Thai Silk

What is Thai silk really?Cleaning & take care of Thai silk
The Chinese kept the secret of silk for thousands ofThai Silk has an excellent durable and resilient quality. It
years! Truly it is an exclusive fabric and back to theis a delicate fabric that cannot be treated like linen or
past it was only for the high society and kings. Thecotton. To keep the fabric in its original look and feel it
secret was protected by enforcing dire penalties.is recommended to do dry-cleaning. Wash Thai silk
Anyone found guilty of smuggling silkworm eggs,best by hand by using a very mild soap. Rinse the silk
cocoons or even seeds of the mulberry tree was putfabric in tepid water (not over 48.6 degrees Celsius)
to death.until it is cleaned. Then carefully press the water from
A secret doesn't remain secret forever. Thethe fabric by hand.?Do not wring. In the last rinse, add a
production of Thai silk begins with a small worm knowspoonful of clear white vinegar to retain its original
as Bombyx mori: the silk worms coming from the eggsluster and allow it to drip dry in the shade.
from the silk moth.Important:
The worms are eating the leaves of mulberry treesPlease do not use any drying or washing machine to
until they become 1 year old, after they will build aclean your Thai silk item. We advise to iron the fabric
cocoon from their spittle.on the reverse side just before it is dry; or you could
To extract the silk thread, we have to put the cocoonalso put a fabric over the silk during the iron process to
in hot boiled water. The length of silk thread in amake sure the iron does not have direct contact to
cocoon varies considerably, from 500 to 1,500 yards.the silk fabric.
The length much depending on the species of wormIndetification of real Thai silk
that produced it.Simply follow the four main methods for determining
?Until today in Thailand, most silk thread is hand-reeledtrue silk:?
by women, the filaments form several cocoons being-A) The Price
reeled together on a wooden spindle into a uniform-B) Look & Feel
strand of raw silk.-C) Luster Check
It is truly a time-consuming process.?It may take up to-D) The Burning Test
40 hours to reel one and a half kilograms of silk.A) Real Thai silk cost up to 10 times more than artificial
Several sericulture families have simplified the job bysilk.
using a reeling machine. Most traditional manufacturers,B) One fact is that traditional Thai silk is hand-woven
however, still use the old or "original" method, whichwhich means that no fabric is the same, and each one
produces three grades of silk: two fine ones suitableis unique. Artificial silk is machine woven, so it has
for lightweight fabric and a thicker one used foralways the same color and every part of the fabric
heavier material.looks exactly the same.
The skeins of silk thread are then soaked in hot waterC) Luster also shows whether a fabric is real or
to remove the remainder of the seracin. Since Thai silkimitation. Pure Thai silk is made with one color for the
yarn is yellow, it must be bleached before dyeing; thiswarp and the other for the weft. This produces the
is done by immersing the skeins in large tubs containingsheen and luster and additionally creates the unique
hydrogen peroxide, after which they are washed andtwo tones and blends. The change of the color is then
dried in the sun.depending on the angle you hold it against the light.
Thai Silk is then woven on a handloom, the threadsD) If you burn silk with a flame, it leaves fine ash and
(warps and wefts) that pass across and are insertedsmells like burning hair. We remember silk is made of
during the weaving process. Thai Silk is hand-wovennatural fiber coming from the silk worm and similar to
fabric, which means that although if conforms to setthe fiber of hair or fingernails. Once taking the flame
standards of width, color, and quality it still retains aaway it stops burning. Burning artificial silk is similar to
degree of individuality impossible to achieve by moreburning plastic, the smell, reaction to fire and look.
advanced technology.