What is the difference between tussah and cultivated silk?
There are two varieties of silk worms, tussah or wild and cultivated-farm raised. Tussah silk refers to wild silk from India or China and in Japan is it simply known as wild silk. The fibers from tussah silk are brown in color and have a coarse texture. Cultivated silk is farm raised silk worms, and generally come from very controlled environments. The color of silk ranges from yellow to gray depending on what the silk worms were fed. Chinese and Japanese cultivated silks tend to be creamy white, whereas Italian silks are yellow. All silk has good penetrability thus a natural affinity for dyes.
