 Fang Mai Gallery is one of the best textile galleries in Viennese and sells an exclusive collection of exquisite fabrics made using naturally dyed silk, painstakingly hand-woven on traditional looms. To preserve the weaving heritage of Lao, designs used are derived from antique textiles such as those commissioned by the ancient royal courts. Weaving, it was a pride of the Lao women. Let Lao women some foreigners told me that we are the best weavers from the north to the south, from the east to the west. I saw that every tribe, they have specific weaving skills. The Thai women, they are very good weavers. When we organized the competition of the best weavers, they always won the first prize. I still remember that one Japanese, she spent only $10,000 to buy bags and bags bags and bags of the woven products. So about weaving in our country, right in Laos, they are very famous. Why famous is because we have to weave for the scarf, for the Lao women, where is that because sin or Lao skirt. Some people they learn from their family, from their mom in the countryside, in the countryside. Some people they just beginning to learn for their earn the money, for earn the money for living their life. The sin is quite hard, you know. Sometimes they take for long time. One is depend on the sin or Lao skirt. One week, two weeks, one month is depend on the style or colourful on the sin or scarf also quite similar with the sin. So they do it as alternative income or cash come even, because they plant rice and then during the after rice farming season, women they start to do the weaving and men they do the woodwork. And from the tradition on women viewers, they do everything themselves. They start to plant the memory, to layer the sin form, to layer the silk, to spin the sin thread and then to do the eye cut and then to do the thigh silk or top silk and then they do the weaving. And then they bring to sell at the market all the way for the buyers to come. These viewers they want to be group, but the problem is market moving by. Because if they buy, if they sell they have to sell with high price, because everything they have to buy, everything is, the tax is on top. Fang Mai Gallery is run by two sisters, Kong Tong and Vien Kham, Nhan Tavong Daong Si, from Samnyong Province, who began to weave at six years of age under the expert guidance of their mother. They both continue to work together to supervise the entire weaving process at Fang Mai in an extended family manner, where the weavers are part of the design planning, color choice and depth sense of tradition and skill. They pay a good money also, so that's why they quite have a lot of staff for the weaving for them. And some people they are from countryside, right? They have their rent, apartment for them, a room for them for stay. Or some people they have family, they have to go back home by themselves. So they open from 8 a.m. until 5 or 6 p.m. It was in 1990 that Fang Mai first opened its gallery and hand-loom weaving facilities to train the people of Laos and other intricate skills and techniques required to produce Laos textiles. Their textiles are created from various types of silk thread. From one cocoon, they gather three to four qualities of yarn. The thread from the outer layer is chosen for a durable textured fabric. The finer second and third layers are ideal for their superior lustrous accessories and signature quality contemporary design. They use both the natural yellow silk from a specific kind of cocoon only grown in Laos, which provides a natural look and soft texture and use the white silk more for its pastel color. Natural dyes are used. They are able to continue dyeing using the same techniques that have been used by their ancestors. In order to keep a high standard and consistency in the colors, they are very selective about the plants they use to extract their natural colors from. In 2006, Vien Kham wrote and published the book Sin and Laow Women and was a co-writer of the book Legends in the weaving and author of a small book, Weaving Clothes, Weaving Naga. After reading these books, one looks within even greater admiration at the incredible accomplishments of Laow weavers and the importance of Laow textiles in understanding Laow culture.