Another hands-on silk tour: Monday, 12 March
19 February 2018
In response to several request we have organized another silk tour. In this tour you get to try your hand at the tasks needed to transform mulberry leaves into silk attire.
Hands-On Tour
Silk in Oaxaca
Karren K. Brito, Pablo González Marsch
Monday, 12 March 2018
9am-6pm
Meet at 9 am at the Oaxaca Lending Library and travel to Teotilan del Valle, a nearby Zapotec village famous for its weavers, to the studio of Arteseda. Rina, Aurora, Miguel and Reynaldo will receive you and show you their studio where they weave and dye silk, cotton and wool and raise their silk worms.
First you climb up to mulberry grove to see how the trees are planted and tended and the leaves collected for the silkworms. Then you will see the space and beds where the silkworms are raised. There are not any silkworms feeding this time of year, there may be some eggs. You will work with the harvested cocoons, both yellow and white. Some cocoons will be perforated because the moths have emerged. Others have been stifled. They need to be sorted, ones for spinning, ones for reeling,and cleaned before degumming by boiling for an hour.
While the cocoons are boiling you will have lunch at a the local traditional restaurant, El Descanso. Pablo will take you to see Santa María, a XVI century baroque style church in the center of Teotilan del Valle. It shelters several altarpieces and some slabs with ancient Zapotec engravings. This catholic church was built atop an ancient platform.
Once the cocoons that have been selected for spinning are boiled, they need to be dried then opened to prepared them for spinning. The prime cocoons are reeled hot and wet once softened by boiling. Once you find the end of the silk thread the larva spun you can simple unravel the cocoon to produce fine silk filament yarn. The dried, degummed cocoons need to be stretched and fluffed before spinning. You will have a chance to try spinning the silk fluff with a supported spindle and/or a spinning wheel.
You will then return to the OLL by 6 pm.
Arteseda does have a shop on the premises en Teotilan del Valle and a booth a the Pochote market on Calle Marcos Perez in Oaxaca de Juarez on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Limit 12 participants
Cost person: MX$900 (includes transportation,materials, lunch and bottled water)
To register contact Pablo González Marsch at marsch@prodigy.net.mx or call
(52 1) 951 134 7391 or WhatsApp.
For tour questions contact Pablo, for technical questions about silk you can leave a comment here and I will get back to you.
Silk lecture and tour
4 December 2017
I have worked with silk since 1989 and was thrilled to find a active silk production here in Oaxaca. If you are curious about silk here in Oaxaca there are two upcoming events that might interest you.
On Friday, 15 December here at the Oaxaca Lending Library I will give a lecture/ demonstration on local silk production and products. Information and registration here.
The following week Pablo González Marsch and I have organized a one day tour to a studio that raises silk and transforms it into textiles. You will be doing the processes involved in transforming cocoons into silk thread.
Hands-On Tour
Silk in Oaxaca
Karren K. Brito, Pablo González Marsch
Monday, 18 December 2017
9am-6pm
Meet at 9 am at the Oaxaca Lending Library and travel to Teotilan del Valle, a nearby Zapotec village famous for its weavers, to the studio of Arteseda. Rina, Aurora, Miguel and Reynaldo will receive you and show you their studio where they weave and dye silk, cotton and wool and raise their silk worms.
First you climb up to mulberry grove to see how the trees are planted and tended and the leaves collected for the silkworms. Then you will see the space and beds where the silkworms are raised. There are not any silkworms feeding this time of year, there may be some eggs. You will work with the harvested cocoons, both yellow and white. Some cocoons will be perforated because the moths have emerged. Others have been stifled. They need to be sorted, ones for spinning, ones for reeling,and cleaned before degumming by boiling for an hour.
While the cocoons are boiling you will have lunch at a the local traditional restaurant, El Descanso. Pablo will take you to see Santa María, a XVI century baroque style church in the center of Teotilan del Valle. It shelters several altarpieces and some slabs with ancient Zapotec engravings. This catholic church was built atop an ancient platform.
Once the cocoons that have been selected for spinning are boiled, they need to be dried then opened to prepared them for spinning. The prime cocoons are reeled hot and wet once softened by boiling. Once you find the end of the silk thread the larva spun you can simple unravel the cocoon to produce fine silk filament yarn. The dried, degummed cocoons need to be stretched and fluffed before spinning. You will have a chance to try spinning the silk fluff with a supported spindle and/or a spinning wheel.
You will then return to the OLL by 6 pm.
Arteseda does have a shop on the premisses en Teotilan del Valle and a booth a the Pochote market on Calle Marcos Perez in Oaxaca de Juarez on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Limit 12 participants
Cost person: MX$900 (includes transportation,materials, lunch and bottled water)
To register contact Pablo González Marsch at marsch@prodigy.net.mx or call
(52 1) 951 134 7391 or WhatsApp.
For tour questions contact Pablo, for technical questions about silk you can leave a comment here and I will get back to you.
entwinements 