Teamwork and techniques
It has been our privilege to collaborate and teach many of our techniques to skilled Cambodian fabric artists.

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, the country drifted for a number of years. Individuals responsible for the deaths of millions were never punished or brought for reconciliation, instead they stayed in villages and co-mingled with their victims. When we started working in Cambodia in 1995, we found a very troubled society in which very few individuals could or would trust each other and could or would cooperate.

Into this situation, we began to search for people to weave silk for us. Beginning with a Cambodian krama (a scarf), we went from village to village, looking for weavers.

Initially we drove south of Phnom Penh. As we came into each village we would roll the window down and flap the scarf out in our inquiry. Sometimes we received unsettling looks, but sometimes villagers' reactions would be very friendly (as each villager pointed us in another direction!).

I remember our surprise when our driver Mr. Boun Leng leaned over to show the scarf exposing the shiny silver handle of the pistol under his thigh. Eventually we followed this trail until we left the aging Toyota and took a foot ferry across the Ton Le Sap river and after some very intense negotiation we rented Honda motor scooters to cover the next few kilometers over dusty, rutted road, scattering chickens and waving to small children and ladies hanging their wash, as we lurched past. The road wound down to an estuary where we negotiated for a motorized canoe to take us the remaining distance into the village that we hoped could weave our silk.

In this village we were introduced to everyone and everyone seemed honored to meet us. At that time there had been very few people like us in this village .(frequently, upon spotting us, small children would begin to cry and run away into their bamboo houses, terrified of our appearance).

After some small talk, we eventually began to negotiate the prices and terms for the weaving jobs, marking with chalk each weavers negotiated terms on the front of their loom. All the villagers signed a sort of "con-trac" with us, which spelled out that they WOULD BE PAID IN CASH upon completion and so on. To say they lacked trust at that time would be a colossal under-statement; and I remember well leaving that village without a very clear little expectation that the silk might really ever get done.

We returned two and a half months later and the silk was done. Beautifully. Everyone was properly paid and our partnership of trust began to flourish.