A Silky Trip

Hi guys! So another term has already begun in LCFS Hanoi! And before we are getting super busy once again with our final project, Ms. May Cortazzi has organized a trip for us to relax and prepare to fight! As well as to increase our knowledge on one of the finest kind of fabric – silk. And our destination was no other than the oldest silk village in the east side of Hanoi – Van Phuc, Ha Dong village. 

The first place we visited was a traditional household called Trieu Van Mao where we learnt all about the long process of making silk. The cycle begins in summer and takes a whole year to complete. It all starts when a special type of butterfly lays eggs. Each butterfly can lay up to 400 eggs which take about 10 day to hatch. The villager raise the worm with Dau leaves for 4 to 6 weeks till they start to release silk thread, wrapping around themselves to create cocoons in approximately 4 days. Naturally, it takes around 10 days for the butterflies will break their cocoons, but nowadays, to speed up the process, villagers boil the cocoons and collect the silk threads right after the worms stop releasing threads. The boiled worms will be sold in the market as a Vietnamese traditional food (they are actually quite tasty and nutritious.) Villagers then untwine cocoons using a homemade wooden machine. The silk threads now are ready to dye and wrap into rolls, preparing for the next step.   

Silky cocoons

Wooden machine to separate silk threads

Silk thread then get twined into rolls

Weaving machine

Pattern cards

Beautiful silks are on the way!

The next stage of the process begins in autumn when villagers start weaving fabric. They use a weaving machine with pattern cards to weave their silk. The pattern cards help creating patterns on the fabric.

After the lesson, we got to do some shopping! The 3 most popular silk fabrics are 100% silk, silk with visco blend and silk with hemp blend. The silks products are great. Villagers use their fabrics to produce clothes and house decorations which not only look beautiful but also have superb quality.

And the gorgeous final products!

An absolutely amazing trip that we couldn’t have asked for more! It was knowledgeable as well as enjoyable. We totally had a blast! So if you are looking for some beautiful silk for your project, you know where to get them! Lastly, stay in tuned to see our final projects, some of them will be made with the silk we got!

Direction to Van Phuc Village

Have a great one! With love, Nicky Vu.