Where Does the Silk Come From to Make Silk Scarves and Shawls?

July 21, 2010

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When you see a handmade silk scarf or shawl, it is certainly not difficult to marvel at the beauty of the craftsmanship and work which has gone into its design and production. When you consider what has gone into the production of the silk itself though, the whole creation seems like a small miracle.

The start of the manufacturing process of silk actually begins when the female silk moth lays her eggs. Within four to six days, she lays around 500 eggs and then dies shortly afterwards. From each ounce of these eggs though, come in the region of 30,000 worms which then set about eating approximately one ton of leaves from the mulberry tree and produce twelve pounds of raw silk.

While they are at the larva stage, these tiny creatures demand constant attention. They must be kept warm, away from drafts, loud noises and even strong smells. Living in trays which are stacked one on top of the other, the worms are fed around every half hour until they grow fat and weigh 10,000 times more than they did when they hatched. Only when they have stored enough energy to enter the cocoon or pupation stage is it that they actually begin the job of producing silk.

When they pupate, the silk worms produce a substance which has the texture of jelly but turns hard on contact with the air. Over the course of three or four days, they begin to spin a cocoon around themselves which is made up of a continuous thread, so that they end up looking like little round white, puffy balls. Eight or nine days later, before the larva have the chance to eat their way through the thread (which is what they would do if left to mature naturally), the cocoons are subjected to heat treatment to kill the worms and then are dipped into hot water to loosen the thread which is then unwound on to a spool. Remarkably, each single cocoon yields somewhere between 600 and 900 meters of silk.

Depending upon how it is going to be used, the fine filaments of raw silk can then be spun into different types of thread by twisting a number of them together in different ways to make a single thread. In this way, different kinds of silk fabric such as crepe and organzine are created, with single threads being used for the finest and sheerest silk. In the final part of the process, the silk threads are woven into the cloth which forms the basis of your fabulous silk scarf or shawl, and then this is where the artists and designers set about creating the beautifully-colored patterns and designs which turn the plain piece of fabric into a piece of wearable art.

Despite all the work which goes into producing raw silk, the demand for this material has grown and grown over the years, especially amongst those with a discerning eye for quality. With the look and feel of sheer luxury, as well as its amazing insulating qualities, it is a fabric which is bound to enjoy enduring appeal for many years to come!

Julie-Ann.

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