This week on 5 we’re taking a trip to the lower Isaan region of Thailand to visit a silk village. Thai silk comes from the cocoons of Thai silkworms. The silkworms are raised on a diet of mulberry leaves and the resulting silk is considered one of the finest fabrics in the world.
Before we get to the photos and further information, a quick reminder for those in Taiwan. I’ll be hosting another Photowalk this Sunday. Meet at 3:30pm at Xin Beitou MRT station if you’re interested in joining us. The photowalks always feature some good conversation, laughs and photo opportunities.
Thai Silk
The oldest known use of silk in Thailand dates back to fibers found in the ruins of Baan Chiang, considered to be Southeast Asia’s oldest civilization. Thai silk comes from Bombyx mori, a small silk worm that comes from the eggs of a silk moth. Silk thread of varying colors, ranging from light gold to very light green is produced from the cocoon with lengths up to 1500m possible from a single cocoon.
Thai Silk
A single thread filament is too thin to use on its own so silk workers combine many threads to produce a thicker, usable fiber. They do this by hand-reeling the threads onto a wooden spindle to produce a uniform strand of raw silk. This can take nearly 40 hours to produce a half kilogram of Thai silk.
Thai Silk
The silk fabric is then soaked in hot water and bleached before dyeing in order to remove the natural yellow coloring of Thai silk yarn. To do this, skeins of silk thread are immersed in large tubs of hydrogen peroxide. Once washed and dried, the silk is then woven using a traditional hand operated loom. This hand weaving means that each silk fabric is unique.
Silk Hand Loom
Thai silk has a unique luster, with a sheen that has two unique blends: one color for the warp and another for the weft. Color changes as you hold the Thai silk fabric at varying angles against light. If burned, Thai silk smells like hair due to the natural silk fiber that is similar to human hair and fingernails. Interestingly, if the flame is moved, the silk stops burning. This is different to artificial silk which has a plastic smell if burned.
In terms of price, Thai silk is usually 10 times more expensive than artificial silk, with the US and UK being the two biggest markets.
Thai Silk
These images come from a small silk village outside Surin. This village provided the silk fabric for the 2003 APEC conference in Thailand.
If you’ve enjoyed this post, feel free to leave a comment, share it with your friends and retweet away. Many thanks.
Send Me An Email
GoogleWave at Me
Meet On Facebook
Follow On Twitter
Connect On Flickr
Subscribe To Feed
Craig Ferguson Images | Cultural Photography. One of the key aspects of life that we humans identify with is culture. We label people, places and events according to our ideas of what they are, ranging from the broader scale defined by tradition and place down to the small scale subcultures and tribes. Craig Ferguson Images is consistantly creating new visions in the field of cultural photography. From traditional festives and customs to modern, urban subcultures, Craig Ferguson Images is in touch with the changing world. From our base in Taipei, Taiwan we are perfectly positioned at the crossroads of the ancient and the modern.
Design by Graph Paper Press
Subscribe to entries
Subscribe to comments
All content © 2010 by Cultural photography from Asia | Craig Ferguson Images
