Community-creative Economy Enterprises of Silk Weavers Using Natural Dyestuffs (Case Study of Surin Province, Thailand)

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate natural dyestuffs found in local communities of Surin province, Thailand, and to develop community-creative economy enterprises of silk weavers in order to create their knowledge and skills in production and marketing. This research process was designed as the following steps: 1) Brainstorm meeting of researcher team, 2) Setting up criteria for selecting a community/research area, where was developed for natural dyestuffs, 3) Development of curriculum of natural dyestuffs, including theory and practical training, 4) Selection of research/community area, where was developed for natural dyestuffs, 5) Training of natural dyestuffs, and 6) Evaluation and monitoring using PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) process. The research tools were the dyeing stuffs training and the questionnaire for evaluation. The results showed that they were 58 participants participating in the training project with bringing many dyestuffs such as Brazilian pepper leaves, Argusianus argus peel and Cassia leaves etc. Most of the participants responded that natural dyestuffs could reduce cost when compared to the synthetic (88.9 percent), would like to continue training of natural dyeing stuffs (61.1), and needs an expertise to visit their home and advise them about natural dyeing. Especially, the participants would like to learn more how to transform silk clothes to varieties of products such as cloths and bags etc. Most of them sold silk product only in Surin Province (86.1 percent) and they would like to have a chance to sell abroad.