Fair Trade Culture

July 31st, 2007 by Amanda

Chiang Mai, Thailand is a wonderful center of arts, culture, and history. Silk making has long been a tradition that the Thai people hold. In many areas around Chiang Mai, tourists and travelers are given the opportunity to see how a silk shirt, skirt, or scarf is made: from the silk worm to the loom, the Thai people love to share how this wonderful textile is created.

The first stage is the silk moth, which is mother to the worm. The silk worm most happily spends it’s time feasting on the mulberry tree leaves that grow around southeast Asia. After feasting, stage two begins, and the worm begins to spin it’s saliva into a fine silk thread around it’s body to create a cocoon, so that it too can become a moth.

It’s between the cocoon stage and becoming a moth that the silk is created for our use. The cocoon is opened and the worm is removed; then the cocoon is boiled in water, which breaks apart the fibers. Once the boiling is complete, the fibers are pulled out to dry, sometimes dyed, then skillfully wrapped on a spindle to be weaved on a loom. The weaving takes patience and skill, and once complete, can create beautiful patterns and colors that make up the fabric used for sewing together clothes.