The art of the craft

The art of the craft

A handicraft centre in Ang Thong under the Support Foundation is lesser known although it is behind the success of the Royal Khon Performance

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The art of the craft
Her Majesty the Queen revived the weaving of the rare Muang Nakhon silk brocades and commanded the use of such fabrics in the royal khon performance, according to Veeratham Tragoolngernthai, costume and ornaments designer of the Support foundation's annual Royal Khon Performance. In 2010, about 20 trained members of the Ban Noen Thammang Handicraft Centre in Nakhon Si Thammarat began weaving Muang Nakhon silk brocades for the performance. They are able to produce about 40 brocades each year. These members later taught about 30 members of the Support Foundation's Si Bua Thong Handicraft Centre in Ang Thong and another centre in Sing Buri to weave Muang Nakhon brocades. Producing a Muang Nakhon brocade takes a few months to complete and the weaving process requires the labour of five people, one weaver and four assistants. Photo courtesy of SUPPORT FOUNDATION

When it comes to cultural attractions relating to Her Majesty the Queen's royal projects, the Support Foundation's Bang Sai Handicraft Centre in Bang Sai district, Ayutthaya province, may first come to many people's minds. However, the nearby Si Bua Thong Handicraft Centre in Ang Thong province is also worth a visit because you will be able to see the embroidery of khon mask dance costumes, the production of the rare pha yok (traditional silk brocades) and khon masks for the annual Royal Khon Performance there.

Located in Sawaeng Ha district about 130km from Bangkok, the Si Bua Thong Handicraft Centre is where hundreds of locals have learned and conserved several fields of traditional art, including carving wood and making khon masks from the rare, durable and light khoi (Siamese rough bush) pulp paper. It is also a porcelain ceramic production centre for royal dining tables and certain museums.

Thanphuying Charungjit Teekara, secretary-general of the Support Foundation and chairman of the Royal Khon Performance Production Committee known as "The Royal Khon Performance", said: "Visitors will be able to see every field of art related to khon at this centre."

According to her, the weaving of yok thong (gold silk brocade) fabrics, which originated in Nakhon Si Thammarat province was revived by Her Majesty the Queen and has been improved by the foundation to be used in the Royal Khon Performance.

The performance is in its 10th year now and will be staged at the Main Hall, Thailand Cultural Centre, from Nov 5-Dec 5. However, it takes continuous years to produce khon costumes and ornaments, so the foundation has enhanced the skills of people at the Si Bua Thong Handicraft Centre to inherit these fields of art.

"It is a pride for the Support Foundation as, apart from creating careers for the people, it revives and inherits khon costumes and ornament creation, as well as the authentic Thai fabric production," she noted.

At this centre every day except Sunday, a demonstration of ceramic-making, khon costume embroidering, khon mask-making and silk weaving is on view. Several kinds of well-designed ceramic art and tableware are now available for sale and will be joined by various sizes of khon masks and khoi paper from the end of this month.

Back in 2006 when the Central Plains, including Ang Thong province, was hit by big floods, Her Majesty the Queen had the Si Bua Thong Handicraft Centre established in order to assist flood victims.

Admiral Sumpao Polathorn, principal of the centre, said most Support Foundation handicraft centres are located in remote areas in order to help the underprivileged while this centre is in a formerly heavily flooded area. HM the Queen first founded an experimental farm here for the flood victims to do farming while mending their houses.

She also had concerns for the flood victims' children who had no chance to further their studies after finishing high school. In 2007, Her Majesty established this handicraft centre, which shortly recruited the first group of 60 students for training. The training was initially offered by instructors from the foundation's other handicraft centres and the Science Service Department's ceramics moulding machine experts.

This centre formed its ceramics and cotton and silk fabric weaving units in 2007 and 2008, respectively. In 2009, it added embroidery and wood carving to its production line. In recent years, it founded the khoi papermaking and khon mask-making units.

ML Piyapas Bhirombhakdi, vice-chairman of the Khon Performance Production Committee, said khon masks and costumes must be produced continually for the royal khon performance in response to high demand since each show requires the use of about seven costumes for both performers and understudies of each character.

"We want everyone to see what Her Majesty the Queen has done. The area around this centre used to get heavily flooded and looked like a lake. Rice farming could not be done," she added.

At present, this area is now abundant enough for people to raise fish, cultivate mushrooms, grow santol trees and also mulberry trees for feeding silk worms.

Her Majesty the Queen initiated numerous projects to improve the people's standard of living. The Foundation for the Promotion of Supplementary Occupation and Related Techniques (Support) was established on July 21, 1976. It aims to help rural families earn more income by providing free financial assistance and expert guidance to craftsmen and poor farmers all over Thailand. The Queen also set up two main training centres, one in the compound of Chitralada Palace in Bangkok and the other in Bang Sai district, Ayutthaya.

According to Thanphuying Charungjit, the Support Foundation has many members nationwide, including people of six major hilltribes. In the North, Her Majesty first encouraged the people to quit opium growing, grow winter plants and make handicrafts instead. She supported silk and cotton weaving in the Northeast and traditional embroidery in the South.

The work of the foundation has much progressed from the beginning 40 years ago when HM the Queen met and encouraged a small group of northeastern women in a village to continue weaving silk. As of January-June 2014, hundreds of northeastern women in the same village earned a total of 48 million baht from selling handwoven silk fabrics called prae wa.

"As khon has become popular and attracted many audiences, we [the Support Foundation], therefore, have opted for khon costume conservation by supporting silk weaving and embroidery. Those who are good at wood carving have been trained to make khon masks. It is more convenient for people to visit this centre than Noen Thammang [Handicraft Centre in Nakhon Si Thammarat] to see silk brocade weaving," Thanphuying Charungjit said.

The Royal Khon Performance: Episode of "The Allegiance Of Phiphek" 2016 will be staged from Nov 5 to Dec 5, at the Main Hall, Thailand Cultural Centre. Tickets are available at Thai Ticket Major outlets. Visit www.thaiticketmajor.com or call 02-262-3456.

Khon mask-making at the centre started last year and follow the traditional style of using khoi pulp paper. The khon mask-making process starts from making moulds to applying several tiers of khoi pulp paper all over the moulds, removing the paper masks from the moulds, decorating the masks using a mixture of lacquer, gold lacquer and coloured glass, and painting the masks using natural pastel colours. Pichaya Svasti

About 13 members at the Si Bua Thong Handicraft Centre are able to weave golden braids on silk fabrics, according to four very fine patterns. Such fabrics are used as costumes and ornaments, including shirts, sleeves, shoulder loops, belts, pants and front armour for several khon characters. Pichaya Svasti

The art of silk brocade preparation takes six to seven months to complete. The process begins with spinning silk threads from the Northeast. The next steps are dyeing with natural colours, creating the structure of horizontal and vertical threads, undoing the tied knots and weaving. The most difficult process is designing motifs based on century-old traditional silk brocades. The second hardest one is weaving. Pichaya Svasti

Embroidering each of tops or pants for khon characters takes about four months to complete. Each member of the centre is assigned to embroider a specific component of each costume and then all different components from different members are assembled. The centre has 16 khon costume embroidery workers. Initially, the unit trained the first batch of 20 locals to embroider fabrics in the traditional style called pak soi. Some of the members still do pak soi embroidery, while the others opt for khon costume embroidery. At present, instructors from the Sirikit Institute in the Chitralada Palace compound teach them at the centre once a week. Pichaya Svasti

To produce ceramic tableware, workers put ready-to-use white clay into moulding machines called roller heads for making teacups, mugs, plates and dishes as desired and then place the outputs in gas-powered stoves under 800C to obtain 'biscuits'. The workers later hand-paint these 'biscuits' using underglaze colours and have them fired under 1,200C. Meanwhile, white ceramics, which bear decals depicting traditional florals or khon motifs, must be fired for a third time under 750-800C to ensure proper attachment. Pichaya Svasti

Ceramics are divided into four types — tableware, decorative ceramic flowers, animal figurines and local-style pottery. This centre is famous for producing tableware for royal dining tables and souvenirs for certain royal museums and the Royal Khon Performance. The most popular hand-painted patterns are the frangipani and lotus. Also well known is the design of royally-named flowers. Pichaya Svasti

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