Learning to reel cocoons with Teresa Frade

Last year I found myself with a box full of cocoons and no idea at all on how to reel them into yarn.
It's not exactly easy to find someone to teach you this technique, in Portugal. The small production unit that existed in Freixo de Espada-à-Cinta had closed long ago and although there is still people that know how to do this over there, my attempts at finding someone came out empty.
I was talking about this to Isabel and Guida when they mentioned a short film they had seen in which the lady featured, that produced silk in Castelo Branco, talked to her silkworms as they were their kids.
That film was a documentary called "Silk is a Mistery", directed by Catarina Alves Costa in 2003 and the lady in it was Teresa Frade, that up until not long ago bred her own silkworms and grew her own flax ("Flax is a Dream" is the other documentary featuring Teresa, also directed by Catarina).

After a little research, I found a group of teachers in Castelo Branco that run the  Centro Ciência, Tradição & Cultura, in which they develop several activities and training related to several crafts, including silk, and short after I had a meeting set up with Teresa to learn to reel cocoons.

Learning to reel cocoons is something I had been wanting to learn for a long time, ever since I saw Susana doing it in Freixo. Long explanations are not needed, it's simply fascinating!
When I talked with Teresa to explain her that I was looking for someone to teach me, she quickly answered: "I'll teach you, then!". Perfect.

Last October, there I went to Castelo Branco to learn a little bit with Teresa and get our silk done.
The method is similar to the one I had seen, but this time I had the chance to try my hand at it and learn about the details that make all the difference.
Reeling cocoons is not difficult, but it takes experience to do it well, controlling the thickness of the yarn (which is composed by several cocoons), without it being to thick or breaking.

But today I wanted to talk about Teresa because one of the goals for my work is to make available the know-how that is enclosed in the experience of these crafstmen and women that I keep meeting.
So I'm happy to announce that although Teresa does not enjoy traveling at all, after much effort, we were able to convince her to come up to Porto, the next 11th of June, and teach a unique Silk Reeling and Washing workshop at Serralves Farm!
The whole day will actually be devoted to silk production, with silkworms, several tools, materials, demonstrations and experiments, but this will be a highlight in the day.

The description for the workshop is already up on the site and the registrations are open: it will be limited to 10 people. This information will also be soon updated in Serralves website.