Hello Happy Hammockers,
As a new member to HF and producer of hand-woven hammocks, Jumbohammock would first like thank everybody here for making this forum happen.
The thought of being surrounded by so many enthusiastic hangers from all around the world, is almost as relaxing as lying in a hammock itself!
We hope we’ll have the time to get to know everybody a bit better as well as share plenty of stories from our tropical hammock adventures, but let’s start by explaining who we are.
Based in Thailand, South East Asia, Jumbohammock specializes in hand-woven hammocks as a means to provide an alternative and sustainable source of income for disadvantaged groups in rural Thailand.
The project was originally conceived and developed 14 years ago in an effort to create financial stability for the Mlabri tribe, who had lost their means of survival after being forced to abandon their nomadic hunter-gatherer existence in the jungle covered mountains of Laos and North Thailand.
Slowly but surely the Mlabri adopted the craft of weaving hammocks, which seemed to fit their calm life style quite well. All started very simple and it took a while before the first hammock of sellable quality was woven. Back then Jumbohammock only produced its coarse string hammock, aka the Mlabri hammock and weaving 100 hammocks per year seemed like a great milestone to reach.
It wasn’t much later though when the first Jumbohammock outlet opened in a small tourist town and with that, the project had finally taken off. Over the years, several new styles of hammocks were introduced and the Mlabri also learned to dye their own yarn. Besides providing the Mlabri with their own source of income, weaving these unique hammocks also gave them a sense of respect amongst the other tribes who had been looking down upon them for so long.
In fact, it turned out many of the neighboring villages were also getting interested in weaving hammocks as an alternative for the often hard & underpaid field labor that seems to be the only option around in these rural areas.
As the demand for the hammocks increased and our retailer network grew, so did the possibility to provide more people with work and it wasn’t much longer before the project expanded to include the neighboring villagers as well.
At present there are about 100 trained weavers involved with the project. Many of these weavers are older women, for whom field work is no longer an option. Others are young women with small children to care for. Some are men, who have found this an attractive means of supplementing their income in off season.
All of the weavers are paid fair wages and allowed to work at their own chosen speed, there is no pressure to perform. Weavers work in the comfort of their own home or village where they are regarded as productive members of their families & communities. No discrimination is made on the basis of ethnicity, gender, age, religion, education or office intrigues.
Through the dedicated effort from all the people involved, Jumbohammock not only succeeded in becoming a successful social project, but has also managed to establish itself as a respected manufacturer of luxuriously comfortable and colorful hammocks.
Jumbohammocks are woven (not knotted!) according to the Mexican style (which are considered to be very comfortable already), only we have improved them through the usage of innovative materials & integration of (custom) designs.
Our product range holds several styles including coarse string hammocks, sitting hammocks, fine yarn travel & super jumbo hammocks, luxurious V-weaves, parachute hammocks (not woven of course) and our latest addition: the Pet hammock.
Cotton is used for indoor hammocks, triple acrylic yarn for outdoors.
Maybe our hammocks are not exactly the type you would use for “Shug-style-snow-camping” (no pun intended there, love your work), but if it comes down to finding a colorful and comfortable patio hammock to help you relax, we don’t think you‘ll be disappointed!
...So there it is, our first serious entry on the HF (hope we don’t get banned for advertising ourselves!). If anybody would like to know a bit more about our work, please feel free to ask or have a look on the Jumbohammock website.
As your entries on HF give us a lot of inspiration and things to think about, we hope to do the same for you.
Thanks for reading all, and keep on swinging!
Butch,
in name of the Jumbohammock project.
Reply With Quote
? 
Originally Posted by jumbohammock
Bookmarks