Workshop to museum: Syrian farmer celebrates dying ancient silk craft

Muhammad Saud, a 65-year-old Syrian silk farmer, hand weaves silk threads on a loom at his home workshop in the village of Deir Mama, in west-central Syria. Photo: AFP

After Syria's war whisked away the silkworms from his mulberry trees, 65-year-old Mohammed Saud instead turned his idle home workshop into a silk museum to celebrate the ancient craft. In the green hills of Deir Mama, Saud, his wife and three sons have been making silk for decades.

They would raise silkworms in the spring, watching them munch on mulberry tree leaves and slowly build their thick cocoons, before spinning the thread and weaving it into fine cloth.