Artisans Angkor
When the worms have grown enough, they are put in baskets. From there, they will spin their cocoons in five days and will produce about three hundreds meters of silk each. The cocoons are then put in sunlight to avoid them undergoing their metamorphosis into mature moths. However, 20% of them reach the breeding process and the female moths will lay and hatch its eggs within nine to twelve days.
The cocoons are soaked in hot water in order to soften the sericin (also known as silk gum) which coat the fibres and stick the cocoons together. Silk threads are then unwound and reeled together to produce a single thread. Weavers at Angkor Silk Farm make both raw silk and fine silk that do not have the same texture at all. Sericin has not been completely removed from raw silk threads, which will give a rougher texture to the fabric at the end.
Opodiphthera eucalypti
When the caterpillar is fully mature it spins a dark brown silken cocoon on a branch which usually has a leaf to protect it with. When spinning is complete, the caterpillar sheds its final skin and takes the form of its pupall life stage. Within a day of spinning completion, the cocoon sets to a hard waterproof shell with a rough exterior and a smooth interior wall. Air holes can be seen along the side of the cocoon indicating that the cocoon is probably otherwise airtight. The moth usually emerges from the cocoon the following year (in Spring or early Summer) but depending on weather conditions can stay in the cocoon from anywhere between two and five years. One case has even been recorded of a moth emerging out of the cocoon after 10 years.