Small Business for Development! Would you like to try how to weave silk by hand? We have a one week program for volunteers who wish to try to weave silk by hand and help to do something else at weaving community. You can also learn a new experience with natural dying which is far different from your country production. With seven-days volunteering work at our community.

Cambodia is well known for its skillful silk weavers. It is primarily women in rural villages who weave beautiful silk combining traditional weaving and dyeing with innovative designs and techniques.

Weaving and wearing silk was and still is today an expression of deeply-rooted cultural and social traditions of Cambodia, with specific patterns worn by certain people or on special occasions. Takeo Province is well known for its concentration of skillful silk weavers, primarily women. However, the rural producers have so far remained poor. Both their unawareness of the value of their products and lacking knowledge of and access to national and international markets left them with only a small fraction of the profit their products generate.

There are special patterns and colors for ceremonies, festivals, at court and in daily life. Cambodian silk reflects a variety of traditional styles. Raw silk is a thick cream-colored fabric in its natural un-dyed state. Houl is a richly patterned fine fabric, made by the intricate ikat method where the pattern is plotted and dyed into the thread before weaving. There are over 100 named patterns of houl silk, traditional to specific locations and uses. New variations in color and design are being introduced by weavers all the time. The most common style, phamuong, is a rich, jewel-colored silk traditionally used to make suits. Cambodian weaving also produces a simpler sarong that is a piece of silk in various patterns casually wrapped around the waist and worn at home. All products use environmentally friendly dyes.

The profits generated through this new approach directly benefit the weaver communities. By working together as a community, by developing their own designs, by using natural and environmental friendly dyes, and by blending traditional with modern weaving techniques, the weavers today deliver high quality products that meet international market requirements.
For more information and would like to buy silk products, please visit http://cambodian-craft.com or contact us at: info@khmerv.org or come to our community directly in Phnom Penh! Or book your volunteering work now to secure it! (Please note that only booking via info@khmerv.org, you will be accepted.)