Thai silk...
Thai silk is
produced from the cocoons of Thai silkworms. Thai weavers, mainly from the
Khorat Plateau in the northeast region of Thailand, raise the caterpillars on a
steady diet of mulberry leaves. Khorat is the center of the silk industry in
Thailand and a steady supplier of rose Thai silk for many generations.
Today, Thai
silk is considered to be one of the finest arts in the world, a product of a
unique manufacturing process and bearing unique patterns and colors.
Origin
After silk
originated in ancient China and India where the practice of weaving silk began
around 2,640 BCE, Chinese merchants spread the use of silk to different regions
throughout Asia through trade. Some accounts indicate that archaeologists found
the first fibres of silk in Thailand to be over 3,000 years old in the ruins
ofBaan Chiang, the site is considered by many to be Southeast Asia's oldest
civilization.
weaving
The
production of Thai silk begins with the Bombyx mori, a small silk worm that
comes from the eggs of a silk moth. For their first year, these worms feast on
the leaves of mulberry trees before building a cocoon from their spittle.
In its
original cocoon form, raw silk is bumpy and irregular. Thai weavers separate
the completed cocoons from the mulberry bush and soak them in a vat of boiling
water to separate the silk thread from the caterpillar inside the cocoon.
The Bombyx
mori usually produces silk thread of varying colors, ranging from light gold to
very light green, with lengths varying from 500 to 1,500 yards per cocoon.
A single
thread filament is too thin to use on its own so Thai women combine many
threads to produce a thicker, usable fibre. They do this by hand-reeling the
threads onto a wooden spindle to produce a uniform strand of raw silk. The
process is a tedious one as it takes nearly 40 hours to produce a half kilogram
of Thai silk.
Many local
operations use a reeling machine for this task, but the majority of most silk
thread is still hand-reeled. The difference is that hand-reeled threads produce
three grades of silk: two fine grades that are ideal for lightweight fabrics
and a thick grade for heavier material.
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.
Identification
Since
traditional Thai silk is hand woven, each silk fabric is unique and cannot be
duplicated through commercial means. In contrast, artificial silk is machine woven,
which means that every part of the fabric is identical and has the same color.
In addition,
Thai silk has a unique lustre, 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.
Moreover,
Thai silk smells like hair when burned, a testament to the natural fibre that
comes from the silk worm, which is similar to the fibre of human hair and
fingernails. If you move the flame, Thai silk immediately stops burning. On the
other hand, artificial silk smells like plastic when burned.
In terms of
price, Thai silk is usually 10 times more expensive than artificial silk.
Another
simple way to identify authentic Thai silk is the "wedding ring"
test. When you attempt to pull a yard or two of Thai silk fabric through a
wedding ring, it will ease through and will show you just how smooth and
flexible it is as a fabric. However, the same cannot be said for imitation
fabrics as they will crunch up and be very difficult or even impossible to pull
through a wedding ring.
Types
To
be able to identify genuine Thai silk easily, Thailand's Agriculture Ministry
uses a peacock emblem to authenticate Thai silk and protect it from imitations.
The peacock emblem serves as a guarantee of quality and it comes in four
different colors based on specific silk types and production process[5]. These
are the following:
-Gold peacock: Indicates the premium Royal Thai
Silk, a product of native Thai silkworm breeds and traditional hand-made
production.
-Silver peacock: Indicates Classic Thai Silk,
developed from specific silkworm breeds and hand-made production.
-Blue peacock: Indicates Thai Silk, a product of
pure silk threads and with no specific production method (allows chemical
dyes).
-Green peacock: Indicates Thai Silk Blend, a
product of silk blended with other fabrics and with no specific production
method.
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