January 2023 Featured Interview
Weaving a Better Life
Interview with
Joanna Smith
Co-Founder and Creative Director of Ock Pop Tok
Photo Courtesy: Ock Pop Tok
About Joanna ("Jo"):
Joanna Smith earned a B.A. in fine arts, specializing in sculpture and photography. A photography contract with an E.U funded development project brought her to Laos in 1999. While in Laos, Jo was becoming increasingly enamored with the intricate weavings and the women of Laos who produced them. Veomanee Douangdala’s creativity attracted Jo like a magnet. She had been looking for like-minded artists with whom to collaborate. Both women shared a love for the traditional, handloomed textiles and were committed to preserving and promoting these textiles to the rest of the world. These shared interests led them to co-found Ock Pop Tok in 2000.
In 2002, Jo initiated Ock Pop Tok’s rural development program, the Village Weaver Projects. The program’s goal is to alleviate poverty in rural areas, and this led to numerous consultancies in value chain analysis for Lao government projects. This project currently employs over 400 artisans around Laos. Jo has spoken about Ock Pop Tok’s mission at academic and museum conferences from Sydney to Washington D.C. Recently she made a presentation about Lao textiles (in the Lao language) at Tinkuy, an international Textiles Conference in Cusco, Peru.
She now oversees the creative and strategic development of the company. You’ll find her buzzing around in her bright yellow scooter searching for new culinary ideas for Ock Pop Tok’s café or discovering more innovative products for the stores. She relaxes by playing football on the many athletic fields in Luang Prabang!
Joanna Smith earned a B.A. in fine arts, specializing in sculpture and photography. A photography contract with an E.U funded development project brought her to Laos in 1999. While in Laos, Jo was becoming increasingly enamored with the intricate weavings and the women of Laos who produced them. Veomanee Douangdala’s creativity attracted Jo like a magnet. She had been looking for like-minded artists with whom to collaborate. Both women shared a love for the traditional, handloomed textiles and were committed to preserving and promoting these textiles to the rest of the world. These shared interests led them to co-found Ock Pop Tok in 2000.
In 2002, Jo initiated Ock Pop Tok’s rural development program, the Village Weaver Projects. The program’s goal is to alleviate poverty in rural areas, and this led to numerous consultancies in value chain analysis for Lao government projects. This project currently employs over 400 artisans around Laos. Jo has spoken about Ock Pop Tok’s mission at academic and museum conferences from Sydney to Washington D.C. Recently she made a presentation about Lao textiles (in the Lao language) at Tinkuy, an international Textiles Conference in Cusco, Peru.
She now oversees the creative and strategic development of the company. You’ll find her buzzing around in her bright yellow scooter searching for new culinary ideas for Ock Pop Tok’s café or discovering more innovative products for the stores. She relaxes by playing football on the many athletic fields in Luang Prabang!
About Ock Pop Tok: Ock Pop Tok's mission is to elevate the profile of Lao textiles and artisans, to increase economic opportunities for artisans, and to facilitate creative and educational collaboration in Laos and worldwide. The organization is committed to taking care of the environment, honoring and respecting traditions, paying good wages (including benefits such as health insurance, paid leave, and profit sharing), and cultivating local and international markets that provide a sustainable source of income for Lao artisans and their communities. The products reflect a balance between tradition and innovation. |
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A journey that began with two women...
Ock Pop Tok (which means "East meets West" in Lao) was founded in 2000 by Englishwoman Joanna (Jo) Smith and Laotian Veomanee (Veo) Douangdala. It's an artisan enterprise based in Luang Prabang, Laos that has grown from a small shop selling only a handful of designs to one of the preeminent textile and artisanal institutions in all of Laos and Southeast Asia. Ock Pop Tok’s team has grown to over 90 employees.
It was founded on the principles of fair trade and sustainable business practices. The original concept was to enable people to exchange knowledge and ideas through textiles. The company was a pioneering social business dealing in ethical fashion before these terms entered our global vocabulary.
Carol Lippert Gray, co-associate editor, asked Jo Smith about her role with Ock Pop Tok and how the organization has evolved and helped the women of Laos economically.
Ock Pop Tok (which means "East meets West" in Lao) was founded in 2000 by Englishwoman Joanna (Jo) Smith and Laotian Veomanee (Veo) Douangdala. It's an artisan enterprise based in Luang Prabang, Laos that has grown from a small shop selling only a handful of designs to one of the preeminent textile and artisanal institutions in all of Laos and Southeast Asia. Ock Pop Tok’s team has grown to over 90 employees.
It was founded on the principles of fair trade and sustainable business practices. The original concept was to enable people to exchange knowledge and ideas through textiles. The company was a pioneering social business dealing in ethical fashion before these terms entered our global vocabulary.
Carol Lippert Gray, co-associate editor, asked Jo Smith about her role with Ock Pop Tok and how the organization has evolved and helped the women of Laos economically.
Let’s start with your background and what your role as co-founder and creative director entails.
My official role at Ock Pop Tok is creative director, but really Veo [Veomanee Douangdala], Ock Pop Tok’s co-founder and executive director, and I just split the running of things. I oversee the Living Crafts Centre, which is a role I love as the center is a place where the Ock Pop Tok philosophy really comes alive. We are about exchanging knowledge and ideas, and we believe you can discover Laos through textiles, so bringing those ideals to reality is really interesting. We run hands-on classes where people have the chance to create their own Lao textiles. There is a free tour where every visitor can witness the different steps involved in making a Lao textile from watching silkworms spin cocoons to the master weaver’s hands intricately weaving silk threads into the cloths. We even run a hotel and café, and the center is perched on a bend in the Mekong River, so the whole center has this relaxing Zen feeling. Actually, we can call it a handicraft sanctuary. |
Photo Courtesy: Ock Pop Tok
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As for me, my background is in the arts. I studied fine art and had jobs as a freelance photographer and designer, but that feels like a lifetime ago. Veo (initially a weaver who comes from a weaving family) and I co-founded Ock Pop Tok 23 years ago and have nurtured our little project into a thriving social enterprise. We talk about the model we created throughout Laos and all over the world.
The Village Weavers Project: A series of initiatives that create economic opportunities for artisans in rural locations around Laos. Ock Pop Tok has been collaborating with Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF).
Photo Courtesy: Ock Pop Tok |
Do you know how many women over the years have benefitted from participating with Ock Pop Tok? I'm sure there are both tangible and intangible benefits. What do the women tell you about how this has affected their lives and families?
It's difficult to put an exact number on it, but it’s in the hundreds. We employ weavers full-time at our Living Crafts Centre (between 10 to 20), and we have worked with 200 to 500 women across Laos through our Village Weavers Project. This work happens in 15 provinces and with 17 different ethnic groups. Working with us and having access to more markets has helped these women cater to the needs of their families, such as making sure their kids go to school, and has empowered them to create an overall better life for themselves. We decide which villages to work with. Sometimes we meet the artisans when they come to Luang Prabang to sell their products. These groups either request to work with us or we choose to work with them because we are impressed with their weaving techniques and traditions. We also find partner village weavers through the Public Private Partnership development mode where we partner with NGOs or government organizations working on poverty-reduction missions. If they decide that one way to reduce poverty in the community is to develop the handicrafts business, they ask to partner with us. |
The tangible benefit is mainly the economic impact for women. Traditionally, the women we work with wouldn't have high income earning potential, due to lack of education and a traditional family structure. They might have had anywhere from five to ten kids. But these women have incredible knowledge and skills and are sincerely hardworking. What Ock Pop Tok essentially does is provide them with a platform of opportunity to use their traditional skills as a means to earn income. But the intangible benefits are there as well, such as respect in the community that comes from being seen as high earners who can afford to educate their kids and travel both nationally and internationally, elevating these women in the social standing at the village level.
Why is it important to keep local weaving styles alive? How do the styles vary from region to region? How has the organization evolved over the years?
What started with five weavers has grown to working with more than 500 artisans around Laos through our Village Weavers Project. Our craft practice is based on elevating the profile of Lao textiles and artisans, increasing economic opportunities for artisans, and facilitating creative and educational collaboration in Laos and worldwide. Our products reflect a balance between tradition and innovation, East and West. Societies are dynamic and evolving, and we believe that traditional crafts should be, too. Our work is rooted in the textile traditions of Laos; however, we appreciate and nurture innovation in our products and designs. Over the last 20 years, we’ve merged traditions from the East with innovation from the West which has allowed us to not only elevate the profile of Lao textiles but also contribute to its preservation. We have been exporting worldwide since 2014. |
Photo Courtesy: Ock Pop Tok
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Lao textiles are diverse. Each ethnic group favors a different technique. The Hmong, Akha, Oma and Lanten all focus on embroidery, but each has a different style. The Tai Lue and Tai Daeng use standing looms to weave their textiles; the Katu and Kriang use backstrap looms. The Hmongs are the only ones doing batik. At Ock Pop Tok, we have an impressive collection of vintage fabrics collected over the years. Through this collection, known as our Fiber to Fabric Collection, we've managed to document and demonstrate the production and cultural significance of textiles from various regions and ethnicities in Lao PDR and at the same time, contribute to its preservation.
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What are the most popular items you sell?
Our wall hangings, which are works of art and can take weeks to make, are popular. And our home decor items are also popular - rugs, cushion covers, placemats, etc. We also sell a large variety of scarves in silk and cotton. It's a favorite among tourists visiting Luang Prabang looking for gifts to bring back home. How did you manage during the height of the COVID pandemic? We have enjoyed the challenge of the COVID years. It wasn't easy, and we all worked very hard, but some great projects were envisioned and implemented. We recreated the inspiring Folk Art Market in Santa Fe by bringing artisans from all over Laos to our center to sell and promote their arts and culture. We started a podcast focused on interviews with inspiring leaders from the global artisan community. And we worked with six new villages, developing and promoting their handicrafts, some of which were showcased at the Maison & Objet trade show in Paris last September. So, we have a lot of potential directions we can go and keep working on. |
How do you envision the future of the organization?
This is a super hard question to answer right now. I feel the world is in a cocktail shaker, and we don't know what we are going to get poured. If it's a margarita, I will order the tacos; if it's a Negroni, I will take something else. So, we are just waiting, observing, and will plan from there.
And finally, we ask everyone we interview where they find sanctuary. In other words, where do you go or what do you do personally to recharge your battery and relax?
The best way for me to relax and recharge is on a long trip, sitting in the window seat of a moving vehicle – a plane, a car, or a train. It’s the combination of being on the move and not being able to go anywhere, if that makes sense. Just sitting with nowhere to run, I find my brain can finally relax. It amazes me that once I’m in that state, new ideas start flowing in. These ideas can be anything from personal projects to things to do with the kids to politics. But I love this. This recharges me, and the mere fact of doing nothing – that’s relaxing.
This is a super hard question to answer right now. I feel the world is in a cocktail shaker, and we don't know what we are going to get poured. If it's a margarita, I will order the tacos; if it's a Negroni, I will take something else. So, we are just waiting, observing, and will plan from there.
And finally, we ask everyone we interview where they find sanctuary. In other words, where do you go or what do you do personally to recharge your battery and relax?
The best way for me to relax and recharge is on a long trip, sitting in the window seat of a moving vehicle – a plane, a car, or a train. It’s the combination of being on the move and not being able to go anywhere, if that makes sense. Just sitting with nowhere to run, I find my brain can finally relax. It amazes me that once I’m in that state, new ideas start flowing in. These ideas can be anything from personal projects to things to do with the kids to politics. But I love this. This recharges me, and the mere fact of doing nothing – that’s relaxing.
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