Inle Lake, Myanmar (Craft Workshops) (11/2006)

Inle Lake, Myanmar (Craft Workshops) cover page.	Map of Myanmar with star indicating Inle Lake.	Bridge that leads to the weaving factory.	A woman at work at the weaving factory.
Young woman weaving fabric the traditional way.	Another woman intently at work on the weaving machine.	The woman looked up from her work as I took this photo.	The reason why this lady was so friendly was that she wanted a tip!
This old woman is spinning thread.	Some of the facrics are of brilliant colors such as this purple.	I snapped this flower pot as I left the weaving factory.	This woman was selling flowers outside of an Inle Lake restaurant where we had lunch that day.
This is a local Inle Lake blacksmith shop.	It was insufferably hot there with the fire burning!	Heating up a steel blade for shaping.	Once the blade was hot, these blacksmiths pounded it into shape with sledge hammers.
Watching the fire burning.	Pounding the hot steel to shape it.	While one blacksmith holds the blade, the other pounds the edge of it.	This old (cheroot-smoking) guy's job was to keep the fire going.
Speaking of cheroots, our next stop was the Inle Lake cheroot factory.	This lady was rolling and cutting the cheroots.	View of all the women working in the cheroot factory.	Sign for the Shan Paper Workshop. Shan paper is made from the bark of the mulberry.
After cooking and rinsing, the fiber is beaten with a metal-tipped, wooden stamper for 12 hours.	At the end of the process, the Shan paper is dried in the sun. After about 15 minutes, the paper is ready to be used.	Leaves, small twigs, flowers and petals are often added to the Shan paper to decorate it.	A young woman making a decoration out of Shan paper.
Shan paper is used to make parasols, which are very popular in Myanmar.	This man is using a lathe on bamboo which is used to make the parasols.	A side view of the man using the lathe on the bamboo.	Another woman at work at the Shan paper workshop.
This woman is making the spines for a parasol.	Women hard at work with completed parasols in front of them.