Soi Ban Baat

I visited Soi Ban Baat recently in Bangkok. I tried to go to Soi Ban Baat in October with a dropped pin on a google map and serious determination. It didn't help. I tried again in December and was successful due to getting a taxi to Soi Ban Baat kindergarten and using a note from the hotel concierge so that I could ask for help.

Amazingly once you find the correct area everyone is excessively helpful! The Ban Baat community consists of 2 little alley ways with peoples homes and 4 artisans, that we discovered. Everyone wants to sell you a bowl so their neighbours and families are more than happy to direct you to the next craftsman or woman.

The artisans who work down Ban Baat  have been making the bowls for generations. One woman we spoke to was 65 years of age and a third generation artisan. Another woman we met had bottle rimmed glasses but still managed to do tiny detailed patterns around the edges of the bowls by hand. The patterns were repeating and somehow she managed to keep the pattern fairly accurate in all of the repeats.

All of the bowls are made from strips of steel that are then beaten together using an unusual tool that looked like a bent lug wrench. Either 6 or 8 pieces of steel are used and beaten into shape before being covered in a dark lacquer and heated over a naked flame. Everyone has their own unique steel and is more than happy for you to take photographs and look at their work. As my husband is a photographer it was great and the portraits shown here are all his work.

We of course ended up leaving Ban Baat with 2 beautiful bowls and are now in the process of slowly filling them with coins to donate to charity.