At eight months pregnant, Koe went into labor in the middle of the jungle. While the rest of her family raced on towards safety in Thailand, Koe, her husband and sister Meh, found a refuge of sorts, a village that had already been destroyed by the Burmese army. In an abandoned hut in the ransacked village, Koe gave birth to a tiny girl named Shay, now a high school student. Two days later, Koe was up running through the jungle again. Her family was reunited in a make-shift refugee camp in Thailand, a no-man’s-land they waited in for 14 years.

Koe is the fourth-born of 10 siblings in a large, joyful Karenni hill tribe family. She is busy raising seven beautiful children with her husband, but still finds time for some weaving. She learned to weave by watching other women in her village growing up and through the mentorship of her older sister, Meh. She is one of the most creative weavers in the group, often bringing in new prototypes for us to try out.

You can learn more about Koe’s story in this blog post.

If you own one of Koe’s bags (or simply want to send a message), please feel free to write her a note in the comments below. We will share them with her. Eventually, we’d like every artisan to be able to write you back on her own.