Silk in Dubrovnik

I found the traditional dress and wool yarn twisting from last week’s post so interesting, but that was just the beginning. Next Antonia went to her refrigerator and pulled out a folded towel. She unfolded it to show us that attached to the inside were the silkworm eggs she was keeping for the next season. These eggs have a spiky outside that grabs onto the fabric.

The egg packet was kept some place cool (Antonia had them in the frig) until “they became the size of a little mouse ear” and then, to keep them warm so they would hatch, the young girls would tuck the packet inside their blouse!

The packet remained there for 7 to 10 days while the girls went about their life – eating, sleeping, working… continually. Each morning they’d check to see if anything was happening and one morning the eggs would be white, and next to each of them would be a little black caterpillar – about the size of an eyelash. They were then placed on trays with mulberry leaves and from that moment on all they would do is eat ~ for the next month. Until they became very chubby caterpillars (I took this photo from Antonia’s website).

As they grew they were placed on shelves which hung from the ceiling in the girls rooms to keep the ants from eating them.

When the silk worms were ready to make their cocoons, branches were hung all over the shelving structure. The worms would climb to a good spot and the cocoon making began.

The silk threads come out of the caterpillars much like a spider, but unlike spiders, the silkworm uses her saliva to glue the fibers together. The first thread she makes anchors the cocoon to the branches. This makes the outer portion of the cocoon, and it yields a lower quality silk thread. These were used for the tassels instead of the embroidery. Then the silkworm spins one kilometer of inner thread non-stop (yes – one kilometer!) Silk is the only known natural fiber that is made this long. All other threads are made as shorter pieces that need to be twisted together. That is why silk thread is so strong ~ and it doesn’t need to be spun.

Once the caterpillar has transformed into a moth, it breaks free of the cocoon, mates quickly, lays her eggs on the cloth, and dies.

This photo is of cocoons Antonia’s collected but hasn’t made into thread yet.

The saliva that glues the threads together is water soluble. So to extract the thread the cocoons are placed in very hot water. At just the right moment a whisk type instrument is swished through the water to collect a few of the threads that have been released by the hot water. They are then pulled upwards and wound around a rolled piece of fabric. To watch the video this photo was taken from click here (the phone being held in the lower portion of this photo has the flashlight on so we can see the fibers coming out of the pot).

There is still some glue on the threads at this point, so it holds them together as they are wound and they can be used as is in a needle if no color is desired. If the silk thread is to be dyed the threads need to be carefully washed so that they will take the dye.

Antonia then explained about the collars. Light colored embroideries are for girls and young women, bright red is for the first year of marriage, as the woman ages the colors get darker and darker, and dark purple is for grandmothers. When a woman is a widow they dye the collars black.

It is said that “if a woman wore all of her embroideries she had a great life”!

Once Antonia’s demonstration was over we went down to her shop and I couldn’t resist purchasing a silk embroidered Christmas ornament (which I forgot to take a photo of before I packed away the Christmas stuff).

Prior to our trip Will and I talked about which shore excursions we wanted to take. There were two that interested us in Dubrovnik. One was just of the old walled city, and the other included Antonia’s studio. I told him I wanted to hear about silk production and he said he could “skip it”. That’s when I pulled the grandma card and said we were doing it. So imagine my delight when Antonia finished her talk and Will turned to me and said “that was amazing. I’m so glad we did this!” I had to agree.

Here’s one last photo from our trip, with the walled city of Dubrovnik and the beautiful blue Adriatic Sea in the background.

Thanks for joining us on this journey!

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And one more thing! This past week a fellow ThreadBender and I (thanks Sandy!) hung two of our challenges at Sew Much More in Waukesha, WI. They have a lovely exhibit space in their classroom. It’s a great shop – so please stop by and enjoy 😊!