The Process of Making Silk

So because we were on the tour, they took us shopping. But the first stop was interesting because it was a combination of a museum and shopping for silk items.  So first of all, you need silkworms and they eat the leaves of mulberry trees.

Then you let them do their work and they spin cocoons of really fine thread.

The balls of silk are then inspected for quality.

The balls have two options.  They are then soaked to get them wet and then an end of fed onto a machine.

The machine then unwinds the cocoon and coils it into a spool of silk thread.

Then the thread is dyed and woven into silk cloth.  Apparently now they have managed to get the silkworms to create colored thread.

I love these types of items, in this case the pattern template for the machine to create the design on the silk cloth.

Another option for silk is to take the wet cocoon and open it up.

Stretch it out, in this case over a ring.  Pictures is a number of cocoons all on top of each other stretched out.  It is so strong that punching the silk doesn't cause it to break, you hand comes right back at you.

Then the silk is allowed to dry and it is pulled out thin.  The silk in this case, I don't think is actually made into the silk they use in clothing.