Diane Gaffney: Trader In South East Asian Textiles

Today on the Stitchery Stories podcast, Diane Gaffney shares her fascinating story of developing a well-established business based around her love of travel. Diane and her husband Jim, are the founders of Textile Traders. They have been buying and selling hand made textiles from south east Asia since 1984.

Susan Weeks chats with Diane about:

• Organising World Textile Days
• The logistics of organising long duration buying trips
• How Diane and Jim created this business
• Their first forays into flea markets and festivals
• Being commissioned to collect Batik from all over Java
• A deep interest in batik
• How to manage buying 'stuff' in different languages
• Making long term friendships with inspiring village women in Java and Thailand
• The adventure of taking an adult 'gap year'
• Overland travel challenges... and toilets!
• Remembering the stories and people around purchases
• Managing a business with extended buying trips
• The benefits of having help in our businesses

For this episode... View Show Notes, Links & Photos of Diane's travels and textiles at http://www.stitcherystories.com/DianeGaffney

Visit: https://www.textiletraders.co.uk/

Visit: http://worldtextileday.co.uk/

Read: https://asiatextilejourney.wordpress.com/

Like: https://www.facebook.com/Textile-Traders-1131127837033379/