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Chanchai

"I am a Chiang Mai woman who loves handcrafts, especially those in the tradition of Lanna, northern Thailand, which has its own identity and culture. It inspires my designs.

"The story of my life is the same one I tell my children: I only finished up to Grade 4 because my father passed away. However, with my diligence and patience, I grew up to achieve some success in life. I'm the fourth of seven siblings, and we all come together every Thai New Year Day or Songkran Festival to celebrate and make merits together to achieve blessings even as adults.

"When father passed away I had to leave school and get a job to help mother and the family finances. I was lucky that there were many small factories around the area and I got a job making gifts and souvenirs, so there was always a job to have. I was happy, and intended to do it everyone around that area was so kind to me. They all knew me, which is why I was diligent and well-behaved.

"When I grew up I applied for a job as a seamstress even though I really had no skills at all at the time. However, the person who owned the factory was kind enough to teach me how to sew the bags since she had known me since I was young. I learned step by step until I did a good job. I kept practicing on my free time, and I learnt how to sew dresses. Eventually I got promoted at work because of the different skills I had developed.

"I quit my job when I married in 1982 and we had our first child. We rented a small house near the commercial area in Sankhampeang where we ran a small shop and sold bags, clothes and hill tribe dolls that I made. The dolls were a big hit with the tourists! Eventually orders started coming in and we had made enough money to buy a plot of land and build our own house.

"Orders kept coming, customers kept coming, and I was able to offer work to more people. However, in 1997 there was an economic crisis in Thailand and many small businesses were affected, including us. We had to stop hiring people, and we couldn't sell the stock we had, unless it was at cost. From my own experience, I knew that we must be careful about managing our venture so we reduced production to just fulfilling orders.

"On a brighter side, this meant I had more time to create new designs. Working with local cotton, I started selling these new designs and kept improving, sometimes under the guidance of customers' suggestions.

"We started selling at the walking street market at Sankampaeng. It is such a different environment because everyone is more supportive of each other. Those who were once competitors now became friends who grow and work together.

"One of the biggest challenges I faced was fulfilling the order brought to us by a Japanese customer. He gave me some designs for handbags which I had never done before, and he gave us the same amount of material needed. Nothing to spare in case of mistakes, and I wouldn't be able to replace it if I had made any mistakes. So I worked very carefully, avoiding mistakes. When I finally finished the order, correctly and on time, my customer was extremely satisfied! This is one of the proudest moments in my career

"I was selected to be Sankampaeng representative to exhibit my products in the province of Phuket. It was a National Exhibition and we did very well, getting many orders. It was my first time to visit Andaman Sea, which is one of the nicest places in the world, but it's not easy for people from northern Thailand to travel to because of the long distance and cost. These good experiences made me feel my luck was increasing.

"I am very happy with my family and my work at this moment, even though business is not as good as before. I'm so proud to have come through the difficult times. That's why I tell my children my story. I believe that it can lead them to perform well, carefully manage their life and encourage them to maintain our Thai culture. My little daughter seems to understand this: every Friday, she must wear a traditional Thai uniform dress to school. On day, she wore a new sarong I made for her, but she returned from school with a letter from the teacher insisting that she wear only the school uniform only. However, the letter did make me smile because the teacher also placed an order for a similar sarong! br>
"I'm glad that I'll have the chance to display our work to the world. Everybody will see our products without traveling to Thailand. Thank you Novica for such a good opportunity. I hope my bags will become representative of Thai culture."