Silk production today is a highly automated industry. That is; except for the cocooning chores of a Mulberry-feeding moth. ‘Silkworm’ is a misnomer because the creatures that do the spinning are actually caterpillars called Bombyz Mori – not worms at all. A got to see Thai silk production up close during her recent trip to Isan and nothing about it was automated. Everything from boiling the threads off the pupae to the finished silk fabric was hand-done and labor-intensive. It’s a strand by strand chore in Isan and the results are stunningly beautiful. A colorful sarong costing under twenty US dollars has a labor value (using US as a mean) of well over two hundred dollars – that is, if you could even find anyone in the US willing to put in that much time for a measly two hundred bucks.
A’s host family during her visit are weavers and farmers and they were very proud to show her their skills, so she got a good taste of it all, and literally too… they prepare and eat the pupae after the silk cocoons have been removed. A said they were tasty, but I’m not sure she meant it, because she said “they have a lot of protein” too many times. Anyway… this is not a primer on silk production, or protein, but she came back with many pictures and here are a few of them.
