Silk processing in India: an ancient manual art

Silk processing in India: an ancient manual art, which retains its prestige with traditional techniques

Silk processing in India is still very complex and takes place with mainly traditional methods. Although 80% of the world’s silk production comes from China, there are many silkworm farms in India, at least in the eastern area. The silk processing in India, however, is a process divided into numerous stages. It all starts with the breeding of an insect: the worm. This produces a very thin burr which, in contact with the air, solidifies and arranges itself in layers forming a cocoon of raw silk from which, by means of some spinning procedures, a delicate silk thread is obtained. After the spinning, the twisting comes. This is a fundamental phase that has the task of giving greater resistance to the yarns, subsequently skeins are formed which are wrapped in reels called “beams”. The next stage is weaving. Once the twisting is finished, everything is ready to go loom and weave the silk pieces. It should be stressed that, in this sense, India has remained firmly firm in traditional techniques. While automatic looms are used all over the world, which produce quickly, in India we still work mainly with traditional hand looms. A rather slow technique, but which gives great prestige and quality to the products. The same could be said for the following step: dyeing. In India, in fact, we still resort to the use of mainly natural colors, which are obtained directly from plants or fruits. Fig, orange peel, onion, coffee, turmeric, bran, juniper berries, tea and much more are often used. So we come to the final step: the press. Again, the techniques used in India are very different than in the rest of the world. In other countries, in fact, very modern and very fast techniques are adopted based on the type of printing, such as roller printing for large quantities, table printing on boards of about 40 meters and digital printing with sophisticated machinery. On the contrary, many companies in India still print by hand using small blocks of wood about 20×20 cm in size. The result obtained gives a certain irregularity to the finished fabrics, considered a value for many Indian products. Indian creativity is expressed in different qualities of silk produced, the main ones being the Shantung quality and the Organza quality. To a lesser extent, Crepe, Satin, Twill, Taffeta, Georgette and Chiffon fabrics are produced. An immense sector, that of silk processing, which has the highest number of workers in all of India. The methods of making silk and the whole sector involve companies, private individuals at home and numerous other employees throughout the entire supply chain. A pillar of India’s economy and history.