Cambodia 2010 : Siem Reap - Visit to artisan D'Angkor

We visited artisan D'Angkor's workshop during our stay in Siem Reap. The workshop is not big, but it houses some of the best artists who do really good carvings and weaving,

Here's one piece of metal so meticulously carved by a man sitting in a corner. One piece like this would probably take weeks to complete. That explains why each piece of this art is not cheap. 

Here, we see another artist doing some wood carving in front of some tourists.

Some of the utensils use in the process of carving.

Here's one piece of a beautiful elephant with the artist's goggles on!

And here's another work in progress, drawing the pattern on the head of Buddha.

A glimpse of the workshop. Most of these artists work on the floor.

Then, we moved to another section where there were loads of cocoons and worms around.

From the worms, there is then a process of harvesting all these cocoons before boiling them to retrieve the silk.

Once the silk is all retrieved, and after some cleaning process, they will be put through some easy machinery to make sure they're not tangled and then they're all hang to dry. 

This is part of the dying process where they put the silk that they've dried through some colours.  

Then, the weaving begins.

This section is mainly manned by women who are generally more nimble, thus suitable for this work. 

We were also shown the food that they feed the worms.

More weaving machines..  

On the way out to the sales room, we would also see some of the traditional machinery on display.

End result of all the labour intensive work are these beautiful traditional garments.

And a beautiful shade of scarves for sale.

I think it gives a person a better appreciation of the toil and sweat behind the scene which produces a simple product like the scarf, which we tend to take for granted.

The fact that they're sewn by hand makes it exclusive for each man-made piece is always unique on its own, unlike a machine-made piece.