Silk Farm: Siem Reap

Last time we were here, I didn't get good pictures. This day was a good day. We were here on the 7th of July with Kali and Varci.

Here they put the worms on the leaves for three days or so, maybe a week.

When they stop moving and eating, like these worms, they put them on a screen like below where they begin to weave a cocoon. This is the silk. And it is very strong.

When they hatch out of the cocoon, the cycle starts all over again.

They take the cocoons and put it in boiling water. This separates the silk. They hook one strand from one cocoon on a hook and then the woman puts it on the spool from there. One cocoon has quite a bit of silk.

From there they choose which dye to use. They only use natural ingredients. This color of yellow below comes from this piece of wood. Other natural dyes are rusty nails. They have about 10 colors they do.

Below is the pot where they take the spools of silk and put them in here to dye them in this hot water with the natural item that gives off the color. Then they take it out and dry it on a pole.

From there it goes to the weavers. I can see why silk cost so much. They have some set patterns they do and each weaver learns her pattern very well. It takes about one week to weave maybe 2 meters which is about 2 yards.