From Worms to Silk

by: Se Sothida

Khmer Silk is very popular in the world for many years. There are not many countries that can produce silk, considering the complexity of the process which requires several days to produce.

Silk is produced from different types of insects, but only the silk of moth has been used for textile industry. The female adult silkworm can produce approximately 400 eggs a time and as soon as it lays eggs, it will die instantly.   

To produce silk as a final or semi final product we have first the silkworm egg is laid on a flat large basket where they are placed under gauze with the intention of keeping larvae of the silkworm egg following it hatch. The incubation from silkworm egg to larvae takes around 10 days. About 6 weeks later the larvae will then be mature enough to spin a web of silk cocoon. The web of silk cocoon emerges with the fibrin secretion from the salivary glands of mature larvae. This rotation of silk cocoon which produces a thick silk thread will take about a week. At this time, it is called pupating. After that, the silk threads are separated from cocoons to make a single thread by using traditional tool. Sometimes, a single filament of thread is taken from many cocoons.

At the end of the process, the product is raw silk that is turned into varieties of different purposes for example, dress, shirt, tie, bed sheet, and other products. Besides, silk is designed by weaving into traditional fabric, sarong, and scarf that Cambodian people always wear in any special ceremonies such as Khmer New Year, Pchhom Ben Festival, wedding, and other events.      

The process of producing Khmer Silk is quite complicated and required deep attention compared to other production process. Khmer silk is famous for both foreign and local tourists as souvenir for their beloved as well.