LAO SILVERSMITHS
These drawings were made at Maniphone Silversmiths in Luang Prabang, one of the few workshops in Laos that continues to produce silverware in the traditional way.
The man who founded it, the late Thit Pheng Maniphone, was a silversmith to the former Royal Lao household and a widely respected master of the craft.
Born in 1929, he passed away in 2014, having long since cemented his family’s reputation for craftsmanship of the highest quality. In the process, he helped ensure that the artform’s traditional practices are maintained and can be sustained by local demand, rather than driven by the tastes of tourists.
Today the workshop is run by his son, Thongsavath, a master silversmith himself, who supervises a team of eight craftsmen.
The drawings focus on them.
Thit Pheng Maniphone can be seen talking about the art of Lao silversmiths in the film Portraits from Luang Prabang, here: