Presentation: I was surprised to find silk being raised in Oaxaca. The conquistadores saw mulberry trees growing here shortly after their arrival and sent for silk worms 500 years ago. The silk worms here are Bombyx mori, the domesticated silk worm raised all over the world. They eat the local mulberry leaves. But there are no commercial silk reeling mills so how do the Oaxaqueños go from silk cocoon to silk garments? What is special about the artisan-produced silk here in Oaxaca?

Presenter: Karren K. Brito began raising silk worms in 1981 to demonstrate at Shakertown in Hearldsberg, KY, the site of a successful silk craft industry in the US. Her company, Entwinements, sold colorful pleated silk shibori. She wrote a book, Shibori: Creating Color & Texture on Silk. A long term weaver, she came to Oaxaca in 2014 to study brocade techniques on back-strap looms. Her formal education is a Ph.D. in chemistry and she has taught in La Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela and Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.