ReelingMachine photos on Flickr

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Silk is produced year round in Thailand by two types of silkworms, the cultured Bombycidae and wild Saturniidae. Most production is after the rice harvest in the southern and northeast parts of the country. Women traditionally weave silk on hand looms, and pass the skill on to their daughters as weaving is considered to be a sign of maturity and eligibility for marriage. Thai silk textiles often use complicated patterns in various colours and styles. Most regions of Thailand have their own typical silks. A single thread filament is too thin to use on its own so women combine many threads to produce a thicker, usable fiber. They do this by hand-reeling the threads onto a wooden spindle to produce a uniform strand of raw silk. The process takes around 40 hours to produce a half kilogram of Thai silk.

Many local operations use a reeling machine for this task, but some silk threads are still hand-reeled. The difference is that hand-reeled threads produce three grades of silk: two fine grades that are ideal for lightweight fabrics, and a thick grade for heavier material.

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Interior of Old House - Village Museum, Bucharest by marinela 2008

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Muzeul Satului - Bucureşti, Romania

Detail - Village Museum, Bucharest by marinela 2008

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Muzeul Satului - Bucureşti, Romania

Război de ţesut şi vîrtelniţă/ Loom and reeling machine

Reeling Machine For Corrugated Paper Machine by Weige Zhao