Ten Thousand Villages Canada 2008 Learning Tour: Silk Production

We didn't do a formal interview at the silk /printing works as the artisans are paid by the piece and we didn't want to negatively affect their income. Here is a description of what we saw (written by Carell) follwed by a few images to give you a feel of the process.

So you think that silk scarf you have your eye on is expensive? If you could see the process involved in turning raw silk fabric into the beautiful finished product, you might change your mind. In the village of Serampore, there lives a group of skilled craftspeople who turn out silk saris and scarves that are either silk printed or block printed and that will sell to the export or domestic market, depending on colour and pattern.

Eighteen years ago, this group was born and now runs their own project, with CRC providing help with marketing, design, finance and exporting assistance. We were privileged to see the entire process and I was totally enthralled.

They begin with silk fabric, each piece 11 m. long, in the natural golden colour. A coal furnace fired the heat for the following vats. Fourteen or fifteen pieces were degummed by boiling in a large vat for 45 minutes, stirring with long bamboo poles. They were then placed in another vat and boiled with hydrogen peroxide to bleach out the colour so that the resulting fabric was suitable for dyeing. The dyeing vat was the next spot, with AZO-free and PCB-free dyes used. This part of the process took about 40 minutes, depending on the particular fabric and hue required and the fabric was dried. These workers earned an hourly wage for hot, very steamy work.

The fabric was then patterned using silk screen or block printing which were designed by a separate design team. The men who worked in these areas were paid by the hour and were very industrious. The silk screen printing area comprised a series of very long, wax-covered tables. The fabric was laid straight on the was-covered table and pressed flat using plastic scrubbies that you might recognize as pot cleaners. Steam under the table softened the wax sufficiently to make the fabric adhere to it. Then a series of silk screens were placed on the fabric with a worker on either side of the table, colour was poured into one end of the screen and wooden scrapers were pulled and pushed back and forth to push the colour through the pattern on the screen, colouring the fabric. Each colour required the use of a different screen which allowed a part of the pattern to be filled in. The cloth was then lifted and hung to dry. For our benefit the workers that day printed a cotton fabric using five different colours and it was amazing to see the transformation of white cloth into a vibrant multi-hued sari or scarf.

Block printed fabrics were stamped using wooden blocks which had been hand carved by master craftsmen. The small blocks were dipped into dye and stamped by hand on the fabric with the artisan’s keen eye keeping the pattern even. Each colour required a different block. The blocks were used about a thousand times before being replaced.

The patterned silk was then wrapped in cotton, with layer upon layer of silk then cotton, rolled up like a huge jellyroll and strapped to hold it together. It was steamed for 45 minutes to one hour to set the colour, using steam from the original part of the whole process, removed, washed, dried and finished. It was folded and placed in cotton, then this delicate treasure was placed on a half-log and beaten with 10 pound wooden mallets! The beaters had a regular rhythm going, stopping only to open the package and turn the silk several times in the hour it took to complete each package. Ian and Carolyn both tried this part of the process and had the workers in stitches at their pathetic efforts but we gave them credit because they were the only ones of our group brave enough to try. The beating made the silk softer and added luster.

Silk saris for the domestic market were folded in a specific way and we were horrified to see them being wet down then ironed with huge hand irons heated on a fire. It was nice to see men doing all of the ironing.