Silk Farm

Once we were done building houses outside of Battambong we headed up to Siem Reap. The first things that we did in Siem Reap was visit the Angkor Artisans Silk Farm. At the silk farm we were introduced to the process of how silk is made, from the mulberry trees (silk warms eat the leaves) to the finished products. I didn't realize that there was so much involved in creating silk. It starts with what the worms are feed and we saw all the different stages that the worms go through before they spin their silk cocoons. The next step is to take the silk from the cocoons and make it into raw or fine silk thread. It takes about 50 silk strings to create a thread. Once the threads are created they are dyed. Then once the silk is colored it is set up in the looms. Depending on the pattern that is created a different color thread will be used for the base and for the threads that are weaved across.It was really interesting to watch as the silk was being weaved. There were some beautiful patterns. There were also some patterns that looked they they would be really complicated to make. Now I guess I know why silk costs so much.