If there is one thing I have enjoyed during this pandemic lockdown it is reflecting on past shopping adventures for Wesco Fabrics. This post will cover assorted trips from 2007 to our last furniture and accessory sourcing excursion in 2016. I previously shared our very early trips to Japan and first trips to Bali, Thailand, France, and Holland. In future posts I’ll talk about our worldwide sales incentive trips with clients, our textile sourcing journeys, and finish with the “emotional cleanout”, a cautionary tale of a family business.

Marla is shown above buying gorgeous hand-woven silk scarves on this 2007 trip to Luang Prabang, Laos. Designers loved our scarves!

In 2007, while in Northern Thailand, I fell in love with these carved sculptures from one of 135 an ethnic tribes in Myanmar. We searched for unique and they were very unique. I hadn’t seen them before on our shopping excursions. They sold well!

In 2008 one of our biggest imports from Thailand were modern style furniture primarily from Acacia wood. Many of the pieces were in beautiful organic shapes. This category continued to grow with us as designers loved the look.

We loved digging for unusual antiques to sell to the trade. This resource in Chiang Mai had wonderful pieces from Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

I’m taking a break on a hot and humid day of shopping as our agent finalizes an order near Denpasar, Bali, in 2008.

Marla chats with an agent at a furniture supplier in Mas, Bali, in 2010. They made beautiful dining and coffee tables.

We loved this very large console from our resource in the Hang Dong area of Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2012.

We ended up buying every piece above.

Our packing and shipping companies in Thailand & Bali not only picked up everything we bought but also settled the final payments, and were our drivers and interpreters. We usually purchased enough from each country to fill a 20 foot, a 40 foot, or even a 40 foot high-cube container. Anything less than a container (LCL) was too expensive to ship.

Marla returns a “wai” greeting to the owner of this little shop in the Baan Tawai area of Chiang Mai, Thailand. In the back of the room is Bob McCormack from McCormack Packing and Shipping Co. LTD. Bob’s son, Chris now runs the business. Bob helped us for many years on our Thailand trips. The stores in this area come and go so if we saw something good, we had to jump on it!

We loved this little antique shop in Hang Dong. The owner specialized in very unique artifacts including Burmese and Cambodian silver. When he pulled out this 200+ year old mirrored panel from an old Buddhist temple, I told Marla we HAD to buy it for ourselves.

After a long day of shopping we always headed up to the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. We worked with a few really great shops selling hand-woven scarves and shawls. After initial bargaining we purchased a hundred or so beautiful scarves and shawls in various styles. In the early days we bought magnificent antiques on the top floors. As time went on, they disappeared due to scarcity of product and economic conditions.

There is no end to the creativity of Thai craftsmen. This shop sold highly unusual lamps in organic shapes from all natural materials.

A fabulous resource for unusual designer oriented accessories in Chiang Mai is Kedtawa. Marla is standing behind creative metal sculptures which we bought in various colors. They always had the most unusual wall decorations.

A corner of one of my very favorite resources in Chiang Mai. A visit at this place was transformative. I could probably wander around all their treasures for days.

Beginning in 2012 petrified wood furniture evolved to one our strongest accessory categories in the showroom. Marla is looking at some of our slabs in front of iFurniture near Kuta, Bali. The hardest part was negotiating the best pricing by communicating how many pieces we wanted. The slabs were put on chrome, stainless, and black steel bases. We also bought larger tables and sculptures. A large 2 1/2 foot polished black stone bear went to a designer in Vail.

Raya Seminyak in Seminyak, Bali, is full of little shops selling retail and wholesale. We bought hundreds of bracelets and necklaces at a time from this place.

Many of our Bali resources were crammed with interesting furniture and accessories like this one. Marla is next to Dayu, one of our great Bali agents we used for a number of years. We loved the large pit-fired pig sculptures and the furniture made from vintage Java carvings.

The trick is to be patient and envision how piece would look once it was cleaned up, stained and waxed. These place were oppressively hot and humid.

Marla writes up an order for some artistic Lychee wood benches while this cute little guy checks out the action. Many of the families lived on the premises of their business.

Our containers were filled with loads of stone carvings made primarily from river stone. Marla always remembered the mosquitos at this place. After our first excursion of one hundred bites, they ran to meet her at the entrance spraying mosquito repellent all over, giggling. We bought animals, Buddhas, and Hindu deities, some as large as 6 feet tall.

I am feeling like I just got a great bargain at this shop in Ubud, Bali,…and she is probably thinking,…”another naive foreigner!”

This woodcarving company near Mas, Bali, always looked like a hurricane hit it! We found wonderful teak root side tables and benches from them.

We were always on the lookout in Bali for great dining tables carved from Suar wood slabs.

At our favorite petrified wood supplier in Bali. I bought stone fish and turtles as well as tables and benches.

Marla is dwarfed by Buddha carvings at this shop in Baan Tawai Village. We purchased many different sculptures from them. One year we purchased and donated a beautiful carousel horse for the Childrens’ Diabetes Carousel Ball auction.

Click on this link for a must see video of a woodcarving museum and gallery in Chiang Mai. We just learned about gallery, but I really want to visit it on our next trip to Chiang Mai! The totally unique place is called “Ngarn Anurak Pueh Muan Chon.” You can find the colorful museum between kilometers 19 and 20 on the Chiangmai – Sanpatong Highway – just past the Big C supermarket at Hang Dong.

Pan’s shop in Hang Dong part of Chiang Mai was a great resource for beautiful modern furniture. On an early visit to the owner’s office I spied a fabulous 14th century Khmer bronze mirror from Cambodia on his desk. I really wanted to have one and asked if I could purchase it. He said Ok,… but I had to buy all 20 of them! I bought them all!

A wonderful live-edge table.

Baan Tawai village is a maize of alleyways filled with interesting little wholesale/retail shops. One finds everything from touristy knick-knacks to rare antiques. We loved this shop for decorative rice baskets, beautiful lamps, and even carvings from Myanmar.

Bob and Marla discuss the status of the container and how much more we could buy. This shop featured interesting wall hangings made from lotus leaves.

We loved these modern Tamarind wood tables. The dining table looked great…until it arrived in our Denver warehouse! It warped terribly as the wood had not been properly dried before shipping.

A fabulous find were these teak root bowls in Bali. They sold like crazy!

On our last company buying trip to Bali in 2016 our agent brought us to this great resource in Mas. We bought oodles of fabulous large teak root consoles.

Sometimes you just stumble upon really unique pieces like the Lychee wood table top with burnt edges in front of Marla. We found two and had them put on steel bases. They were very expensive but sold quickly.

I wish we had purchased one for our home!

I collected rocks as a little boy and have loved them ever since. We attended the worlds largest gem and mineral show in Tucson and purchased crystal specimens to sell in the showroom as decorative accessories.

On almost every trip to the Bay Area to visit my Mom we stopped in Hayward to buy vintage Chinese furniture from Mariner Trading. We always found great treasures in his warehouse. Our daughter Lisa is shown above with the owner, Scott. Sadly I understand he may have closed the warehouse.

Our daughter Stacy and I made our own fabulous table lamps from polished agate slabs on thick acrylic bases. Pricey but unique and beautiful, they sold well.

This marks the end of our furniture and accessory buying adventures for Wesco. We brought in more than fifty 20 foot or larger containers over the years from Bali, Thailand, Japan, France and Holland. Not too bad for a single Denver showroom and warehouse! The hunt gave us great joy!

Next week will be on our round the world sales incentive trips for our designer clients.

Photos: Dick Gentry. Not to be used without permission.