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'Chimok' Sambae-maeul

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CHIMOK Sambae-maeul

CHIMOK Sambae-maeul

Sambae

'Chimok' Sambae-maeul

Welcome to Chimok village, Goemok-ri. Jeoksang-myeon, Muju-gun, Jeonlabuk-do, South Korea. This village, which is designated as a hemp cloth village, is a noted one where the villagers are kindhearted and live very happily together as ii they were the members of one united family.

The members of the homemakers association, who cooperate to weave the hemp textiles. are well solidated with each other. Around 50 members of the homemakers association weave the hemp textiles, which are the special product of this village. They weave the textiles during the off-season and the village earns around 20 million won per year from this business.

You can see the beautiful village, Chimok. as going down toward a standing signboard saying 'Sambe-maeul’ (Hemp Cloth village) on the right walking along a new road leading to Muju Resort.

Experience Programs

It is called ‘Bae' or ‘Mapo’ (Hemp Cloth) and they are made with the best fibers, which are collected from the Phloem (the inner bark) of hemp skins. In Korea, those have been used as the raw materials for clothing or bedding since the Korean ancient kingdom, Gojoseon.

(2333 B.C. — 108 B.C.) A hemp cloth does not absorb or discharge moisture quickly and have the antibiosis and antitoxity, which block ultraviolet rays and restrain fungi. In addition, Due to the excellent firmness and durability, the hemp fibers are used to make ropes, nets and tires, etc., as well as textiles.

Firmness & Durability

First of all, a hemp fiber has the longest staple length, around 4~5cms, among natural fibers and it has a feature 10 times as durable as a cotton yarn. Therefore, it was used to make a rope for a ship in the past and is widely used as a raw material for automobile tires or plastics in these days. In addition, the bast or stark of hemp is used as a raw material for paper pulp. In this case, the papers made of wood pulp can be recycled 3 or 4 times, while the papers made of hemp pulp can be recycled around 7 times.

Hemp fabrics are breathing textiles

A hemp fiber has the very unique structure that many empty long pipes are entangled with each other numerous times like a web. Therefore, due to this structural feature of this fiber, it is said that hemp fabrics have the features to automatically control the amount of moisture and heat as well as the moisture absorption and discharge rate 10times as fast as cotton ones and sound-proofness, etc. On the other hand, due to this feature of hemp fabrics, it is known to us that those are the fabrics for summer, but it is known to foreigners that those are the fabrics for four seasons for health of human beings since they are cool in summer and have an excellent heat-retaining property in winter.

Hemp fabrics have the antibiosis and antitoxity

These features of hemp fabrics are also related to the structural features. For example, fungi, which vigorously thrive under the damp condition, cannot inhabit in the condition of hemp fibers, which have a special structure due to the amazing capability to discharge moisture. (Due to a dry condition all the time)

Functions Blocking Ultraviolet Rays and Electromagnetic Waves

These functions are originated from the structural feature of hemp fibers and, referring to an experiment, it was found out that these fibers block ultraviolet rays by around 99.9% and the electromagnetic waves from cellular phones are blocked by around 86%.

Hemp Fabrics-weaving

  1. Cutting and Striping hemps: A Hemp is a perennial plant and is harvested in July to August after seeding in early April. Around the time it is harvested, it grows up to around 2 to 2.5m in height. And it is cut just after around July 7. The leaves of a hemp are trimmed by a hemp knife and the stalks are bound in bunches. And then, they are put into a big iron pot, so called 'Samgut', followed by being skinned. At this time, according to the status of being skinned, the quality is divided into three grades, that is, top, middle and low quality. Those skinned hemp stalks are soaked into water for a long time in order for the dirts or spots to be cleaned. Finally, they are dried under the sunlight. This is the end of the first stage of work, striping. The hemp skin is called 'Sam' while the stalk is 'Sam-Dae' (or 'Jaereup').
  2. Tearing out hemps : First, hemps are moderately wetted with water and then they are torn down while being put on a ground or a straw mat. Next, while grasping around a hemp with the left thumb, it is splitted from the top with the tip of a finger nail as if it were pinched followed by being torn down while fingers are inserted into each gap at a time smoothly. After that, when the works tearing down in a little bit broader width than ramie stripes, a bunch of heads are cut with a hemp saw on a chopping board. And finally the chopped hemps are dried for a long period of time under the sunlight. The longer they are dried, the tougher and better the yarns.
  3. Spinning: each and every warp is connected to the top and the bottom of a spinning rod one by one respectively to make a yarn.
  4. Measuring & Cutting: Each yarn is cut out after the intervals and lengths are once decided in order to weave a textile.
  5. Starching: The downs on the surface of a yarn are evened by being starched on the surface and then the yarns should be moderately moisturized.
  6. Weaving a textile