Damascus-SANA
Silk-making and silk-making are a heritage craft more than three hundred years old. The area of Deir Mama in Hama Governorate is known for its richness with mulberry trees, which is the basic material for raising silkworms.
The handicraft that has retained its heritage over those years away from mechanization and industrial machinery has been passed on by generations despite being subjected to many changes that led to its decline, while many worked to develop it creatively to manufacture handkerchiefs, traditional costumes and shawls from natural silk.
In order to preserve this intangible heritage and to introduce this profession that is in danger of disappearing and as an element of the living heritage, a lecture was held entitled “Silk Shreds with Eternal Threads” delivered by the plastic artist Afaf Al-Nabwani and under the supervision of Hanan Al-Asi, at the Social Forum in Italian, where she touched on several axes related to information about worm breeding. The silk and silk culture is trying to survive despite all the odds.
Al-Nabwani began by talking about the importance of preserving this intangible Syrian human heritage to elaborate on the stages of making silk products, which go through five stages, starting with sericulture, waiting for the cocoon stages, liberating the thread, producing natural silk on the hand loom, and then weaving it.
Al-Nabwani explained that this craft has been greatly affected over time by the spread of modern machines and the replacement of natural silk with artificial, pointing to the demand for handicrafts as a heritage masterpiece that occupied a space in the memory of Syrians.
She stressed the importance of working on the marketing of silk products in the best ways in light of the high prices and seeking to pass them on to future generations and preserve them from extinction, especially since Syria used to distribute silk to neighboring countries and Europe, not to mention that the Syrian silk thread is distinguished and has won several international awards.
Speaking about the difficulties facing the silk industry profession, Al-Nabwani said, “This craft is suffering from the reluctance of experienced people due to the lack of profits from sales revenue and the high prices of raw materials, in addition to the stagnation of pieces produced at exorbitant prices and the difficulty of buying cocoons for the next stage.”
Al-Nabwani indicated the need to work on holding training courses for women from different regions with the aim of professionalizing this heritage profession, developing its industry, providing interest and support for it, finding markets to promote it internally and externally, and transforming it into economic projects, as training cadres is not enough without a market to sell products.
Rasha Ibrahim
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