Thai silk is created from the Thai silkworms’ cocoons. Thai weavers primarily from the Khorat Plateau in Thailand’s northeast region nurture the caterpillars on a steady diet, feeding them mulberry leaves alone. Khorat is the heart of the silk industry in Thailand and a regular supplier of rose silk for several generations now.
At present, this silk is deemed as one of the most excellent and finest fabrics in the world. It is an output of a distinct manufacturing procedure, presenting distinct colors and patterns.
History
After silk was produced in ancient China as well as India where the silk weaving practice began around 2,640 BCE, most merchants widen the use of silk to several different regions throughout Asia via trading. Some accounts connote that archaeologists came across with the first silk fibers in Thailand of more than 3,000 years old in the Baan Chiang ruins. This site is acknowledged by many people as the Southeast Asia’s oldest civilization.
Weaving
The creation of silk starts with the Bombyx mori, which is a small worm generated from the eggs of a silk moth. During the first year, the worms feed on leaves of mulberry trees prior to building a cocoon with the use of their spittle.
In its unique cocoon form, raw silk is irregular and bumpy. Thus, Thai weavers break up the completed cocoons coming from the mulberry bush and bathe them in a vat of boiling water to divide the silk thread from the caterpillar from the interior of the cocoon.
The Bombyx mori normally creates silk thread of different colors, ranging from gold, light gold, and to very light green, with lengths from 500 to 1,500 yards every cocoon.
Because a single Thai silk thread filament is very thin to utilize on its own, Thai women mix several thread to build a thicker and usable fiber. This process is carried out by hand-reeling the threads placed in a wooden spindle to produce a standard strand of raw silk. It is a tiresome procedure since it takes about 40 hours to manufacture even half kilogram of silk.
Most of the local operations employ a reeling machine, though majority stick with hand-reeling. The main distinction is that hand-reeled silk produces three silk grades: a thick grade that complements heavier material and two fine grades that suit lightweight fabrics.
The silk is then immersed in hot water and then bleached. Dyeing is also done to eliminate the natural yellow coloring of Thai yarn. To perform this step, skeins of silk thread are soaked in huge tubs of hydrogen peroxide. After washing and drying, the silk is then woven through the conventional hand operated loom.
Distinction
To determine a genuine silk, Thailand’s Agriculture Ministry makes use of a peacock emblem to validate and authenticate their products and protect them from imitations. The colors include:
– Gold Peacock
– Silver Peacock
– Blue Peacock
– Green Peacock
Because this silk is hand woven, every silk bag and fabric is distinct and can’t be copied through commercial approaches. It also furnishes a unique luster, with a gleam that has two distinctive combinations: one color for the weft and another for the warp. In addition the Thai silk fabric changes its color at different angles when positioned against the light.
NANGFA Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is providing silk textile bags and home decor since 2006.
