and crafts from organic colours under the brand “Imbun” (the delight of making merit), was established more than 10 years ago by Phitak Buntha, 46, a Phayao resident, and his wife Angsumalin, 38, who hails from Bangkok.

The couple recount the time when they decided to leave Bangkok and settle in Dok Kham Tai district, Mr Phitak’s home town. They started a community enterprise which harnessed local entrepreneurial expertise, artistic skills and labour. The drive behind the enterprise is a collective desire by the couple to preserve local culture as expressed in the art of handicrafts. 

Mr Phitak said the idea popped into his mind when his wife, after finishing her bachelor’s degree from Thammasat University’s Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, told him she wanted to apply her knowledge and experience in a rural community.

His wife’s passion to keep and revitalise local cloth and natural dye making skills resonated with him.

The couple saw an opportunity to launch an environmentally-friendly business, which would bind the way of life of Dok Kham Tai residents and their local wisdom in extracting colours from natural plants grown locally.

The naturally-dyed fabric is made into apparel and women’s clothing with unique designs.

Mr Phitak said the business is helping to improve quality of life as expounded in the sufficiency economy philosophy of His Majesty the King, as well as reducing labour migration to the big cities.

The Imbun line of products includes bedroom items such as sheets and linens as well as apparel tailored in a modern style. What sets the firm’s products apart from the others in the market is the colours extracted from local plants. The dye is free of dangerous chemicals.

“Environmental conservation forms the very heart of Imbun products. Organic colours used in cloth painting are obtained from leaves and seeds of the plants. Trees are not cut down as we need only some parts in our materials,” Mrs Angsumalin said.

The colours are also mixed for painting on fabric. In the room where the painting is done, various types of cloths are stretched out by pulling on all four corners to resemble a canvas ready for the colourful patterns to be done by hand.

Several amateur artists, who are natives of the district, are employed to work on the cloths imprinted with outlines of patterns created by Imbun’s veteran designers.

They carefully fill in the spaces within the patterns that are drawn faintly with tailoring chalk.

The organic colours are derived from natural materials such as tamarind seeds and the leaves of Indian almond.

The dyed cloths are rinsed in water and dried in the sun before being cut and sewn into clothes. The fabric is also sewn as part of headwear, luggage and handbags.

Mrs Angsumalin said around 50 painters work for Tumlay-Imbun Co. They are not renowned artists but ordinary farmers with an artistic flair.

When the farming season is over and they have nothing to do, they spend their free time painting Imbun cloth and earn around 300 baht a day.

In addition, they can take the work to be finished at home.

“We offer them a training course in painting and how long each person spends on the training varies depending on their experience and background. Eventually, after a lot of hard work, it’s not beyond their efforts,” she said.

“Some villagers told me painting is more difficult than working in a rice paddy field as concentration and a steady hand are required to be able to draw intricate patterns and paint each delicate detail,” said Mrs Angsumalin.

Mr Phitak said the market for Imbun products is vast. Today, the products are exported mainly to Europe, parts of Asia and the United States.

“For cloth patterns, European customers prefer tree leaves while Asian clients prefer fancy fish patterns printed on clothes using organic colours derived from auspicious plants — wearers believe it will bring them good luck,” he said.

Mr Phitak said he and his wife never stop trying to create new products with different patterns in response to customers' demands.

Asked why few Imbun products are sold in the Thai market, Mr Phitak said natural products are not popular with locals.

“We don’t use chemicals in our products because we are concerned about the side-effects on consumers and the environment, which we regarded as the first priority when we set up the firm,” Mr Phitak said.

Mrs Angsumalin, meanwhile, said her company’s products are not harmful to human health or nature as they are produced by 100% organic materials.

They also help to reduce the amount of waste as villagers collect tamarind seeds and other parts of dye plants because these materials are often discarded.

Additionally, painting with organic colour benefits workers themselves since artificial colours can increase the risk of cancer, dermatitis and respiratory diseases due to chemical accumulation in the body.

Today a group from Dok Kham Tai community is passing on their knowledge to housewives and youngsters who are interested in cloth painting in order to enhance their quality of life.

As Imbun prepares for the launch of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) at the end of this year, Mr Phitak believes the products will capture markets in the Asean bloc, especially in Singapore and the Philippines where the demand for products with natural ingredients is high.

Meanwhile, he and his wife continue to work hard to keep up-to-date on various customer trends according to the countries’ geography in order to come up with new patterns and styles that will enable the firm to compete better with other Asean countries.

“Uniqueness is a vital factor that will make our products stand out on the shelves. Even though the items may be upper end, people are willing to pay extra for clothes that express their identity,” Mr Phitak said.

Foreign investors had tried to obtain a copyright of Imbun products.

But Mr Phitak has declined all approaches, saying he wanted to preserve authentic Thai traditional products as he believes it belongs to the entire country.

Clockwise from right The process of dying the cloth begins with squeezing natural colours from locally-grown plants before soaking the fabric and hanging it out in the sun to dry. Local residents, mostly farmers, are then recruited to paint the cloth in intricate patterns. The finished products are exported to many countries in Europe as well as the United States.

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