According to historical evidence, the discovery of silkworm and its cultivation happened for the first time in ancient China. However, after about three thousand years of secrecy, other societies found out about the method of raising and producing silk. The cultivation of silkworms gradually spread in different societies, especially in Japan and Iran, and the excavation findings of Marlik and Chirag Ali Tepe indicate the growth of the silk weaving industry of the rural people of Iran in the prehistoric period.
In 1356 AH, these handwovens won the award for the most delicate and beautiful handwoven in the world, and an Iranian woman named Ms. Soghari Kabiri from the village of Zavin in Razavi Khorasan province won the UNESCO award.
Silk fabrics with gold and silver threads were woven in Shushtar, Shiraz, Fasa, Isfahan, and among the silk weaving centers of Iran are Ramian, Minodasht and Turkmen Sahra regions in Golestan province and Zavin village, Kalat Naderi, Raz, Jerglan, Mane and Samalghan in the province. Khorasan can be mentioned.
The woven silk dar must be healthy and free of any breakages, and the silk woven dar must have a suitable support made of soft material and plastic cover, and its width should not be less than 35 cm.
For silk weaving, at least a window with the dimensions of one fifth of the workshop floor should be installed. Also, the location of the lamps should be such that it does not create glare and shadows for the silk weavers.
Chele thread: Chele thread is one of the important materials in silk weaving. In the local language, it is called Tane, Gole Nakh or Round Nakh, and it is made of silk and the twist of this thread is 4 or 5 las. The weavers of Nakh Chele province produce silk from silk cocoons that they grow themselves.
Double weave silk: which is called Bafe in the local language and is used as a weft.
Golden and silver colored threads: which are used as a weft for decoration.
Color: It includes natural color (runas, walnut skin and pomegranate skin...) and chemical color (blue, black, red, green) and it is used for dyeing threads.
The silk weaving workshop, which consists of several parts, is installed in two types: ground or pit and surface or pitless. The components of the silk weaving workshop include the following:
Nord of the silk weaving workshop: it is a wooden cylinder with a diameter of 15-20 cm and a length of 132 cm, which is placed on two pubic bases. Its function in the silk weaving workshop is to strengthen the silk thread and spin the weaving cloth around it and line up the threads for weaving. The roller is secured to the ground by a wooden cloth.
Rolling mill: It is one of the components of the silk weaving workshop. The stick with which they turn the rolling pin.
Base: The silk weaving machine has six wooden bases. There are two legs in front and back to secure the loom and two legs to hold the roller and two legs to connect the pedal to the ground.
Comb: a wooden tool with wooden or metal teeth that is made in dimensions of 48 x 20 cm. The function of the comb in silk weaving is to beat the threads tightly after the weft passes through them.
Spool: In silk weaving, it is a tool that is placed in pairs on top of the gourd. The spools are connected to the gallows by a thread on one side and to the gourd on the other side. Their task is to regulate Gord's work. Their length is 22 cm and their width is 6.5 cm and they are made entirely of wood.
Before starting the work of silk weaving, silk must first be prepared. In order to prepare silk threads, the life thread of the cocoon must be cut before it reaches the pupal stage and it should be suffocated in order to prevent it from turning into a butterfly. For this purpose, they usually spread the cocoons in the sun for one to two days in this area, or do this by steaming, of course, industrial and advanced methods are also used.
Then the silk cocoons, which are called peaks at this stage, are poured into cast iron boiling water pots called "Patil" locally known as Kazan. At least two people are needed for this. One person sits next to the pot and stirs the cocoons. This action causes the silk threads to collect on the water of the pot. At this time, he takes the above threads from the pot and passes them through the metal which has 3 loops with a diameter of about 2 cm. They pass meters.
Then it is passed over a wooden reel and wound around the axis of a device that rotates by hand, which is also called "kaldan" in the Turkmen dialect. The raw silk prepared in this way is soaked in cold water and then dried.
The most common colors used in silk weaving are blue, red, green and black. In the past, natural colors such as dyes, walnut skins, pomegranate skins, etc. are used, which have high stability, but nowadays, they use durable chemical colors. They use little.
For weaving silk fabrics, the chelehadawani method is used, in this way, the required number of wooden poles are installed on the ground, the distance between the two poles is 20 cm x 1.5 meters, the colored silk threads are pulled together and in order They start winding from the first rod (they continue this process until the number of their threads reaches 80 threads, in silk weaving, every 80 threads is considered as one skein, and they use 10 skeins for weaving, at the end of the work, the threads are twisted into one They collect a big skein and put it on the silk weaving machine.) Then they pass the balled silk threads between the cotton threads that are attached to the durni.
After the dar is ready, the weaver starts weaving by pressing the pedal, and due to the opening of the threads, it provides the space for the weft to pass through. Then he hits the shoulder firmly on the wefts. In the same way, by repeating this step, a special design that has been designed in advance is woven.
It should be mentioned that there were differences in design and color in Turkmen and Ramian braids. For example, in Turkmen braids, they mostly use vertical and bordered stripes, but in Ramyan and Minodasht regions, they often use checkered and bordered designs.
Source: https://www.cyruscrafts.com/blog/news/silk-fabric-everything-about-silk-thread-and-fabrics
