How is silk made?
Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to raise silkworms. I never got around to doing it, and as a silk painter, I am still fascinated by how this plump little white worm can create something as rich and luxurious as silk. You can imagine what a special treat it was for me to visit a working silk factory in Suzhou, China. It was the number one silk factory and began making silk in 1926. I saw the entire process of silk production from the silkworm and the mulberry leaves to how the cocoons were hand sorted on a conveyer belt into either single or double cocoons.
It is an exacting and demanding process. The most prized silk is obtained from a special type of silkworm, one that comes from the Bombyx mori moth. It is a moth that cannot fly and cannot see. Its only purpose in life is to lay the eggs that will produce the next generation of silkworms. The Bombyx mori moth lays about 500 eggs over a period of four to six days and then dies, having completed the job it was meant to do. The eggs are very tiny, like little pinpoints. All five hundred eggs together only weigh about 5 grams or a little under 2 ounces. It takes approximately 30,000 worms to produce twelve pounds of raw silk. Those 30,000 worms will eat about 2,000 pounds of chopped mulberry leaves from birth to the time they weave their cocoons which is about a month after they are born. Why is the silk from the silkworms produced by the Bombyx mori moth that is fed a diet of only chopped mulberry leaves so prized? Unlike the silk that comes from wild moths who eat whatever food is availa
Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to raise silkworms. I never got around to doing it, and as a silk painter, I am still fascinated by how this plump little white worm can create something as rich and luxurious as silk. You can imagine what a special treat it was for me to visit a working silk factory in Suzhou, China. It was the number one silk factory and began making silk in 1926.
