From growing the plants and harvesting the fibres to stitching a jacket with a needle and silk thread, meet the artisans who know the true meaning of a labour of love.

This is an 11-day programme consisting of multiple workshops to provide artists with the tools and skills they need to focus on creating or honing their personal sustainable creative practice.

Your home for the duration of the artist residency will be the luxury Avana Resort, located in Mai Chau in Northern Vietnam. Nestled deep in the mountains, it sits in the heartland of three of Vietnam’s ethnic groups, the Black, White Tay and Black H’mong minority people.

TextileSeekers will shape an experience that is conducive to introspection and inspiration.

You’ll uncover a region where tradition and vibrant ethnic identities reign supreme, and where the masterful textiles of the Tay women unveil symbols, cultural treasures, and clues to the region’s past and present. The connection with the land and its bountiful gifts is ever-present - natural dyes and fibres are used to breathtaking effect, with each tribe having developed their own iconic colours, patterns, and visual identities across the years.

Thao Phuong is the founder of TextileSeekers, and comes with over twenty years of expertise in fashion and design.

A guest panellist for Project Insight, where Thao explored concepts of planetary health, she is also a member of the Southeast Asian Planetary Health Alliance (SEAPHA), which seeks out innovative approaches for sustainable futures in the region and beyond.

Thao also works closely with PacificLinks Foundation NGO, runs virtual workshops for underprivileged teens and survivors of human trafficking, and with Restoring Vision NGO, which distributes glasses to remote villages and communities.

textileseekers.com | @textileseekers

Photographer, creative mentor. Canada.

Canadian photographer Kim Klassen lives in an isolated little town in south-central Canada, in the province of Manitoba.

Kim is a much loved and respected photographer and creative mentor who has garnered a very loyal following over the years due to the genuinely kind and supportive learning space that she creates.

kimklassen.com | @kimklassen

Artist, designer and natural dyer, Kathryn Davey currently lives in Dublin, Ireland.

“I am a self-taught designer and natural dyer based in Dublin, Ireland. I grew up in Dublin and emigrated to California in my 20's. I spent quite a few years living and raising my three beautiful daughters in both ends of California. It was in the North Bay of San Francisco where I first learnt about the beauty of natural dyes. What began from a place of curiosity soon developed into an obsession. In 2014 I returned home to Dublin, where I committed to building a business based on sustainable production using natural dyes. In January of 2016 I sold my first naturally dyed textiles, since then I have been working hard to create & establish what you see.”

kathryndavey.com | @kathryn_davey

Lean Timms is an Australian travel, lifestyle and food photographer working across editorial, commercial and publishing fields. Forever exploring and full of curiosity for this world, Lean’s greatest love is to discover and document inspiring places and stories. Lean’s approach to photography is driven by natural light, in situ spontaneity, storytelling and capturing a genuine sense of place.  

@leantimms  |   leantimms.com

Olivia Thordén Rubie recently left a successful career as a photographer in Sydney, Australia, in order to return to her native Swedish west coast. Back home, she rediscovered a strong connection to nature, wild edible plants, creative dining experiences and workshops, and began to combine her photographic skills with exploring these passions.

Olivia now lives outside Göteborg in the woods with her young family. She spends her free time renovating an old wooden house and re-wilding her connected forest, while lovingly nurturing a section to grow a lot of her own food and recreating a medieval herb garden.

Her recent collaboration with oyster diver Lotta Klemming has been made into a book, titled “Vilplockade ostron.” It has received a number of awards, including the Måltidsakademin prizes for Best Specialty Cookbook and Best Photography in All Genres, and the Gourmand Cookbook award for this year’s best Best Fish and Seafood book.

@adelasterfoodtextures

Liz Schaffer is the founder and creative director of Lodestars Anthology, an independent magazine-meets-journal that, has explored a single country in every issue since 2014. Australian raised and (normally) London based, she's also a freelance writer, editor and photographer specialising in travel, food and the arts –- it's all about chasing the sublime and losing track of time in artists’ studios. She has also edited, Pathways and volume 1 of the Unyoked Writer's Anthology.

lodestarsanthology.co.uk | @lodestarsanthology

Creative director, editor in chief, FAIRE magazine

Storyteller, photographer, creative director, editor in chief, FAIRE magazine.

ruthribeaucourt.com | @ruthribeaucourt

fairepress.com | @faire.press