When we visited Assam in 2008 we brought back some eri silk to do natural dyes tests. Here is what we got and how we got it.



0) Natural colour of eri silk
1) Alum 15% Cutch 50%
2) Alum 15%, Marigold 20%, Madder 20%,
3) Alum 15%, Marigold 20%, Madder 100%
4) Alum 15%, Madder 200%
5) Alum 15%, Madder 100%, Iron 2%
6) Alum 15%. Lac 50%,
7) Alum 15%, Lac 50%, Iron 2%
8) Alum 15%, Lac residue
9) Alum 15%, Cutch 50% Iron 2%
10) Natural Indigo 1 dip
11) Natural Indigo 4 dips
12) Natural Indigo 8 dips
13) Marigold 20% Natural indigo 4 dips
14) Alum 15% Marigold 20% Iron 2%
15) Alum 15% Henna 50%
16) Alum 15% Marigold 20%

If you click on the photo above you can see a larger version. Information about the dyes we used can be found on our natural dye pages. Alum and Iron can be found in the mordants section. The percentages specified indicates that we added that percentage of the weight of the fiber to be dyed (when dry). So, if we had 100 grams of silk, and we mordanted with alum at 15% then we used 15 grams of alum. If we dyed with lac at 50% then for 100 grams of silk we used 50 grams of lac.

We love eri silk and were very happy with the results. The silk didn't loose its luster in the dye process, the yarns didn't felt up, and no special procedures were needed for the eri silk. Here are some very close up images of the fiber: natural, marigold 20%, and marigold 20% + Madder 100%. Again, click on the photo for a larger verion. You can see that the actual fibers that make up the yarns are very very fine.





We know that some people raise eri silk moths in North America and in other parts of the world. Hit us in the comments section with your experience dyeing the fiber.

Assam: Land of the Golden Silk - Part 7
(Our 2008 visit to Assam in search of three types of silk.)






An adult eri moth resting on netting and some of the cocoons. On the day we visited the eri silk farmers we also drove to a village where every home seemed to be set up to spin and weave. It was here in rural Assam that we learned the most about silk production, and here also that we took some of our best photos. Assam, the people, the landscape, and the skillful transformation of silk to textiles; it was all very beautiful and we felt very privileged to be able to experience it.





We really got the sense that everyone knew silk and had an opinion about it. Even our armed escort took an active interest in the cloth. We bartered for some of the lengths that were, in our opinion very well made - tightly woven and well spun and we made certain to get a selection of the spun silk that we could use for natural dye testing. We were very excited to see how it would take the dyes. If it worked well there was a possibility that natural dyes could be reintroduced to the local textiles.

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Assam: Land of the Golden Silk - Part 6
(Our 2008 visit to Assam in search of three types of silk.)



We've been lucky in Assam. Chandan has found us a number of locations where the Eri moth is in different stages of its development. This has all been arranged by him, but as we pull into a compound or drive down a village street, we have no idea what we are going to find. Previously we encountered the eggs - just at the point of hatching. Now we've been shown the caterpillars in their final stages as they are about to spin. The worms pictured here are happily munching on a collection of castor leaves. Some of them have a faint blue tint. We're guessing that the colour difference is between male and female. For full details of the Eri lifecycle we recommend Michael Cook's well illustrated photo essay.

These worms were kept in the most simple conditions. A woven basket held an inverted collection of branches tied together at the stem. It made a substantial collection of food that would last a few days.

And finally we saw the adults. The one shown at the top of the post has been out of the cocoon about twenty-four hours. These moths (like all moths) generally don't live long in the adult stage, only a few days. As adults their sole drive is to emerge from the cocoon, mate and lay eggs.




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Assam: Land of the Golden Silk - Part 5
(Our 2008 visit to Assam in search of three types of silk.)

At the close of our first day in Assam we are very very tired. The combination of jet lag, tropical weather, the excitement and newness of everything has worn us out. Returning to our simple guest house we are asked what we want to eat. Ever prudent we select what we think is the healthiest (in terms of traveller’s food safety) simplest, an most importantly, quickest meal. A boiled egg. “No problem. No Problem. Right away.” We would have lost consciousness instantly but we stayed away to receive our humble supper. Two hours later the boiled egg arrived. With two pieces of white bread. I suspect the thoughtful addition of western style white bread was the time snag and I imagine young boys being sent running through the village to get shop keepers to open their stalls until some is found.

Eggs are also where we start with the Eri moth. The eggs are so tiny they are hard to show clearly. But if you look closely you can see the small holes where they have exited. Eri hatchlings in Assam.





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Assam: Land of the Golden Silk - Part 4
(Our 2008 visit to Assam in search of three types of silk.)



When we were getting ready to visit Assam we pulled out our boxes of slides and photographs and reviewed what we learned in Orissa ten years ago. We found eri then, including the marvelous specimen at the top of the page. Unlike tussar, eri is fully domesticated. To understand why eri is so special we need to talk a little about the process of reeling silk. The process is fairly strightforward. The cocoons are placed in warm water to loosen the gum (sericin) that holds the filaments together. One strand of silk is incredibly thin and would be too weak for most textiles, so the filaments from several cocoons are combined. As they are reeled the sericin acts to bind the multiple filaments into a single thread.

When the adult moth emerges from a cocoon it needs to make a hole to get out. The cocoons from which adults emerge are known as "pierced" because of this hole. The hole cuts so many of the fibers that the silk from pierced cocoons cannot be reeled. The silk is still used, but it is spun like cotton or wool and forms a lower grade of silk.

Eri is unusual in that it is never reeled. The fibers in the coccoon are like a tiny bale of cotton, all wound together and tangled. So instead eri silk is spun and this gives it a very unusual quality. Depending on how it is spun and woven it can give a very woolly result - and as with poorly made wools, eri can pill like cheap acrylic. But it can also give a tight strong fiber like linen. This is what makes eri textiles amazing - they can have the drape and weight of linen but are warm and insulating like cotton or wool.

Because eri silk is spun and not reeled it is not necessary to "stifle" or kill the pupa. You can let the moth emerge to mate and lay eggs - or you can eat it for supper. In eastern India eri was (and still is) raised as a source of protein with the silk being a very useful by product.

"Ericulture is a small scale industry in all the three stages; such as, rearing, spinning and weaving, the rearers growing a patch of castor (Ricinus communis) or ‘Kesseru’ (Hereropanax fragrans) plants in their hutments for making use of the leaves for rearing the worms for production of cocoon that is spun into yarn – the yarn woven into cloth by themselves for personal use. Most important however is the chrisalid which is devoured avidly. In fact, eri cocoon is considered a by-product, so also the castor seed. Castor plant is mainly used in other parts of India for production of seed which as a valuable material; but in N.E. region because of its profuse vegative growth and poor yield of seeds, the leaves are utilized for production of eri cocoon only." - Chowdahury 1991.

When we visited Orissa, we noticed that the eri were placed on special baskets when they were getting ready to spin. The basketry provided a perfect environment and permitted easy collection of the silk. Here you can see many cocoons and recently emerged moths.



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Assam: Land of the Golden Silk - Part 3
(Our 2008 visit to Assam in search of three types of silk.)

We are strangers in Assam. So our first official obligation once we have driven off with Chandan (our contact) is to visit the local constabulary. The ritual of the host is very important in India. It is just as important (or maybe more so) at the police headquarters. We are given tea and biscuits and asked about our "program." We are welcomed, then left alone in a room while calls are made. Eventually we are permitted to continue with an armed escort of two officers. News of the morning's events in Guwahati has travelled quickly. We are told to keep a low profile and not to visit any public markets.

The first stop is to see some tussar moths. We leave the road and walk through a family compound. Entering a brick building through a screen door we are met with the humid damp air one usually finds in greenhouses. Rich and slightly cloying. On a table of cut branches, large tussar caterpillars are happily munching away at the green leaves. They are a bright green and slightly translucent. They are always either eating or resting. That is the life of a caterpillar.




In the back of the first room is a line of spun cocoons.



And in a second room are the adults. The moths rest on an egg stick. The females wear a harness of thread that keeps them from flying away. The males are free to visit the females and if they do, it is referred to as "pairing". The moths are tended constantly and in our photo you can see the cot which has been set up under a protective sheet. The pairing takes place by the end of abdomen.




Perhaps tussar can be domesticated. We didn't witness egg hatching or the earlier instars of the insect, but it seemed that it might possible to fully manage a brood inside. Reports that tussar cannot be domesticated go back quite far. In 1796, Michael Atkinson, stationed in Bengal, wrote a letter that became part of Dr. William Roxburgh's 1802 presentation to the Linnean Society. The letter reads:

"This species cannot be domesticated. I am informed that the natives cannot even retain any of it for seed. The hill people say that they go into jungles, and under the Byer and Asseen trees they find the excrement of the insect; on which they examine the tree, and, on discovering the small worms, they cut off branches of the tree sufficient for their purpose, with the young brood on the branches; these they carry to convenient situations near their houses, and distribute the branches on the Asseen tree in proportion to the size thereof, but they put none on the Byer tree. The Parieahs, or hill people, guard the insects night and day while in the worm state, to preserve them from crows and other birds by day, and from bats by night.

" I myself have seen them thus watching the brood. This species cannot be confined, for so soon as the moth pierces the cocoon it gets away; and the people add, that it is impossible to keep it, by any precaution whatever."

It may be that this one observation has been quoted many times. Dr. John Feltwell (mentioned in the previous post) cites it. Once we learned more about the life of the moth, the last paragraph seemed somewhat dubious. For two reasons: firstly, the adult moths emerge from the cocoon with wings like wet tissue paper. It takes time, sometimes hours, for the insect to pump fluid into the wings to fully expand them. Secondly, the sheer size of these moths would make them easily kept by even rudimentary netting. They are such a beautiful moth that it would be an honour to be a tussar keeper.

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