Chiang Mai has many interesting arts and crafts shops; on Charoenrat Road, there is Colour Factory, a shop that sells painted art elephants from the Elephant Parade, an organization that supports Asian elephant conservation. Over the last few years, their open air art exhibitions which took place in different cities ( including London in 2010) has created worldwide attention and awareness. Many well-known artists and designers have taken part in this project, you can support the project by purchasing the art elephants, which I think are great gift ideas for friends and families.
On this road, there is also a ceramics outlet called Earth and Fire, where you can buy locally made ceramics at bargain prices. Further down, there is Circle source paper, which sells handmade paper and paper products.
Not far from the Wat Phra Singh, there is another handmade paper shop called HQ paper maker. There is a large collection of mulberry paper and paper products, but what is interesting is that they host one-day paper making workshops outside of the city centre, where participants can learn and understand the process of paper making from the beginning to the final stage. I hope that I will be able to try it when I am in town next time!
On Prapokklao Rd, I stopped by at Herbs basics, a local shop that sells natural and herbal skin products. Compare to many natural skincare brands or spa lines in Bangkok, the products here are much cheaper, yet the ingredients are similar, so I took the opportunity and stocked up products for myself and friends.
On the same road, I walked into a cute-looking shop and gallery called Things called art, that sell art work and merchandise by two artists, Supachet Bhumakarn and Siriwan Lohacheewa. I was particularly intrigued by Supachet‘s elephant art work and started chatting to Siriwan, who was in the shop at the time of my visit. No, I didn’t purchase Supachet‘s art work but I did buy a few of his lovely greeting cards because they are just too cute…
Like I mentioned before, there are many cool shops including many fashion shops around Nimmanhaemin Soi. My favourite one is Kit-bit-s, a local fashion brand set up by three sisters. They use cute and colourful fabrics to create simple but youthful pieces that remind me of the French label, Paul & Joe sister at very reasonable prices!
Personally, I think shopping in Chiang Mai is more interesting and cheaper than Bangkok, perhaps there are less recognisable brands, but I love the locally made products which are individual and not trend-driven. So if you visit Chiang Mai, do remember to spare a bit of time and support these local designers, artists and businesses!
