Laos – Chok weaving, Houaphanh province

This weaving style is used to produce beautiful fabric. It is a discontinuous supplementary weft technique, however instead of using heddles and shafts to create the pattern, a vertical series of pattern strings are used. The 2 shafts with heddles are used to control the picks of plain weave.

The whole loom – the warp wraps around the entire loom and ends back above the weaver’s head for ease of tensioning
Changing the pattern strings so that the next row of pattern can be woven
Inserting the sword to create the pattern shed
Weaving the supplementary weft thread through by hand
Beating the weft
The pattern strings
A traditional silk sinh (skirt) woven using the chok method
Another traditional silk sinh (skirt) woven using the chok method