Silk
The most beautiful of all textile fibres acclaimed as the queen of textiles. It requires a great deal of labour to produce from the farmers who grow the mulberry leaves to feed the silk worms to the groups who raise the silk worms from the egg stage through to pupa & cocoon production. The cocoons are sorted according to colour, size, shape & texture as these affect the final quality of the silk, prior to being put through a series of hot & cold immersions to soften the silk filaments prior to unravelling and spinning into a continuous thread. The weaving is done on hand looms by craftspeople prior to being dyed and screen-printed. Some of the more economical light weight silk is produced in more commercial settings using modern machinery. All the silks are dyed or hand painted using AZO free dyes.
Tabby Silk
All the hand-woven smooth silk from EMA and MKS is called tabby silk.
References to Tabby Silk date back to Medieval Times. It has been described as “watered silk which has a surface like that of water with irregular, wavy markings”.
These silks are hand woven then screen-printed using AZO free dyes in West Bengal. The producers of both organisations comprise of women, the physically or mentally challenged and minority communities.