Carol Cassidy This is Me

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1. 1. Lao Textiles

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   Published on: 7/15/2008   Last Visited: 7/15/2008

   Carol Cassidy
   
   Lao Textiles
   ...
   Carol Cassidy, CEO: ccassidy@laotextiles.com

2. 2. Lao Textiles Press: Carol Cassidy Biography

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   Published on: 7/15/2008   Last Visited: 7/15/2008

   Carol Cassidy, founder and owner of Lao Textiles, has been working with textiles and fiber art for nearly three decades.She studied weaving in Norway and Finland and earned a BFA from the University of Michigan in 1980.She then worked as a fiber/textile expert for eight years in southern Africa.
   
   On a CARE project, she trained women in Lesotho to produce handspun mohair yarn, suitable for export.Later, on a rural development project for the United Nations, she applied her expertise to setting up sustainable cottage industries for women in rural Lesotho, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
   
   In 1989, Carol moved to Southeast Asia to work as a weaving advisor on a UN weaving project in Vientiane, Laos.Shortly thereafter, she decided to establish her own textile business to preserve and continue the tradition of hand-weaving of silk in Laos.The government of the Lao PRD granted her permission to set up Lao Textiles in 1990.After years of working with rural silk farmers, she now relies on their steady production of domestic silk.The studio produces a broad range of hand-woven, silk textiles ranging from intricate brocade and tapestry wall hangings to ikat scarves and shawls to custom upholstery and curtain fabrics.She has lived in Vientiane with her husband and two children since 1989.
   
   In 1995, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York hosted an exhibition of Carol's work entitled "Beyond Tradition: Lao Textiles Revisited".Lao Textiles was awarded the Product Excellence Award by UNESCO in 2001.Aid to Artisans honored Carol with their first Preservation of Craft award in 2002 for her efforts in preserving silk weaving in Laos.Carol continues to advise the UN and other development agencies on income-generating activities for rural women.
   
   Over the past several years, she has worked closely with a group of weavers in Cambodia who are landmine survivors.Traveling widely, Carol teaches and lectures on weaving and small business management and shares her personal model of weaving success with weavers and artisans around the world.

3. 3. Lao Textiles

   www.laotextiles.com - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/15/2008   Last Visited: 7/15/2008

   Carol Cassidy
   
   Lao TextilesCarol CassidyCarol Cassidy's Lao Textiles workshop, studio and gallery creates woven art.Specializing in 100 percent hand-woven silk, Carol and the 40 Lao artisans she employs produce exquisitely crafted wall hangings, scarves, shawls and custom furnishing fabrics.Carol's pieces are displayed in galleries and museums throughout the Unites States: The Textile Museum in Washington, DC, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
   
   Weaver at loom.American Carol Cassidy has been weaving since she was 17 years old.Having worked in virtually every continent from America to Africa, she arrived in Laos in 1989, as a textile expert with the United Nations Development Programme.In Laos Carol discovered a "weaver's paradise": a country with a rich history of weaving and an elaborate vocabulary of design motifs.A year later, she started Lao Textiles, among the first commercial weaving workshops in Laos.
   
   Detail of hands at loom.Lao Textiles was founded in 1990.It is located in a refurbished French colonial mansion three blocks from the Mekong River in downtown Vientiane, the capital of Laos.There, Carol blends her own artistry with ancient local techniques and traditions to create contemporary woven art.The team of predominantly female weavers use hybrid looms, which Carol designed herself, to produce intricate brocade, ikat and tapestry textiles.The hand-crafted pieces are labors of love.Wall hangings often take four months to complete; on the most complex designs only two centimeters are woven per day.
   
   Please contact Carol Cassidy's Lao Textiles for more information, or stop by the studio for a tour if you happen to be in Vientiane.