Silk weaving - Part 1

In the small town of Graskop, there is a place where they weave raw silk into all kinds of beautiful items and during Gaelyn's visit here, I asked the people there if I might take pictures of the process to share with you and they agreed. They can be contacted at:
http://www.africasilks.com/

For more information on the silk trade and silkworms, go to:
You will never guess what happened to me today and Silkworm update

Now we have a 'chicken and the eggs' story which came first? Okay, lets start with the eggs which are layed by the moth....

Out of the thousands of eggs laid, the worms breed out. They feed mostly on Mulberry or lettuce leaves.

In a few months, they begin to spin silk cocoons around themselves and there are stunning pictures of it in "Silworm update". There they remain through the winter.......
...... and the moths hatch from that.

Depending on what they are fed, the silk is either yellow or white. The silk shop has their own farm where they breed the worms and gather cocoons by the thousands.

Now here the story splits and I will give you the explination as given to me by Africa Silks...

Fine silk: "With this method a single thread is reeled off the cocoon, which was boiled with the pupae inside, because once the moth exits, the thread will be broken. Using a good quality cocoon this continuous thread can be up to 1,3 km (about half a mile) long. This is the method used for producing the fine silk associated with eastern countries." The method used is all done with expensive machines not available in smaller countried like SA.

Raw/rough silk: "In this method the cocoons are boiled after the moths exit to remove the gum-like substance called Serosin. After drying them off, the silk threads are loose and ready to be spun into threads or stretched into squares for use." This process and its weaveing is done manually or with manual looms. In the picture below, the lady is busy washing the cocoons.

Once washed, they are stretched apart as far as they will go an attached to this aquare wooden frame.

Once enough have been attached to the frame, it is removed and look like this. As you can see, it is kind of lumpy and not the smooth silk one thinks it should be.

Mopani worms are also used and woven by Africa SIlks, the processing of the silk being more labor intensive than the silkworm. The wild Mopani worm does not feed in captivity, therefore the cocoons are harvested from nature. Their cocoons are very hard and nut-like and involve a long process to be washed, brushed and spun into threads, ready for weaving.

Below, a lady takes the sqares of rough silk and spins them into thread.