So I will try again...to lay the groundwork here, we haven't experienced true jet lag here, just odd sleep patterns...we hit the hay at 7:00 this evening but both were wide awake at 11:30, just 4 hrs later. So my mom wrote about the days events in her journal and I have been writing my posts and uploading pics...it is 1:15 now, so I am going to finish this post and then try to get some more sleep before we start day 2.
I am still feeling awake...and completely at home as the man in the room next to us is snoring like a papa bear...or my sweet husband. I can hear it loud and clear.
So, we ft Starbucks, walked through a pretty park with a lake, dead in the middle of the city, so nice! We were hassled by little old ladies offering a massage...and they like to grab you here to get your attention and ...I could do without that.
So we headed to the silk factory, not the actual factory but a government run place where you can see every step in the silk making process and also a big store where you can buy all things silk.
Below is a shot of the pretty trees that hand over the streets, beautiful like Savannah without the moss.
Now this is what it looks like from inside the car during peak traffic time...people, cars, busses, mopeds and bikes, all over each other, no rhyme, reason or rules. It looks like total insanity but for some reason if just works, the flow keeps moving, the unspoken rules of the road are understood by all, everyone k owe to kind of gracefully stay in motion, dancing in and out of the paths of all other moving objects.
One time our driver, Mr. Wong, popped out of our lane into the opposite lane, we were playing chicken with a silver Mercedes, no one flinched, no yelling, or jerking, the cars just smoothly accelerated towards each other and then Mr. Wong popped back over into the right lane between two busses about 3 inches apart..i think he shape shifted the car...there was no opening but were just back in our lane, and the flow keeps going...
We do a VERY diet version of this craziness in Atlanta during rush hour but it also involves (at least in my car) cursing the living day lights out of at least two morons trying to end your life by cutting you off, riding your bumper or slamming on their brakes for no reason, or other random general acts of stupidity...all verbal communication reinforced with sign language and honking...the kind of honking that says " I wish this steering wheel I am punching was your face".
Here...all vehicles, 2 wheels and 4, honk...but there doesn't seem to be a death wish tied to the honk. And no one is yelling or cursing each other for missing their body or their vehicle by inches... Not completely sure what the honk is meant to accomplish here, because nobody is stopping for anyone or anything...complete stopping doesn't occur...regardless of what lies in your path. It is like everyone is in agreement that all bodies in motion will remain in motion, gracefully leaning and sliding one way or the other at the last second before possible impact. It just seems to flow...one constant motion. Kind of like when you watch the groups of people in the park doing tai chi.
So, the silk market...we both absolutely loved this place, learned a lot, the process of making silk is fascinating to me!
So first we started with worms, live ones...they eat mulberry leaves for about a month and when they get full and stop eating they are placed on these stick like wreath things and they build a cocoon. They either build one cocoon all by themselves or (only in China) two worms will bunk up and weave a cocoon together, called a double, since the two worms are incubating in there together.
The single worm cocoons are used to make thread that will become fabric for clothing and other textile products. The double cocoons are used to make fill fiber for duvet/comforters.
The cocoons are boiled, worms go to heaven.
They then take 8-10 cocoons and put them in these little water baths on the threading machines, then they get a stick type tool and wave it around in the water and catch threads off the cocoons. These threads are attached to a type of guide wick on the machine and it pulls the 8-10 almost invisible fibers up into one strand and spins it up onto a spool. The little white cocoons are just sitting there spinning together as they are unravelled into the very fine but very strong thread. The guide said that each cocoon give like 1300 meters of thread ( possibly off on that figure but whatever the number was...it was long!)
from
They have more modern machines now but the process is the same, it just does it faster. You would think that the fine strands of silk couldn't withstand the pulling of the machine process but those little invisible threads are unusually strong.
The next process was very cool to me. The double cocoons can't be used to get silk thread, with two worms spinning a cocoon at one time together the strands are too tangled to unravel into single strands.
Those cocoons are processed to the end product completely by hand, very labor intensive process.
A worker will take the soaked double cocoons and cut them open and remove the dead worm carcasses rinse it off and then stretch the little wet cocoon over a wooden standing arch shaped frame. Then she pulls it off the frame, wets it again, then stretches it over a larger flame, she repeats this process several times with each frame getting a little larger each time.
When several cocoons are stretched ofer the final frame and dried, they are then removed in one piece, a fluffy 1x1 ish size piece of fluffy silk strands.
See at the left side of the picture above, those stacked white fluffy things are the finished product...at least for this step.
Next these pieces are brought to several workers that stand around a stretched square frame. They take one piece of double cocoon silk fluff and all hands in the middle, they pull outward in a very synchronized manner creating a giant even silk spiderweb and stretch it over the square frame...they even let my mom and I give it a try.
These layers are made into a comforter and the Chinese sleep with these and they literally last a lifetime. The comforters are made to standard industry bed sizes in 3 different weights. The weight is determined by how many of these silk spider web layers are used. There is a lightweight summer weight, a year round weight and a winter weight. The silk comforters are super light but keep you warm. The silk fibers never break or fray so no dander or allergens that you get in down comforters. Also since the fill is literally layered a few at a time over the form, it stays put in the fabric cover, no lumping up or moving around like down comforters.
Yeah...jade and pearls are all cool I guess but this is my thing...I am a bedding junkie...and this is my new favorite thing on the planet!
Yeah, I got a comforter, I can't wait to snuggle underneath this thing! My mom got one too...they compress the air out of it for travel.
I was going to get the pillows too but I had to draw the line...$46USD is a bit much for one pillow.
They also had the gorgeous silk duvet covers, I just wanted to wrap myself up in them and lay down on the display bed...I was in my happy place. I also realized that my favorite ones were also the most expensive silks that they made...had to just step away, I have duvet covers, just say no, step back slowly and walk away.
So later in the trip we will check out the pearl and jade market but I got my "jewelry" already! I just need to come back and get all the rest..pillows, more comforters, matching silk duvet covers...I want it all! But that is for a later time in life...I am very happy happy happy with my double cocoon silk filled comforter.
Ok, now the funniest part of the day is next and I must say I personally was impressed with my restraint but there were moments that I thought I was going to slap the crap out of another human being..smaller and shorter than me...seriously!
Catch ya in the next post!
Tara
No comments:
Post a Comment