Silk
I was recently browsing through the New York Times and I came across an article on the origin of silk. Purely by coincidence, I was speaking to a couple in our store about an area rug that had a wool and silk blend and the question was asked of me why silk was used and is it durable. Later on in the day, in another conversation, the use of silk in some absolutely beautiful throw pillows was discussed. The wide range of uses of this fiber lead me to look into the internet for more information and this is what I found.
Background
Silk was discovered in China sometime before 2700 BC, and the secret of its production was closely guarded for millennia.
Along with jade and spices, silk was the primary commodity traded along the Silk Road beginning 100 BC. 50% of the world's silk is still produced in China.
Silk has set the standard in luxury fabrics for several millennia. The origins of silk date back to Ancient China. Legend has it that a Chinese princess was sipping tea in her garden when a cocoon fell into her cup, and the hot tea loosened the long strand of silk. Ancient literature, however, attributes the popularization of silk to the Chinese Empress Si-Ling, to around 2600 B.C. Called the Goddess of the Silkworm; Si-Ling apparently raised silkworms and designed a loom for making silk fabrics.
Four of the most important domesticated silk worms, together with their adult moth forms.
Initially, the Chinese were highly protective of their secret to making silk. Indeed, the reigning powers decreed death by torture to anyone who divulged the secret of the silk-worm. Eventually, the mystery of the silk-making process was smuggled into neighboring regions, reaching Japan about A.D. 300 and India around A.D. 400. By the eighth century, Spain began producing silk, and 400 years later Italy became quite successful at making silk, with several towns giving their names to particular types of silk.
Raw Materials
The secret to silk production is the tiny creature known as the silkworm, which is the caterpillar of the silk moth. It feeds solely on the leaves of mulberry trees. The larvae emerge from the eggs and feed on mulberry leaves.
To make one yard of silk material, about 3,000 cocoons are used.
Cultivation
Feeding the larva
The silkworms feed only on the leaves of the mulberry tree. Mulberry leaves are finely chopped and fed to the voracious chopped silkworms every few hours for 20 to 35 days.
During this period the worms increase in size to about 3.5 inches They also shed their skin, or molt, four times and change color from gray to a translucent pinkish color.
Spinning the cocoon
When the silkworm starts to fidget and toss its head back and forth, it is preparing to spin its cocoon. The caterpillar attaches itself to either a twig or rack for support. As the worm twists its head, it spins a double strand of fiber in a figure-eight pattern and constructs a symmetrical wall around itself. The filament is secreted from each of two glands called the spinneret located under the jaws of the silkworm. Now by any standards you would consider that a real workout.
Sorting and softening the cocoons
Silk is a continuous filament around each cocoon. It is freed by softening the cocoon in water and then locating the filament end; the filaments from several cocoons are unwound at the same time, sometimes with a slight twist, to form a single strand. In the process called throwing, several very thin strands are twisted together to make thicker, stronger yarn.
The Filature
Reeling the filament
The cocoon is brushed to locate the end of the fiber. It is threaded through a porcelain eyelet, and the fiber is reeled onto a wheel. Meanwhile, diligent operators check for flaws in the filaments as they are being reeled.
As each filament is nearly finished being reeled, a new fiber is twisted onto it, thereby forming one long, continuous thread.
Forming silk yarn
History
The first country to apply scientific techniques to raising silkworms was Japan, which produces some of the world's finest silk fabrics. Other countries that also produce quality silks are China, Italy, India, Spain, and France. China was the largest exporter of raw silk in the early 1990s, accounting for about 85% of the world's raw silk, worth about $800 million. Exports of China's finished silk products were about half of the world's total at about $3 billion.
Woven silk textile from tomb no. 1 at Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan Province province, China, from the Western Han Dynasty, 2nd century BC
Silk is highly valued because it possesses many excellent properties. Not only does it look lustrous and feel luxurious, but it is also light weight, resilient and extremely strong. A filament of silk is stronger than a similarly sized filament of steel.
No wonder that area rug manufacturers like to use the fiber. Not only does it look good by adding luster to the pile, but it also adds strength.
Landscape of quick water from high mountain by Zhao Zho, Ming Dynasty,1611 AD. Hand Dynasty, 2nd Century BC scroll, ink and colour on silk.
History
Many attempts were made to establish sericulture in the American colonies. Inducements such as land grants and bounties were offered, and many mulberry trees were planted. Pennsylvania had a silk industry, fostered by Benjamin Franklin, until the Revolution. The high cost of labor seems to have been the main deterrent to the success of sericulture in America.
India Woven silk from Cambodia
The silk fabric is soaked in extremely cold water and bleached before dyeing to remove the natural yellow coloring of Thai silk yarn. To do this, skeins of silk thread are immersed in large tubs of hydrogen peroxide. Once washed and dried, the silk is woven on a traditional hand-operated loom.
The Guntertuch, an 11th-Century silk celebrating a Byzantine emperor's triumph
What you have read above is literally just the tip of the "iceberg" of the history of silk, the countries of origin, the methods of "growing the cocoon," the harvesting and, of course, the final weaving of the threads to be used from everything from scarves, blouses, dresses, suits (men and women's), tapestries, and finally rugs. That concludes your lesson on silk for the day. If you need any additional information on silk or have any design questions, give me a call at the store.
Larry
Norwood Furniture, 480-892-0174
