Silk

Hoi An in Vietnam is famous for its tailors as well as the architecture which was a result of the large Chinese trading guilds in the 18th and 19th centuries. Because there are dozens of tailors, shop[s often try to find a gimmick to get you into their shop. One of the best I found was a place that produced its own silk and had all the steps laid out so that you could see the entire process from start to finish.

The process starts with silk worms. The silk worms are placed in large flat baskets with chopped up mulberry leaves. The worms stay in the basket for about 19 days eating and they grow to about 2 inches long and are as thick as sharpie marker.


After they worms have reached full size they are placed onto a frame full of mulberry branches and the worms spin a silk cocoon and go to sleep to turn into moths. They stay on the branches for about 4-5 days.


After the 4-5 days the cocoons are divided into two groups. The first group is put into cages and allowed to fully mature into moths. These moths eventually lay eggs, which serve as the next generation of worms to continue the process. The other group of cocoons are taken into another room to collect the silk.


15 of the cocoons are placed into water that is kept at exactly 82 degrees. Small threads of silk are removed from each cocoon. These 15 threads are combined into a single thread and this thread is wound up around a large spool. This is the hardest part of the process and the women who do it are very skilled. They have to turn the machine at just the right rate to get the 15 threads to form a single thread and to insure that the thread cools enough by the time it gets wound onto the spool so that the threads do not stick together. The 15 cocoons can make a single thread more than 500 m long.


Eventually the threads of silk are taken to another room and put on a loom and turned into silk fabric. It can then be dyed and made into just about anything you can think of.