Such an interesting day. We had good ol' Mao drive us out to the Silk Farm today. It was about a 30 minute ride and not nearly as bumpy as yesterday! I have a new appreciation of silk now...and a little grossed out at the same time. We are all really just paying a lot of money to wear a bunch of woven worm spit to put it mildly! How can something so disgusting be so beautiful at the same time? It ends up that at this farm 80% of the worms are sacrificed and 20% are used to reproduce. If they cut the worms out to save them it cuts the thread and it cannot be woven into the long threads they need. Poor little wormies! Well here are some pictures to tantalize your eyes...we are off to Anghor Wat again for a second trip, sure hope it is drier than today. Monsoon season is in full force here!
These are the little baby worms...almost cute!
Okay, now they are fat and gross worms!
These are the cocoons that are in the 80% that will be sacrificed to make the silk. They have been boiled and are hard little balls inside the cocoons...super gross!
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Second step is to pull the "Fine Silk" threads
from the inner part of the cocoon. |
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First step in pulling the string from the outer layer
of the cocoon. This is the regular silk thread. |
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The thread goes through many stages before it is woven
on the looms. The looms are just like they used in ancient
days and the women train for 9 months weaving cotton.
They work 8 hour days and make about $125 a month! |
Until you see the process you just showed us you think "Oh ya, silk comes from silk worms." You don't really realize how it comes about. It is kind of gross!!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you made it through there with all those worms. Good on ya, Beth! You are certainly expanding your (and our) horizons. Thanks for keeping up with the blog. Love you.
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