By Catherine Craig | CPALI President/CEO
I know you would rather hear from Mamy and the team than CPALI US, but until our program is sustainable, we have to continue to work hard in support of SEPALI Madagascar developing new products, new approaches and ideas. The team has just returned from their annual holiday and are now in the field so I thought it might be good time to update you on our silk spinning activites.
CPALI/SEPALI Madagacar has purchased a spinning wheel and we are now SPINNING wild silk fibers. It is an electric wheel and so easy to use that even I can spin silk. It also allows one to easily add a lot of twist to the thread which is important when fibers are relativly short. So far I have produced beautiful yarns (well, the material is beautiful but the number slubs they contain indicate my beginner status as a spinner) from Ceranchia appolina, Argema mittrei and Antherina suraka. But just spinning the silk is not the starting place. The cocoons need to be "de-gummed" meaning the sericin that coats the threads needs to be removed before the silk fibers can be wrested free. Not surprisingly, some of the cocoons have more sericin than others - a reflection on the degree of protection they must provide? For example, to remove the sericin from A. suraka cocoons, the cocoon is "simmered" just below boiling point in a 1% solution of baking soda for an hour - minimum. What results is a beautiful, deep brown liquor (the sericin, that in itself, might be a useful product), and a cocoon whose fibers are slightly loosened. C. appolina, like A. suraka, produces a two layer cocoon but its components are much more differentiated than those of A. suraka cocoons. The inner cocoon is like paper and made up of extremely fine and very soft threads that are super gluey. The outer cocoon is a reticulated, very strong "cage" around the inner cocoon and is seperated from it by about 1.5 inches. Both inner and outer are silk and both are tough to "relax". Argema mittrei is the very easiest to work with. The fibers are very, very long, and silvery. In fact the silk can be spun directly from the cocoon after a little boiling. My colleagues tell me that it is possible to reel the silk which would give processing an industrial advantage but may not be as advantageous for our project. Spinning the silks takes some practice and different species produce cocoons with different types of fibers. Thank goodness for the Roberta spinner -- that helps a beginner achieve better results -- just like a good camera that adjusts the light to give better pictures.
Ok - enough about spinning and threads - check out the pictures and stay tuned for the next team update from the field in about two weeks.
All the best,
Cay
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By Cay Craig and Mamy Ratsimbazafy | CEO CPALI and CEO SEPALI Madagascar
By Catherine Craig and Mamy Ratsimbazafy | CEO CPALI and CEO SEPALI Madagascar
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