Second Chance

I had the opportunity to go out to the lacquer factory with a customer for the day. This was my second time going, and it was better than the first. I knew the people at the factory better and it was cool to see what they have been working on since I last came. This woman below is the owner of the factory; she's been so kind to me when I visit. She also slaps me on the butt when she wants me to sit down, haha! After this was taken she was looking at the photos and commented on how short she is!

Again I had to use the squatty potty and got to see them kill the chicken for lunch. But this time I was able to take some good photos of the boys making lunch. They would just laugh at me because of my facial expression of all the meat. I still can't believe that they eat every part of the animals body, not leaving anything behind. They were cutting up the chicken feet, cow tongue, liver, gall bladder, and so much more!

Our customer is an interior designer from Chicago! She traveled all around Asia with the company she works for to see how the products she designs are made. She is very talented and it was fun to see her design many different products. A lot of ideas and planning go into every design. You have to think about what people will buy and the function it's going to have in someone's home.

The boy in the picture is spray painting a finish onto a color chip for us to see how it looks. On the left side is a women making a pattern with mother of pearl. Below are some pictures of using egg shells to make a design. This is a very old practice. They have an egg shell then they press it into the lacquer which makes a cracked looking design. There is a video below that shows this!

The customer and I went around the village to see what these people do in their homes. It was cute to see all the grandmas with little babies come out into the street to show the kids two foreigners. I have a picture below of a women who was nice and we became good friends.

We came across many factories of mother of pearl, coconut bowls, lamps, vases, and other home goods. They all had to do with lacquer mostly because this village, for multiple generations, has been making products with it. We had an older boy who was riding his bike up and down the street following us. He was a little shy but wanted to be in all of our photos!