While I was at Squam I got to take my friend
Steph's Knitting with Mawata class. She doesn't offer these classes over tea and I knew that she wasn't scared of children so it was a great fit on my adventure.
It became apparent quickly that playing with silk cocoons and dyeing Mawata was going to would fit right in with Fenner's current interests. Bugs and paint. Since there wasn't a lot of child appropriate toys or gifts to bring back from the Squam Fair I brought back a few cocoons to play with.
Aren't they pretty? When shaken you can hear the silk worm inside.
She was pretty suspicious and unbelieving that this was how silk starts. It's pretty amazing isn't it. How it starts with cocoons and ends with the Mawata as seen in the next picture. I love that the process hasn't changed in thousands of years. Real people have to pull the silk off the cocoons and then they stretch the silk on frames to make the Mawata
We gave them a soaking and started looking for the worm. I only had a few cocoons and wanted to test drive the process before actually making the Mawata on frames. I think that project is more adult appropriate.
She was appropriately amazed and grossed out.
My plan is to buy some white silk hankies and have some dyeing fun with the neighbourhood kids. I love how they are all so excited by colour play.
2 comments:
Hey, I bought a bag of those form Gemini Fibres. I haven't done anything with them, but they are in storage. Otherwise, I'd offer them to you with the price of showing me how it all works! They are fun, just for the bug factor. They're a little smelly too.
Permanent storage or 'we can get at them storage??
Post a Comment