Mother Daughter Adventure Chronicles IVb- Siem Reap- More than Just Angkor Ruins

Before our departure we decided to pay a visit to the birthplace of the beautiful silk scarves that come from Cambodia.  Southeast Asia is ripe with beautiful tapestries and all sorts of woven art, and the scarves make up a large majority of the popular woven items for sale all over the region. 

Here's a big of a photo guide to step-by-step process of how the silk scarves are made- from silk worms munching on mulberry leaves, to brilliant garments for royalty.

Cocoon life cycle

Silk worms munching on mulberry leaves

The thread that begins the silk process

Cocoons ready to be taken to boil and extract silk threads

Cocoons hanging from a basket- cocoon gathering stage

Boiling cocoons to extract the silk threads

Threads

After threads are dried they are in a raw form.  They are spun onto a large spindle that will later be used to put onto a small spindle and thinned.

Spinning from large spindle to small.  The threads are pulled and therefore thinned.

Beginning to weave plain colored threads

Dyed threads being spun from large to small spindles for weaving

Materials for dyes- I'm pretty sure the basket holds kaffir limes, twigs, leaves and other natural materials not shown here are used to make dyes

Throw it in the pot to boil and make dye...

This is how you dye!  The plain white threads are tied very tightly at certain sections to create white spaces.  This will later help to establish different patterns.  This man is a dying expert.  This was one of my favorite parts as I am a major fan of tie-dying.

Different raw colored threads.  Not sure what the Khmer tag says.  Isn't their writing beautiful?

After the threads are dyed and dried, Women workers cut off the threads.

threads ready for weaving

Loom, partially woven material,and shuttle

Textured pattern of cloth and shuttle.

Tools of old in the museum at the end of the tour

Old loom- even the loom is a work of art

Traditional garments for royalty

We didn't really know what to expect when we set out for the Silk Farm, but we were pleasantly surprised.  The farm, factory and museum were all very insightful, and the shop was pretty breathtaking as far as museum shops go.  So many brilliantly colored garments, scarves, pillow cases, table cloths, ties, purses and other items.  We weren't allowed to take pictures otherwise I would have put one in here!  We bought a few things and walked around ooh-ing and aah-ing at every turn.  While the items in the shop were more expensive than in the markets, these items were very legitimate and compared to what you might pay in the West, this was nothing.  

All in all, it was a fantastic trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia.  Always so much to see and do and I'm lucky I got to do it twice.