January 21, 2014 Tuesday

The silk found in the Sunday Night Market and the other local markets is not the best quality, and to keep the price low, often includes other materials, like nylon and cotton. Linda wanted to go to the source, so to speak, where the silk is made, and where the companies sell the highest quality Thai silk. The area east of Chiang Mai known as Samkampaeng is where there are 2 or 3 silk factories, and several other craft places or factories, like woodworking, silver, lacquer ware, umbrella. Linda arranged for a van to take us from the Tamarind Village to Samkampaeng about mid-morning, and off we went.

The Thai silk village is one of the most renowned of the silk factories in northern Thailand. Thai Silk Village has their own farm where they grow the mulberry leaves the silkworms eat, and the whole process is done on site. There are rooms where short baskets hold silkworms and mulberry leaves, then places for the silkworms to spin their cocoons, and places where the silkworm cocoons are heated and the silk is made into silk thread. Basically, about 15-20 of the very fine silk strands from the cocoons are spun together to make one silk thread that will be used for making silk fabric. the silk thread is either washed with a shampoo to make it very soft, or left in unwashed for what is known as raw silk fabric. The washed silk thread is very soft, and it is easy to see why silk is a fabric people like. The silk is dyed, mostly using natural plant materials from the area. Finally, it is woven by hand, using large looms. The resulting silk fabric is of the highest quality and very beautiful.

After seeing how the silk is made, we shopped. Many good things to see.

And after the Thai Silk Village, we went to the silver factory, the lacquer ware factory, the woodworking factory, a factory making high-quality brass and silver flatware, and a umbrella factory. A long day of shopping. I took almost no pictures, and I was beat.

Next: hot stone oil massage (again)