Warning: this post is exclusively about weaving.

Yesterday we visited a weaving studio that's been set up to train young people in the art of producing, spinning, dying and weaving silk. From moth to fabric, here are all the steps.

These are the mulberry bushes that the caterpillars eat. The leaves are picked and brought into the cocoonerie.

They're hard to see, but the male and female moths are placed together on top of these pieces of paper where they mate, lay the eggs and die. The little black dots on the paper are baby caterpillars.

The caterpillars eat the mulberry leaves for a couple of weeks and then form yellow cocoons (you can see the cocoons in the picture with the moths). About 20% of the cocoons are saved out for the moths to mature and mate. The remaining 80% are boiled, steamed or left out in the sun to kill the pupa. If they are allowed to hatch they chew through the cocoon and cut the silk threads into too small of pieces. If you are a true vegan you do not wear silk because the animal dies in the process of making it.

Next step is the spinning. The cocoons are floating in water and are unraveled 3 or 4 at a time as they are spun into thread. The thread from one cocoon is almost too thin to see.

After its spun the thread is washed and dyed. This studio uses only vegetable (no chemical) dyes.

Then the looms are warped and the weaving begins.

My only disappointment was that they only sell the finished fabric. I couldn't buy any cones of thread. Hopefully I'll have more luck with that in Thailand.