Nam Cao Silk – Where Craft and Land Are One

Nam Cao Village, located in Nam Cao commune, Kiến Xương district, Thái Bình province, is one of the oldest cradles of Vietnam's traditional tussah silk weaving. Legend has it that the craft was brought here in the late 16th century by families from Vân Xa and Bất Bạt, who taught locals how to plant mulberries, raise silkworms, reel silk, and weave fabric. For over 400 years, tussah weaving has become the soul of this land- sustaining livelihoods while preserving a cultural heritage.

The raw material used in tussah silk is silkworm thread, extracted from the cocoon of the Bombyx mori silkworm. Each cocoon is made up of three layers:

Nái thread: the outermost layer, thick and abundant, spun first by the silkworm.

Main silk thread: the middle and finest layer, offering the highest quality fiber.

Sồi thread: the innermost layer, dense and sometimes powdery.

Artisans in Nam Cao apply traditional methods: steaming the cocoons in hot water and reeling them in cold water. They skillfully twist all three types of threads - Nái, Main, and Sồi - together to form strong, airy, slightly glossy tussah threads. This technique requires precision and patience to produce even, long, and high-value threads.

Thread reeling is a laborious job. Craftspeople soak their hands in water for hours, whether in the heat of summer or the cold of winter. In summer, their skin often peels and must be treated with alum or herbal remedies like "ruối" leaves. In winter, hands go numb unless hot water is added frequently. Once the threads are reeled, the artisan continues with spooling, warping, weaving, dyeing - all fully manual and natural.

The craft of tussah weaving has seen many ups and downs. Its golden era was in the early 20th century, with over 387 people reeling thread and 400 looms in operation. The village briefly adopted a new technique called "tweed weaving" but it disappeared after just a decade due to war.

By 2010, only three looms remained active. In 2012, Hanhsilk came to Nam Cao, driven by a love for traditional tussah silk, and began reviving the craft with local households. By 2016, over 200 families had joined, helping to restore ancillary trades like mulberry planting, silkworm raising, and natural dyeing.

To produce a piece of fine tussah fabric, it takes an entire village working in harmony. Someone must patiently sit by the boiling pot to reel the thread, someone must carefully align each strand on the loom, and someone must watch the dye pot, perfecting each color by hand. Most of all, it takes people who believe that anything made by hand must come from the heart. Only with care and craft does a piece of cloth become meaningful.

Nam Cao's tussah isn’t as smooth or shiny as industrial silk. It is subtly coarse, airy, soft - with little irregularities like a folk melody forgotten on the edge of a rice field. But that very texture makes it familiar, intimate, and distinctly special - like the artisans who have quietly passed it down through generations.

Today, Nam Cao tussah has crossed borders, becoming a sought-after gift in Europe, North America, and Australia. But perhaps its most precious quality lies not in its export value, but in this: each piece of tussah carries within it a love of craft, a love of homeland, and a wish to live gently with nature, the land, and the vocation.

And somewhere, in a small village workshop, the sound of the loom still echoes - a quiet, steady heartbeat amidst the rush of modern life - reminding us that some old things are still worth preserving and cherishing.

(Cre: Photo by Đũi Nam Cao)