the fabric of our lives Since discovering DeBois Textiles in January, I’ve become
Thai Silk
a total fabric freak. I had always loved textiles before that, and would occasionally pick up a gorgeous piece, but I never had any
Silk is the natural filament produced by the
concept of what I would do with it.
salivary glands of silkworms which are a type of moth that feeds on the mulberry bush. Silkworms are caterpillars, not worms. Raw silk is bumpy and irregular.
I bought a sewing machine, just before we got a week of snow storms and taught myself to sew. Each time I am at DeBois, I find fabrics that I envision making amazing things from, even though my skills aren’t there yet.
Thai weavers wash these raw silk threads,
At an auction recently, I picked up several large boxes of
bleach them, then soak them in vats of hot
Thai silks and Indian saris. They are just extraordinary colours
dyes. Afterwards, they wash the silk thread
and patterns and the workmanship is fascinating to see. Some of
again, stretch it, and put it through a final dying process. When that is finished, they wind the threads onto spools or drums in
the detailing on these is such fine and intricate, that it’s almost impossible to comprehend that this was done by human hands. And some of the pieces weigh several pounds, due in part to the metallic fibers woven into them.
preparation for weaving using hand-operated looms.
I am equally fascinated by linens, silks and cottons, and much less so by non-natural fabrics, although I recognize that they
Thai Silk has triangular fibers which reflect
do have a place in this world. I love how some linens have almost
light like prisms. It also has layers of protein
a bounce to them, a shine to them. I am a huge fan of linen in
that gives it a natural sheen and makes it
almost every iteration, including clothes, towels and upholstery!
lustrous and smooth.