Silk Making

Both wearing the finest silk in the comfort of dinner parties or wallowing in deep silk sheets seem to divert the laborious process from the luxurious end result. Making silk requires not only the countless numbers of worms to be boiled and killed for the cocoon, but also endless hours spent by women in small shops, dusty conditions and poor wages to result in one roll of silk. I was fortunate to witness this process in a small village in Viet Nam. It was quite remarkable and I'll share it here

Worms spin their cocoon for several months on bamboo trays such as this. 

The cocoons are then placed in hot water to kill the worm and soften the silk, allowing it to easily be threaded off.

The quality of the silk comes in here. Older cocoons make for 2nd and 3rd grade quality

The silk is then threaded upwards in the machines which unravels the cocoons and places on a large loom.

These large rolls are then placed on a loom and threaded like any fabric.

Patterned guides like these then enable the machine to punch out patterns into a design.

Resulting in this.