Silk and Parasols – Now thats more like it!

 Silk is simply fascinating. If you’ve never seen how silk is made, you won’t believe what I am about to tell you. Lets start with the moths. These little fluttering critters have wings too small to let them fly (duh! Who thought that was a good idea?) so these enterprising people catch them by the bunches and keep them in a box.

Not too long after they flutter around their box, they lay eggs. (If this is getting too risqué you may want to stop reading) Next the eggs hatch into worms that spin a cocoon and move in for a good rest. For some, the story ends here. For others, they go on to hatch into little moths and the process starts over.

For the cocoons that don’t continue the journey (because they were boiled) the process of unwinding the single strand of silk that makes up the cocoon begins. This strand of silk can be up to 1 kilometer long! The cocoons are placed into a pot of hot water where a laborer picks up the single strand of silk from each cocoon and feeds it through a funnel. It then goes onto a funnel where it is wound into a roll. As needed, the silk is either processed further, dyed, bleached or left natural and then passed onto the weaver where it is woven into beautiful finished goods.

The weavers in this shop did everything manually, nothing was automated! Every row and color is added by hand to make some very beautiful cloths. Yeah the fans run on electricity, but the looms are hand operated.

And the tour ends in…….yup, the gift shop!  Actually, very nice clothing and definitely better priced than anywhere in the US. I couldn’t help myself. I snapped up a replica cocoon for 2THB that came with a free swatch of silk while Justin got a couple of ties and Jess & Betsy are waiting for their shipping container to arrive with what they bought.

On to parasols (these aren’t used for rain, just sun)

As we left the silk factory, I felt a little disappointed. I wish we had been there when it wasn’t lunch hour, really want to see those silk worms working.

These parasols are all hand-made and hand painted. The paintings are incredible and quite elaborate. There were a lot of painters there the day we visited with most waiting for something to paint. These ingenious artists decided to set up a little side shop where they will paint anything and everything. I passed on the offer to have my phone cover painted with an image of Donald Trump, a ’57 Chevy or a naked lady holding a pair of fuzzy dice and went out to the shop.

Saying these are hand-made may be an understatement. Everything from the ribs that are hand cut and finished from tree branches, to the paper is hand-made! Once assembled, the parasol gets its design painted on it by those local artists not busy painting the Grand Canyon on a phone cover.

Again, the tour ends in the gift shop. I just can’t control myself so why try. I had to buy a parasol so I just bit the bullet and got one. This was one of the smaller parasols so I got a deal. It came on top of my Margarita at the bar next door but they assured me it was original and hand painted.

Justin found a nice dragon decorated parasol while Jessie & Betsy are once again waiting for their shipping container to arrive with the few items they bought.

Last stop was a rug merchant. Not sure why this was included in the “tour”, they didn’t even have rugs made in Thailand. Anyway, had a cup of tea and said “no thank you”.

Back in to the van and off for a buffet lunch. Last stop for today will be the White Temple, Wat Rong Khun.