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36 Hours in Luang Prabang, Laos

By MARY BILLARD
Published: May 18, 2008

Stroll down Sisavangvong, past the cafes and outdoor adventure tour outfitters, dipping in and out of shops, and keep going as the street name changes to Sakkarine Road. (As will soon become apparent to anyone trying to navigate the streets of Laos, street names and spellings change almost without warning. This one is also known as Sakline or Sakkaline.) Caruso Lao Home Craft is as much gallery as store (60 Sakkarine Road, 856-71-254-574; www.carusolao.com). The owner, Sandra Yuck, seeks the finest works from carvers, turners, silversmiths and weavers. Be warned: no bargaining on prices. (A small black-and-white turned ebony bowl was $60. Handwoven silk textiles, derived from traditional Lao patterns and reinterpreted with contemporary colors are $50 to $600).

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In Laos, It’s all About Weave

By SANDRA BALLENTINE
Published: September 23, 2007

Sandra Yuck, who has shops in Vientiane and Luang Prabang, is another foreigner who came here to help revive the ancient art; she notes that tourism's positive effect on business has actually sparked a decline in the quality of silks being sold and produced, especially in Luang Prabang. “A lot of weavers are making things too fast to meet demand and not making them well,” Yuck says.

In Luang Prabang, Yuck often collaborates with Prince Nithakhong Somsanith, who is something of the Lesage of Laos. He has used her lustrous silks as canvases for intricate gold- and silver-thread embroidery, a nearly extinct royal art he learned growing up in court. In the Puang Champa House, a restored residence where Somsanith lives half the year, he is training seven embroidery apprentices to help keep the technique alive. He also hopes to set up a workshop in Luang Prabang that will embroider for haute couture houses.

As Yuck says, “To witness someone setting up a loom by hand, which can take up to two weeks for a complicated pattern, and then watch them calmly sit down to weave the design slowly and methodically, for up to six months, is a meditation.”

The best textile sources are Sandra Yuck's elegant Caruso Lao Home Craft (60 Sakaline Road, Ban Vat Sene; 011-856-71-254-574;)

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THREE NIGHTS - LUANG PRABANG, LAOS

JANET FORMAN
Special to The Globe and Mail
October 22, 2005

In sprawling suites that overlook riverside gardens, a frieze depicting the serpent god Naga rings four-poster beds draped in netting. The rooms' shimmering silk bolsters, designed by Montreal-born Sandra Yuck, can be bought at her main street shop, Caruso Lao, which also carries the rosewood boxes that hold tissues and soaps. More of Les 3 Nagas' sartorial furnishings -- the woven basketry, custom mixed bath salts and scented candles -- can be found at the hotel's gift shop.

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The timeless skills of Caruso Lao's carvers, turners, silversmiths and weavers transform the natural treasures of Laos into exquisite, handcrafted furnishings and fashion accessories with an international aesthetic. Every piece in this sumptuous, high quality collection of Lao silk brocades and ikats, wood and silver is an individual work of art created by Lao artisans and many took months to complete.

Canadian Sandra Yuck founded Caruso Lao in 1997 after a successful career in fashion design and development spanning more than three decades in Montreal, New York, Europe and Hong Kong.

During the past 10 years we have gathered some of the most talented artisans in Laos. Encouraging and nurturing their skills to the highest levels of hand craftsmanship, she applies her own unique design flair and contemporary sensibility to the traditional forms and techniques of Lao crafts. All Caruso Lao artisans are entrepreneurs in their own right, improving living standards in their local communities. Caruso Lao provides a livelihood for many craftspeople, as well as 22 staff in its Vientiane and Luang Prabang shops and offices who, through their efforts and diligence, are drawing the world's attention to the wonderful heritage of Lao arts and crafts.

A visit the Caruso Lao showrooms is like a trip to any fine art gallery. Caruso Lao artisans have spent a great deal of time to make each of these beautiful pieces. Enjoy and appreciate them as works of arts as well as useful and decorative objects for your home and yourself.

The showrooms include a gallery with examples of how this wonderful collection is produced, explaining every painstaking process in the transformation of raw materials into finished products.

Learn how the collection is created from rare woods harvested in a sustainable way and from the finest silks woven by hand on special rosewood looms.

An extensive collection of photographs shows Caruso Lao craftsmen and craftswomen at work, using hands, feet and the simplest of tools. Many of these tools are on display, and Caruso's knowledgeable staff are on hand to explain how blocks of wood and spools of silk become objects d'art.

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Caruso Lao

By Joan Namkoong
Special to the Star-Bulletin
Vol. 13, Issue 20 - Sunday, January 20, 2008

Caruso Lao Home Craft - Sakaline Road 60, Ban Vat Sene, Luang Prabang. Call 71 254574; www.carusolao.com
Ban Phiavath #008
Fa Ngum Road. Call 21 223644.
Former fashion designer Sandra Yuck worked in Asia many years before settling in Luang Prabang, where her sense of color, design and style has helped to transform Lao weaving and woodworking traditions into modern-day applications for the Western home. Wall hangings, table runners and bed, pillow and cushion covers reflect the complicated Lao weaving structures with a sophisticated sense of color, style and function. Wood vases, bowls and furniture pieces are expertly and finely finished.

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LUANG PRABANG

anothertravelguide.com

If you take a walk on the main street of Luang Prabang (and it is impossible not to), you will be sure to notice the shop called Caruso Lao. It stands out too much to be missed. Your first reaction may even be a thought that you have accidentally stumbled on one of the best design stores in the world. The black-and-white handmade ebony bowls, smooth as silk, are every designer's dream - an aesthetic and tactile pleasure. Natural silk shawls, cushions, silk bed spreads - everything handmade, everything produced here in Laos. Sandra Yuck is a Canadian who has spent the best part of her life in Hong Kong working in the fashion industry and first visited Luang Prabang in 1988 with a French client. Sandra recalls being shocked by the quiet of the city after the frenetic life in Hong Kong and thinking that this might be the ideal place to spend her retirement. And yet she returned much sooner than that - and came back to stay. "That was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I am now doing exactly what I have always wanted to." Everything you see at Caruso Lao is designed by Sandra Yuck and made in Laos, everything is handmade. These are things with a very special aura and definitely the best souvenirs you could ever bring home from Laos. After you leave your shoes at the bottom of the staircase (it is a Laotian tradition, shoes are left outside not only at temples but also at home), don't forget to inspect the second floor which the owner calls her gallery - the large room is furnished like an actual flat, making the most of Sandra Yuck's sense of design.

60 Sakkaline Road
Ban Vat Sene

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TOP SHOPS

Shopping news from bangkok airways destinations - OUT OF THE WOODS

Check out Luang Prabang’s Caruso Lao Home Craft shop and its exquisite collection of home decor made from Lao woods and silks by Canadian Sandra Caruso. Working with only the most skilled local artisans and the highest quality materials, the star of the show is Caruso’s signature design – stunning black and white mahogany vases. JS 60 Sakaline Road, Ban Vat Sene, tel +856 (0)71 254450

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Travel Shopping

For a unique shopping experience in Vientiane, contact Sandra Yuck at her private studio, Caruso, housed in a charming colonial property west of the hospital on Fa Ngum Road (P.O. Box 7866, Vientiane; tel. 021/223-644; www.carusolao.com). Sandra carries a line of ebony wood boxes, trays, and accessories, as well as unique Lao bedspreads

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Luang Prabang: Places to Shop

Caruso Lao Handicraft

Address Th Sakkarin, Old Town
Phone   tel: (071) 254574 (info)

Keyword speciality, homewares
Beautiful homewares, photo frames, linen and silk.