Africa is more generally associated with the Big 5 rather than with silk but a visit to the Africa Silks farm, 23 Km from Graskop on the way to Hazyview, changes this perception. Nestled in a bluegum forest typical of the scenic Panorama Route in Mpumalanga you come across the farm where the silk worms are bred. Mulberry trees to feed the worms are grown together with the more traditional macadamia nut trees.
Silk Worms
On a guided tour of the farm you are shown how the worms are bred and nurtured. This happens in special temperature and humidity controlled sheds so that the breeding cycle is completed a few times a year instead of only once or twice. If you had silk worms as a child you may think you know all about them but it is likely that, as the tour progresses, you will find out that you knew almost nothing. You learn about the five different stages of the worms’ life cycle of 28 days and what type and quantity of leaves they should be fed at each stage so that they do not become sick and die. Correct feeding also ensures high quality silk. You even find out how to sex an adult worm before it spins its cocoon and turns into a pupae.
The next demonstration is the mating of the adult moths, controlled to four hours. As there are fewer males than females the whirring male moth may be refrigerated to cool his ardor and preserve his energy for later mating with another female.
Making Silk
Visitors are then shown how the cocoons are used in two different ways for silk production. The first is to gently cut it with a blade and take out the pupae or to allow the moth to exit naturally. The cocoon is then boiled with bicarbonate of soda to remove the serocin, which is the substance which hardens the cocoon and allows it to keep its shape. After boiling the silk is washed and dried leaving the threads loose and soft. It can now be fluffed out and either spun into the rough uneven raw silk threads or streched over nails into squares which are used for filling silk duvets. This is main production method used at Africa Silks although the second method of reeling the silk off the cocoon in a continuous thread is also demonstrated. One high-quality cocoon can yield 1.3Km of silk – needing strong arms if using a hand reel! This is the method used to produce the fine silks associated with Eastern countries.
The spinning of the silk thread is done mainly at the associated Iterileng (“help ourselves”) community development project which allows women in rural areas to work close to home.
Community Programs
Africa Silks also produces wild silk from the indigenous Mopani worm. This silk is very scarce and cannot be produced commercially because the worm does not feed in captivity and the pupae enter a rest phase for which no-one has been able to establish the trigger which causes it to emerge. In another job creation program unemployed women are used to harvest the hard, woody cocoons when they fall to the ground after the moth emerges.
Silk Clothing and Homeware
Most of Africa Silks’ weaving is done at the main showroom in Graskop where free tours are conducted. Weaving is done on handlooms as well as specially designed electric looms to produce beautiful raw silk fabrics for clothing and household soft furnishings. After learning about the whole the production process you will have a story to tell if you treat yourself to one of these unique silk products. While on the Panorama Route also visit Pilgrim’s Rest, the site of the first major gold rush in South Africa.
