Few weeks ago i bought thai silk for my mother in Bangkok then i proudly told my friends in Korat that i manage to get the price that quite cheap. Then suddenly they smiles and ask me, "Do you know where the Silk come from?".
They ask to find the info myself and i starts to look for the info in internet. and then i know that most of the silk come from Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima). Yup, why should i go that far when i can it get here.
So Pak Thong Chai is the place for me to look for more thai silk. From Korat's bus station u can go by bus less then 1 hr and 30 THB and asj them to stop you near Pak Tong Chai hospital.
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| one of the thai silk boutique |
There are more than 10 thai silk boutique here. and all of them is selling their own product which means they have their own facilities to weave their own silk.
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| silk. |
Thai silk is very different from other type of silk that i know. Most of the silk i know have satiny look as well as very soft and thin. Thai silk however is thicker, quite rough similar to cotton and most of them is not too silky.
at first glance, you will not know that it is silk fabric (for me at least). then when you look closer, you will know that the lustre is very different from other fabric. The shimmering effect come from the prism-like structure of silk fibre. and for thai silks normally they will use two different tones of colour for each weft and weft so the sheen in exclusive.
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| plenty of choice |
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| luv them all |
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| too pale i think.. |
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| for my mom |
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| for .... |
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| for my mom |
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| for my little niece |
Most of people will feel a bit frustrated when they inspect the fabric as the will find it not flawless to their expectation. The original handweave thai silk is not perfect, some say the imperfect flaw on the silk what makes them really expensive and exclusive. it what makes them different with imitation silk. You can see the small flaws or joins bump between thread along the warp & weft.
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| white color thai silk cost about 6000THB |
there are a few ways to differentiate between real & imitation thai silk.
1. Price - of course the price is much higher that normal / imitation fabric. normally thai silk price cost 10 times more expensive compare with their imitation. using this method only will not help if you are not familiar with fabrics.
2. The weave - there are flaws from the join between 2 thread. and different tones thread used for weft and warp
3. Burn test - burned silk will smell like burned hair and leave fine ash, as soon as we take the flame away from the thread, it will stop burning. the imitation will continues burn and it will drip.
4. wedding ring test - a yard of thai silk will be easily pulled through a wedding ring
