We shot this video on a very wet monsoon day last month. The workshop is in Bago, just north of Yangon in Burma. The clip shows our Kuki Salad Bowl coming to life in the deft hands of Nga Nyi, literally meaning "little brother". He is the most experienced and skilled of the 8-strong team at the workshop and has worked there for years, although when we asked his name nobody could tell us - he's always been known as "little brother"! They all laughed, and we learnt his name was Nyi Nyi... news to us all!
Despite being deep-mid-monsoon season in June, the morning was fresh and clear as we arrived, the sun already high in the sky and the village alive with children, dogs and chicks darting across the dusty roads between the houses. At around 11:30 great grape-sized globs of rain started falling on the corrugated iron roof like conkers. The roar of the rain combined with the clicking of the rubber belt turning the central workshop axel, on top of the sawing, sanding and carving, curtailed our 8000 questions. We stopped chatting and just watched, mesmerised by the masters in action.
At midday a coconut fell on the roof, coincidentally announcing the end of that morning's power supply. There isn't enough power to go round in Burma, so electricity is on a rota and comes on in 4 hour chunks. The axel stopped spinning, lights turned off and all tools were put down. We stopped for lunch, to chitchat about the family business and to marvel at how deftly they retrieve betel nut quids from the knot of their longyi sarongs at their waists (betel nut is a mild narcotic widely chewed across Southeast Asia).
Mid-afternoon, with the power back on they finished the job, we finished the film and we were back in Yangon by dusk, with a new admiration for our salad bowl: simple, beautiful and skilfully made.
