​After our experiences of feltmaking and blockprinting in Kathmandu, we set off to the Far East of the country and up into the mountains. Our jeep met us off the plane and drove us up twisty and often rough roads through villages and a varied landscape, including paddy fields, bamboo glades and rhododendron bushes to our guest house in Dhankuta.  Here, the accommodation was much more basic than in Kathmandu, but the cold shower was actually very welcome after a day in the heat.

Our main reason for being in Dhankuta was to meet and work with the Santang embroiderers. The women in the group specialise in counted thread embroidery, with designs centring around the house motif. We walked through the village and out into the countryside until we arrived at their workshop. We sat together on a long balcony and did our best to follow the instructions of our embroidery teachers. My efforts at the most basic of the designs were spectacularly unsuccessful, but the experience of sitting with these skilled women and watching them work was exhilarating….not to mention the opportunity to eavesdrop on conversations about working as a cooperative, wander around the land and take oodles of photographs.  

​Our visit to Myanglung, where we were to meet the Dhaka weavers, started with an explosion of colour as we arrived during the weekly Haat Bazaar. Here, our interest in all that we could see, hear and smell was reciprocated in full by the locals as they followed our progress around the market and through the streets of the village, taking selfies with us and practising their English. It was a real pleasure to meet and photograph these friendly people in their vibrant clothes and colourful houses. 

​We were lucky enough to be able to spend a couple of days in this village, hosted by a family who looked after us, cooked for us, shared their rakshi (the local hooch) with us and made us feel incredibly welcome. From this base, we were able to visit the Dhaka weaving shed and appreciate the skill required to make their beautiful shawls and wraps. Needless to say, we spent some of our time perusing the local shops and buying quite a few souvenirs.

​The rest of the trip involved a return to the guest house at Dhankuta and a walk around the old part of the village with its orange-painted houses, an introduction to one of the last remaining basketmakers in the region, and then back to the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu. Our last day was spent, in contrast to the peace and tranquility of the mountains, in the popular area of Thamel.  

Interesting as that last day was, it made us appreciate just how special our trip had been, looked after and guided by Karen and Ang Diku Sherpa. Without these two women, their enthusiasm for Nepal and its culture, good humour and impeccable organisation skills, this adventure would never have happened. My thanks go to them, but also to the great group I was a part of: Anne Marie, Bun, Christine, Joan and Pauline and not forgetting Penny, whose illustrations added a little je ne sais quoi to the trip.
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To find out more about Nepalese Textiles and the next Nepal Textile Adventure, 2018, come along  to our event on 30 September at the Drawing Room, St Margaret's House, Edinburgh. 
More details from Karen at [email protected] or from me here.

I first found out about Karen Haggis and her Nepal Textile Adventure last September. It had been a very hard time for me and my husband, as we both lost our fathers in the summer. We hadn't had a proper holiday for a while, and this trip to Nepal (including the far east of the country) promised so much: discovering the art of dhaka weaving and 'counted thread' embroidery, participating in workshops on feltmaking and blockprinting and photographing one of the most colourful cultures in the world. 
I signed up, met Karen and the 5 other women in the group and, in April, embarked on one of the most exciting  trips of my life.

If you follow my blog, you will know that Susan and I go way back. We have holidayed together countless times and, most recently, made several trips in pursuit of exceptional feltmaking experiences. A couple of years ago, Susan gave me a copy of Catherine O'Leary's book, From felt to fabric. Imagine my delight when I saw that, not only was Catherine to be teaching a 3-day workshop on Bodywraps this summer, but that it would take us back to the Netherlands...this time to Atelier Fiberfusing, run by feltmaker, Dorie van Dijk. The location for our felting sojourn on the banks of the River Amstel could not have been bettered, despite the heatwave of the first couple of days and the ever-hungry mosquitoes at our accommodation.

Isla is going into S6 and is already preparing for her upcoming A-level in Textiles. Her textile project for the year is Organic Forms, for which she really wants to learn about feltmaking. And so, this week, she joined me for a 2-day course. Our focus was Flowers in 2-Dimensional Felt, using merino wool and silk.