silkofsiam.jpg (12573 bytes)

 

handwoven THailand silk (3542 bytes)

 

Napho (Lai See) Silk

 

(We call this scarf the “Napho” scarf because that is the name of the village where it is woven. The weavers themselves actually call it the “Lai See.”) 

Silk has been cultivated and woven for perhaps 5,000 years in China. Around 2,000 years ago, silk began to be produced in the area which is now known as Thailand, either due to smuggled silk worms, Chinese businessmen seeking better areas to grow the silk worms, or most likely, a combination of the two. 

Silk from South East Asia has a thicker, softer, more uneven texture due to the high concentration of seracin on the silk threads. Because of this, Thai silk is sometimes called “raw silk,” but that label is really a misnomer.  

The production of silk diminished in Thailand from the turn of the last centry until after WWII, both  as a result of the distaste Theravada Buddhists had for the killing of the silk worms (a necessary step in the silk-making process) and the influx of cheap machine-made silk from China. However, certain pockets such as the Muslin Ban Krua Cham and villages in North-Eastern Thailand  (where religious views were more relaxed and integrated with other tenants and beliefs) kept the skills of silk-making alive. 

Two people are the prime reason silk-making now thrives in Thailand:  Her Majesty, Queen Sirikit, and an American ex-pat named Jim Thompson. 

Jim Thompson was an American soldier in the  OSS who went to Thailand during WWII. After the war, he decided to stay. He discovered and fell in love with Thai silk, but when he decided to build a business around it, he found he could not really obtain commercially viable amounts of silk to sell. Searching for sources in what now was a small cottage industry, he found pockets of silk-making , most notably the Ban Krua Cham  in Bangkok and a few scattered weaving families throughout the Korat Plateau. Through his love for silk and the Thai people, Jim Thompson used his family wealth to create a world demand for Thai silk and gave an opportunity for Thai weaving families to return to silk and be able to make a living at it. 

Queen Sirikit has worked assiduously for the last 60 years to promote Thai traditional art and handicrafts. As part of her “One Tumbon, One Product” project, she has given small villages the opportunity to make a good living while keeping traditional Thai arts alive. She has taken a special interest in silk, and has used her considerable influence both within Thailand and abroad to make sure that Thai weaving skills do not disappear.  

With the support of Queen Sirikit and with the resurrection of the world “brand awareness” of Thai silk , thanks to Jim Thompson, traditional weaving families throughout Thailand were able to bring out their wood and bamboo looms and return to making their livelihoods through silk-making. 

In the Korat Plateau, weavers traditionally used a technique called “Ikat” to weave their distinctive silk. This technique involves a time-consuming process to dye the horizontal (weft) threads before weaving.  The uncolored weft threads are arranged on a frame and every break in the color of the final design must be tied off with a water-resistant plastic thread.  Small amounts of dye seep past the thread resulting in the irregular edges of Ikat patterns.  Before dying each color, plastic tape is wrapped around the sections where the weaver does not want that color to be absorbed.  The silk is removed from the frame, soaked in the dye, then the protective tape is removed and applied again to protect from the second dye, and so on. 

The general name for silk made through the Ikat process I “Matme” ( or “Mudmee”). Originally, the designs were intended to ward off evil spirits; but after time, less distinctive patterns cropped up in artistic expression. 

Silk-making is still a cottage industry. While there are some large factories near Bangkok which make lower-end silk cloth, the finer silk is almost exclusively made by women working family-owned looms in their homes. Each weaver in the village tend to weave the same pattern and technique 

With demand for Thai silk growing, some villages are experimenting with new designs and color combinations, yet still using their traditional techniques and basic patterns. The women of the village of Napho in Issan started experimenting with new colors combinations and styles. Where they traditionally might have used up to 10 local vegetable dyes gathered in the surrounding forest, they now searched for new, high-quality dyes to use in their weaving. Their beautiful new silk is still tradtional Matme, but with the new colors being used,   they call this new silk “Lai See.”

Na

100% fine Thai silk (3542 bytes)

For ordering information,

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100% fine Thai silk (3542 bytes)

To see some of our scarves, please click on the style links below:

One Color Two Color Three Color Twisty Silk Napho
Matme Rainny Bee Net Baroo Kaew
R6 Mon Takor Toon Kin
Laos Old-Style Cold-Dyed Woodline Hand-Painted

100% fine Thai silk (3542 bytes)

For information, e-mail us at info at usthaico dot com.

 

P.O. Box 250
Poway, CA  92074
USA

18/37 Garden Home Village
Kukot, Lumlookka
Pathumthani 12130 Thailand

 

Silk of Siam is offered by Falang Girl, a USTHAICO line and a division of JBI, Inc, a California Corporation.