Silk Weaving

Burmese people proudly wear hand-woven silk materials at auspicious occasions. Burmese turbans, jackets and silk longyis are worn by Burmese men while intricate designs woven with over 100 silk threads such as plain silk blouses and silk shawls are proudly worn by Burmese ladies. Although the colours and patterns of silk-woven materials have changed since the time of Burmese kings, they are still proudly worn by the Burmese.

When we first weave the silk, three or four raw silk threads are twisted tightly with the aid of the machine, thus making it taut and smooth. After that process, silk-woven faces are removed by washing in boiled soap-nut liquid. You then boil and wash the threads more thoroughly. These are to be used for the designs, because they need to be softer than ordinary silk thread. Then you add the desired colour you want to the boiled water.

To weave the silk threads you wind the right amount of threads that you require into the bobbins you're going to use. After attaching the bobbins on the loom, the weavers will weave the desired patterns. The patterns are horizontal wavy lines of various sizes and numbers. There are up to 300 small bobbins used to weave very intricate and complicated designs. In olden days, people used to prefer the designs with more colours. But nowadays people prefer soft and smooth silk threads with the only addition of 2 to 3 colours.

These are used as a hitching-post when weaving. Simultaneously, yarn of various colours is mixed and made into a whole yarn according to the number of yarn that you desire. The mixed yarn is then transferred into the small bamboo spool in the desired amount from the wooden shuttle. Then put into the small loom for use in weaving.

When you have chosen the design, weaving can take place. Therefore, it is called Lun Yar Kyaw which means fabric specially woven with a hundred or two hundred shuttles of multi-coloured silk thread. Two or three girls are employed on a weaving machine.

Mirrors are used to check because designs are woven up-side down.

There are altogether (50) to (70) patterns of Lun Yar Kyaw fabric.

It varies from pattern of the Royal Era to these days like Sabei kon, Pan Bayin, Thonn Yaung Che and Da wei sin.

Lun Yar Kyaw fabrics are being woven all the year round for Burmese women.