The Silk Factory

This is the first of posts from our week with the Pratts for the Mission Tour the last week of February. So, if you want to read something in order of how we did it, then go to the last post that says the First Stop of the Mission Tour and read up. I actually did better with my Vietnam Posts and got them in the right order. Maybe I'll have this all figured out for the next time! So there is my disclaimer!
Please scroll down to the bottom of this post and read up from there to here! Backwards. . again!
This is the final result of making silk. The weaving. They have set designs and these girls each work on a certain design. The final result is stunning, but expensive. It was great to take a day and enjoy some of the cultural things in Cambodia. We enjoyed having Elder and Sister Pratt with us also, so that they could appreciate and love Cambodia as we do. I have pictures of our Zone Conferences, I just need to figure out how to take them from Google gmail to here. But I'll work on it.

These are the natural dyes they use on the silk.

The old fashioned way to spin the silk, but they use old bike wheels instead of spinning wheels. It works all the same.

These women are taking the silk out of the cocoons. As it comes out in its'natural state, it is a golden color. Each cocoon has one long continuous strand. It is tough and strong and hard to break.



On our way to the airport with the Pratts, we had enough time to stop at a famous silk factory near Siem Reap. They raise their own silk worms, and take the whole process through to spinning and weaving the material. It was quite fascinating and I can see why they charge a bunch of money to buy products made from this silk.

The above picture is the first stage after the worms come out of the cocoons. They feed on these leaves for a day or two, then spin their cocoons. So many cocoons are saved out of every batch to keep the worms coming and coming. It is a daily process. A couple of my pictures didn't turn out so good showing the worms inside the cocoons. It's all a rather quicker process than I thought. I thought it would take weeks, but maybe 10 days or less from start to finish. Meaning from when the worms start weaving their cocoons till when the silk is taken off the cocoons and woven into the material.