Six of us said goodbye to our travelling companions this morning and began a mini-adventure at our own silk workshop (yes, Alison, it would have done your head in!).
We are now totally steeped in all things to do with silk. Yesterday was spent in the Silk Embroidery and Research Institute (SERI) where real masters of the art form work to commission from photographs, oil paintings or traditional styles. We noted that their work rooms are not just light and airy but also air conditioned - it's 38 degrees here. We followed this with a visit to a silk factory - cradle to grave so to speak of the silkworm. One of the most fascinating parts was watching four people stretch one cocoon to the size of a double bed whilst making a duvet!
Today we spent the entire day in a former primary school room perched on stools and bent over embroidery frames yet none of us has any additional aches and pains! Of course, having learned all about silk and its various types we had to visit Mei Mei silk shop - an Aladdin's cave of goodies - and, yes, I succumbed to the lure of the beautiful fabric and bought some.
Madame Zhang said we were all too good to spend our time on one picture so we are having more pictures and learning more techniques tomorrow. 22nd September is Mid-Autumn (or Full Moon) Festival here and it's a national holiday celebrated by giving and eating moon cake - pastry on the outside, fruit jelly on the inside but looking like a small pork pie. They are delicious and we have been looking forward to tomorrow since our last foray into a cake shop in Kail Li.
We've had a great time today disrupting the gentle flow of trade in the silk shops and generally making all the staff dissolve into fits of laughter when we ask for silk in our odd-sounding, desperate few words of Chinese. I can't believe this journey is nearly over. I've made some new friends and experienced a totally different world -- can't wait to tell you more about it.
Silkworms munching their way through piles of white mulberry
Master embroiderer working from an antique painting of bamboo
Making a duvet, one cocoon at a time in the Suzhour number 1 silk factory
Mei Mei silk
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