We are blessed with an inspiring Mum. She uses her innate generosity and intrepid spirit to give back wherever she can, employing her incredible skills as a renowned midwife to teach women safer birthing techniques. She travels along treacherous routes to remote areas in Mongolia and Myanmar, effectively reducing maternal and baby mortality through her teaching programmes.

Thread Tales Co. is founded on the values of Giving Back and for us, supporting the communities of weavers, who painstakingly produce our designs with care and pride, is integral to the success of our business. Their success is our success, their livelihoods in part depend on us, and we work hard to facilitate and foster this shared sense of partnership.

We are helping to resurrect and safeguard skills that, in both Myanmar and Nepal, had faded into relative obscurity into our increasingly machine-driven world. The unique feel and quality that you can achieve through hand producing thread and hand weaving is not possible when done mechanically. Therefore our relationship with the weaver and their incredible skills is vital in our production process. Each design starts with an idea for a story and it is the collaboration between designer and weaver, the conversation that ensues as to how to turn the story of the design into a woven piece, that creates its uniqueness. The personality of the weaver and the designer is woven into each creation and no two are ever exactly the same.

I love sitting with the Artisans in these workshops, listening to the rhythmic click clack of the looms, seeing beautiful thread emerging from the raw fibres and watching with wonder something so bespoke, light and perfect produced by a pair of expert hands.

In a world where the demand for fast fashion has driven appalling working conditions and exploitation of vulnerable people working in a sweatshop environment in conditions of poverty, not to mention the environmental costs, we strive to champion the “Less is More" philosophy and change this selfish, destructive mentality.

We collaborate with our workshops in creating sustainable jobs based on a vocation and skill, in which the workers are valued, paid a liveable wage and are recognised for their work. There are no children labouring to make our products, instead we support family values and the economic and social development of their community.

On the Inle Lakes, 30 square kilometres of shallow water with paths cut through the dense reeds like a network of roads, our incredible Lotus and silk scarves are made. Some of the weavers work from their homes, wooden buildings on stilts; from looms in the houses. The looms have been restored for purpose, in order that they can be with their children and work to earn a wage. We have chosen the workshop owner that we partner with here specifically because he supports the values of the family. He is an entrepreneur with an ethical spirit and a pioneer in his community. He pays a liveable wage and the weavers are also given the opportunity to do piece work, where each item personally woven by that individual earns a commission at point of sale.

We are working on a future project with the Inle Heritage, a not for profit organisation, based on the banks of the Lakes. As well as environmental initiatives, they sponsor around 40 young students locally and from further afield to train in the hospitality industry.

Our supplier running the workshop in Nepal pays a good liveable wage and also offers interest free loans to her workers should they need a hand-up. She champions the development of the skills of the weavers, giving them a sense of career and purpose, a vocation of pride rather than ‘just a job’. Skills are passed through generations and it’s imperative that a weaver’s career is viewed as aspiring and valuable, to the next generation, and the next.

We are currently developing a sponsorship programme to support families that are particularly in need. Our philosophy is based on giving a hand-up rather than a hand-out. By providing these families with an opportunity to learn or develop a valued skill, the tools they need to access this, and to earn a wage to support themselves, along with education and access to health care where needed, we can facilitate sustainable jobs and an opportunity to thrive.

Staying true to our roots, we also support the charity that Mum is involved with, Helping The Burmese Delta. Their principles of improving education, health and livelihoods sit perfectly with ours, and our vision for Giving Back.

Ultimately, we hope that our support of the hand-weaving industry helps to drive opportunity. As we grow, so will they, and so will we. It’s a circular, symbiotic relationship. We place immense value into investing time to build relationships and understand the culture in order that we can aid progress and prosperity, which, like the Lotus, is slowly, gradually, starting to flower.