Tuesday, August 14, 2007

A How-To Guide on Silk

I'm settled in Kuala Lumpur for the day, and excited/nervous to be moving to Perth tomorrow! It has been a wonderful trip, definitely my best vacation in Asia. I still don't feel like sorting through my temple pictures, so how about I show you what I learned at the Silk Farm? (I must admit I was totally ignorant about the process).
Step 1: Grow mulberry bushes and pick the leaves twice a day to feed to the silkwormsStep 2: Let the silkworms grow, reproduce and then start to spin their cocoon (those yellow things at the top).
Step 3: Boil the cocoons to separate the silk filaments. Each cocoon produces two layers of silk filaments, one layer is used for raw silk and one for fine silk. Each cocoon produces about 400 metres of silk thread.

Step 4: Dye the silk threads. Although chemicals are usually used, they also boil natural elements to create colors (ie: the bark of a certain tree and a rusty nail).Step 5: Set up the loom with silk threads. Also, they dye some threads in patterns and then put them on bobbins to be passed through the silk. It was incredible watching the precision required to form the patterns (it takes one of the women an entire day to make about 70 cm.They also dyed patterns directly into the fabric by covering sections with plastic, redying and then covering new sections.

Step 6: Cut and sew beautiful clothes! These are traditional Cambodian wedding clothes. The wedding ceremony used to last for seven days, so there were seven colors to wear. Now the ceremony may only last a day, but the bride will still wear the traditional color of that day.

Posted by Kathleen @ 10:12 AM