Baan Kang Wat: Studios, Workshops and the Story of Chiang Mai’s Artist Village
Hand-thrown cups, stitched notebooks, linen clothing and scented candles fill the small studios at Baan Kang Wat. Set around a stepped courtyard in Suthep, west of Chiang Mai’s Old City, this artist village brings making, shopping and daily life into the same space. You can browse finished work, meet makers during their working day or spend several hours learning a craft yourself.
The two-storey buildings combine timber, concrete and brick, borrowing forms from traditional northern Thai houses. The curved, stepped courtyard follows the slope of the land and gives people somewhere to sit, meet and gather for events.
Entry is free. Baan Kang Wat opens Tuesday–Sunday, 10am–6pm, and closes on Monday. Purchases, meals and workshops cost extra.
Allow around two hours for browsing and a café stop. A three-hour workshop turns the visit into a half-day; a six-hour pottery class takes most of the opening day. For a making session, reserve the class before organising the rest of your day.
How the village became a creative community
Ceramic artist Nattawut “Big” Ruckprasit wanted a place where creative work could support everyday life. He had watched talented friends abandon art for commercial employment. A landowner’s wish to use the plot brought the two together, and Big developed the live-and-work concept. Baan Kang Wat opened in mid-2014 after roughly three years of development.
Early members were chosen for distinctive work, compatible outlooks and willingness to take part in community life. Many lived above their businesses. By 2015, shared vegetable gardening and a library-café added to the daily life around the shops. Residents also shared meals after closing.
Baan Kang Wat means “house beside the temple,” referring to neighbouring Wat Ram Poeng. Village representative Nat explained that the simple, homelike working name stuck. Films at the launch brought people into the courtyard; later visitors expected that bustle on ordinary days, prompting the addition of daytime kiosks. In the second and third years, discussions about sustaining the community and a good response to workshops encouraged studios to develop classes. Making something helped visitors understand the labour behind an object’s price.
The early community already embraced several kinds of craft. In 2015, needleworker Siri-orn Saelor of Orn the Roses was turning floral fabric pieces, discarded zip-pulls and ceramic tiles into accessories. Jibberish brought together Nattaporn Duangsri’s Japanese-influenced zakka, small everyday objects valued for their charm, her partner’s copper pendants and her mother’s naturally indigo-dyed cotton. This mixture of reuse, household objects and individual skills helped establish the village’s character.
The market developed alongside the studios. Resident tie-dye artist and market manager May Chalita described Big’s initial plan for artists from each house to sell their work, followed by outside vendors joining them. It provided good morning food for residents and brought more visitors to the village. An early organic-market ambition broadened towards food quality and environmentally considered materials, with customers’ choices and residents’ feedback helping shape the vendor mix.
Success also changed life around the village. More cars obstructed neighbouring homes, prompting the community to rent extra parking. Local people earned income from traffic assistance and other work at annual events. Early amplified events finished by 9pm because monks’ quarters were nearby.
Environmental concerns have also entered the programme. Art for Air, held here from 2–26 March 2023, connected craft and teaching with the region’s air-pollution problem. Participating studios included BooKoo and PaChaNa, while the community’s own practices included waste separation and reducing plastic use. The event showed how this shared creative space could address an issue affecting everyday life in Chiang Mai.
What to look for in the studios
BooKoo’s rounded forms
Ceramic artist Nattawut “Big” Ruckprasit’s rounded, useful forms draw on nature; his tableware has also combined ceramic and wood. In 2016, BooKoo used three local clays, taking each piece through shaping, drying, a first firing, glazing and a glaze firing. Big spoke of his admiration for the relationship with nature he saw in Akha culture: taking from it, returning to it and living alongside it. That influence connects the objects with his wider approach to making and living.
PaChaNa’s materials and handles
PaChaNa is ceramicist Komol Kongcharoen’s studio, established in 2005, before Baan Kang Wat opened. His collections show how material and form can carry an idea. Two Rivers, from 2024, blends differently coloured clays into marbling that recalls two distinct rivers merging, expressing harmony through difference. Klad, from 2019, means “Pinned”: its ceramic forms recall banana-leaf bowls secured at the corners with bamboo sticks, celebrating local food’s abundance and connection with nature. Light & Shadow, from 2025, combines familiar and unfamiliar shapes whose illuminated shadows change with the viewer’s position and time, altering how the structure is perceived.
Other designs change how the object is assembled or held. Playful uses a wooden dowel joint on the handle. Peel contrasts deliberate scratch marks made with different tools against soft pastel colours. Warm’s handle was designed to fit the hand and let warmth from the drink reach it.
Note a Book’s covers and bindings
Supachai Kongprachum tested demand for handmade books at markets while still working in banking. After seven years in that profession, sustained sales made a change of career possible. At Note a Book, leather, recycled paper, collage covers and different bindings turn stationery into individual objects.
The labour affects the design. Time-consuming collage covers can be balanced with simpler stitching, and wholesale discounts made little sense when they failed to cover the extra work. His large worktable doubled as the shop counter, bringing the making into view. Supachai also valued the conversations around his workbench and the friendship books in which visitors left messages, drawings and small keepsakes. A book was a way to get to know someone as well as an item to sell.
Choosing what to make
Start with the process that interests you. Painting a prepared ceramic piece, shaping wet clay by hand and learning to use a wheel are different experiences.
Pottery at BooKoo and PaChaNa
BooKoo offers underglaze painting, clay-whistle making and spoon workshops. Underglaze painting decorates a prepared ceramic surface, while the clay projects involve forming an object. Gother sells advance booking for the painting activity and lists Thai as the teaching language for its offer.
PaChaNa’s workshop menu lists these session fees:
- Teacup, plant pot, small clay house or bottle: three hours, 1,600 baht.
- Teapot, animal sculpture or bas-relief: five hours, 2,800 baht.
- Wheel-thrown bowl: six hours, 3,800 baht.
Choose the wheel class for practice centring and shaping clay on a rotating wheel; the shorter object-making sessions leave more time for browsing. PaChaNa also offers multi-session hand-building, wheel-throwing and Raku courses for longer stays. Book directly with the studio through its workshop page or on +66 81 711 5007.
Freshly shaped ceramics need drying and firing after the class. If you are leaving Chiang Mai soon, arrange collection or delivery with the studio before reserving; the finished piece will follow its own production timetable.
Paper, candles and smaller projects
Note a Book offers a three-hour bookbinding class for 1,490 baht, booked directly through Note a Book. For a smaller project, buy a ready-made journal and decorate its cover at the shop’s worktable.
At 2WICKS, the short DIY activity decorates a candle with dried flowers and other small elements. It takes about 15–20 minutes and costs 350 baht. The fuller candle-making workshop lasts two to three hours and needs advance booking: adults pay 3,000 baht for a solo class or 1,590 baht each with two or more participants. The corresponding child prices are 1,890 baht solo or 1,290 baht each for two or more. Book with 2WICKS on 096 112 9294 or through its Instagram account, @2wickscandle.
Other options include scent blending at Aromatherapy Baloft, jewellery assembly or wax carving at Lanna Silver CM, and Japanese pickling at Tsukemono. Jewellery assembly works with finished components; wax carving creates a model.
Food, browsing and the event calendar
Rumpoey sells linen clothing, while Mai-ni-ji works with cotton and linen. Enough for Life offers small objects made from materials including wood and mother-of-pearl. For lunch, Yook Samai serves khao soi, northern Thailand’s curry noodle soup. Tsukemono, Chocolate Culture Club and Farmstory add other food stops, with Seasons Ice Cream for something cold. The on-site directory helps locate the studios; individual shops keep their own schedules.
The lanes between shops are narrow and can get busy. Cash in baht is useful for smaller studios that do not take cards.
SO SOUL #3 is scheduled for 27 October–1 November 2026, 9am–6pm. Its earlier opening applies to those event dates. Markets, outdoor films and performances have their own dated programmes.
Getting to Baan Kang Wat
Baan Kang Wat is at 191–197 Soi Wat Umong, Suthep; its Thai name is บ้านข้างวัด. Use the village map pin. PaChaNa’s shop is here, while its separate office is in Mae Wang.
From the Old City, allow approximately 20–25 minutes by car. A Grab or taxi is straightforward; a tuk-tuk or red songthaew, the pickup-style shared taxi, can also be hired for the trip. Agree the destination and fare before boarding a hired vehicle. Nearby car parks are separately owned and charge for parking.
Steps and shared spaces
The sloping courtyard has steps. Google Maps identifies an accessible entrance but lists no accessible car park, seating or toilet. Wheelchair users and anyone needing a step-free route should contact the village on 093-423-2308 about the route to their chosen studio and its worktable.
The courtyard and lanes are outdoors, while classes take place in individual studios. Rain affects browsing between buildings more than a seated indoor project. Arriving near the 10am opening gives you a quieter first circuit before the narrow lanes fill up.
Many buildings began as places to live above a workshop. Open shops and the courtyard are visitor spaces; closed workrooms and living areas are private. Organised photography has had separate conditions: a January 2026 notice asked teams bringing clothing and equipment to contact the village in advance.
Wat Ram Poeng, the temple behind the village’s name, is an active centre for Vipassana, or insight meditation. Its presence also helps explain the community’s attention to noise and neighbours: creative businesses here share the area with religious and residential life.