The Design of clay souvenir products from red scallop shells for Ban Nam Chieo Tourism Community Enterprise, Trat Province

Abstract

The aims of this research were to: 1) study information about the community's socio-cultural contexts and products sold at Ban Nam Chiao Tourism Community Enterprise, Trat Province; and 2)design and develop clay souvenir products made from scallop shells through work together with the community. This research was mixed-methods research to create products from local waste materials, namely red scallop shells, which were processed into molding clay. After that, it was designed and developed to be souvenir products reflecting the locality. The research methods included collecting information from various documents and data collection through community surveys to find the distinctive features of the Ban Nam Chiao community. The research tools were interviews and questionnaires. There were two sample groups. The frist group included three representatives of the Ban Nam Chiao Tourism Community Enterprise Group, and interviews were used to find guidelines for designing and co-designing product development. Then, data analysis and a summary of descriptive analysis results were performed. The second group involved three product design experts, questionnaires were used to select and improve sketches. The statistics used for data analysis consisted of the mean and standard deviation. The results found that: 1) Ban Nam Chiao community emphasizes organizing creative tourism activities related to history, arts and culture, community ways, and the environment; moreover, the community made souvenir products such as local handmade hats (Ngob Bai Jak), processed seafood, and products from the discarded shell; and 2) the community created souvenirs like key chains made from molding clay of processed scallop shells; Wat Jai Bridge was the inspiration to create a prototype “The Bridge of Faith” with an overall average score of 4.42 (S.D.=0.65).