I saw all round the factory and it was fascinating watching the students work. (but they wouldn’t really let me have a go at anything).
The Students all make the same things, the silk painters replicate famous Cambodian works of art, the stone workers do Buddha statues and elephants, the copper workers replicate statues and animals and the lacquer workers make bowls and Buddhas and the occasional elephant too. They have original casts which they use to make exact replicas, measuring they dimensions with dividers.
I particularly liked the lacquer-work – they items are made from wood, covered in plaster and then once dry, lacquered black or brown. 
They then eventually add copper leaf and then distress it to make the item look older 
The Copper-workers chase the most intricate designs in the sheets - am desperate to have a go at this when home.
The Stone carvers were absolutely amazing - the patience you must have to have to do this !!! 
The artisans other speciality there is to weave the most beautiful silk scarves. I can't understand why they don't pool these skills to make some amazing jewellery they can add to their shop which you visit afterwards, and I now feel terribly inspired to do some designs for them.
They also do a tour around the Silk farm a little distance out of town, so off I went to meet the worms and go round the mulberry bushes.
There are apparently 18 types of mulberry bush which, in their natural environment the worms would live on, all of which provide different types and grades of silk. Here the bushes are grown in plantations and the leaves are harvested of the worms who live in more cosier comfortable conditions inside to prevent them being eaten by birds or the like. 
The cute, sticky little white Worms eat for 3 days and them sleep for one day (when they are moved to another little basket with some nice fresh leaves) and live and grow for about 24 days 
before they begin to turn yellow when they are separated from the worm nursery and begin to spin their little cocoons.
The cute, sticky little white Worms eat for 3 days and them sleep for one day (when they are moved to another little basket with some nice fresh leaves) and live and grow for about 24 days 
before they begin to turn yellow when they are separated from the worm nursery and begin to spin their little cocoons.
They are then put onto little baskety cocoon holders as the worms busily spin away. 
When they hatch as moths they mate bottom to bottom for FIVE HOURS! Go go you naughty silk moths!! Unfortunately they then they immediately lay their eggs and die! (you can see all the eggs around these two busy silk moths, the female will be covered by a glass so that she lays the eggs in a contained space once they've "finished")
However only a chosen few get to hatch for the next cycle.
However only a chosen few get to hatch for the next cycle.
The rest of them, once they have finished spinning, are taken off their little baskets and boiled up to remove the silk. First the courser outer silk is removed - it takes 80 cocoons to produce 100m of this course silk thread. (this is RAW Silk) . 
The silk is caught up by stirring the pot with a wire whisk like thing and then wound on to bobbins. As you can see the natural colour of silk is yellow - you can really see why the fairy tales used to talk of spun gold, as this is what it looks like.
it then takes 45 of those cocoons stripped of their outer courser layer to produce 100m of FINE silk.
The silk is caught up by stirring the pot with a wire whisk like thing and then wound on to bobbins. As you can see the natural colour of silk is yellow - you can really see why the fairy tales used to talk of spun gold, as this is what it looks like.it then takes 45 of those cocoons stripped of their outer courser layer to produce 100m of FINE silk.
Then it is cleaned, bleached and dyed, and sometimes spun into thicker thread. They use natural products to create the dyes - 
for instance this is morning glory flowers which produce a very pale lilac colour.
for instance this is morning glory flowers which produce a very pale lilac colour.
This huge machine then creates the warp threads for the looms.... powered by a little motor...."So, it's a warp drive!" I said. No one got it :(
Sometimes the warp threads are tie died by wrapping them with plastic so that patterns are created.
They are then put on to the loom, and this woman is creating the nylon separators to different warp threads can be raised and used to create different textures in the silk, as the weft shuttles are passed back and forth creating the pattern and material. 
It is breathtakingly complicated and at the same time unbelievably simple . And so perfectly done, its the sort of thing that we would always assume was made by an automated factory machine not done by the fast moving human hands here!
It is breathtakingly complicated and at the same time unbelievably simple . And so perfectly done, its the sort of thing that we would always assume was made by an automated factory machine not done by the fast moving human hands here!
Silk making and the textures and patterns created have been of particular importance in the East for untold centuries, often denoting your social status by what patterns you were permitted to wear. For instance only the King was allowed to wear certain floral patterns and peasants were only allowed basic rough weaves.
Tania who was a fellow volunteer in Phnom penh, arrived in Siem Reap today, so we went out to "pub street" in the town for a few drinks in the evening before crashing out.
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