Even after all of those years, little has changed in the way silk is produced. Despite advances in production method technologies, silk production still very much remains a labour intensive process, and a lot of hard work is involved. These incredible silkworms produce one of the most highly sought after materials with a plethora of excellent properties.
This is the term used to describe the process of gathering the silkworms and harvesting the cocoon to collect the materials. Female silkmoths lay anything from around — eggs at any one time. These eggs eventually hatch to form silkworms, which are incubated in a controlled environment until they hatch into larvae caterpillars. The silkworms feed continually on a huge amount of mulberry leaves to encourage growth. It takes around 6 weeks to grow to their full potential about 3 inches.
Attached to a secure frame or tree, the silkworm will begin spinning its silk cocoon by rotating its body in a figure-8 movement around , times — a process which takes around 3 to 8 days. Each silkworm produces just one single strand of silk, which measures about metres long and is held together by a type of natural gum, called sericin. The cocoons are placed into boiling water in order to soften and dissolve the gum that is holding the cocoon together.
This is a crucial step in the silk production process as it ensures that there is no damage to the continuity of each thread. Each thread is then carefully reeled from the cocoon in individual long threads, which are then wound on a reel. Some of the sericin may still remain on the threads to protect the fibres during processing, but this is usually washed out with soap and boiling water. When the silk threads have been washed and degummed, they will be bleached and dried before the dyeing process commences.
Traditional silk dyeing techniques take the dyes from natural resources found in the surrounding environment, such as fruit or indigo plant leaves.
The threads will be soaked together in bundles, inside a pot of hot indigo leaves and water. This process will occur multiple times over a span of days to ensure proper colour tone and quality.
However, these traditional dyeing methods have almost become extinct in the commercial manufacturing of silk. Advances in technology mean that manufacturers instead opt for using various dyes such as acid dyes or reactive dyes. This gives a greater range of choice in colours and shades to be able to serve wider demand. That being said, the general idea behind the technique remains similar as the silk is immersed in a dye bath to soak up the colour. The silk may be fed into the bath through two cylinders, or fixed to a round jig which is immersed in the bath.
In many cases, this will be one of the last steps of the processes as manufacturers generally now prefer piece-dyeing in an attempt to reduce waste. Profit from additional features with an Employee Account. Please create an employee account to be able to mark statistics as favorites. Then you can access your favorite statistics via the star in the header.
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The ideal entry-level account for individual users. Corporate solution including all features. Statistics on " Silk in India " The most important statistics. The most important statistics. Further related statistics. Sericulture is the production of silk using domestic silkworms. Silkworm Bombyx mori larvae are used for silk production. The process begins with the thousands of silk moth eggs that are prepared by feeding them mulberry leaves.
As the larvae molts, a stick is placed on it to weave silk on and becomes a cocoon that later envelops the larvae in two to three days. The cocoons are then boiled killing the pupae silkworm.
The cocoons are taken and unwound on a reel. After the unwinding, the silk obtained are used to make silk. It takes around 2, silkworms to produce a pound of raw silk.
A single cocoon has somewhere around a thousand yards of silk filaments. China and India are the two leading silk producers today. The Silk industry actually began between 5, and 3, BC in China. It reached India around AD.
The Silk Road also facilitated the smuggling of silkworm eggs into the Mediterranean and from there into the rest of Europe. Silk, due to its luster and fine texture, rapidly became a favorite for those people who could afford it.
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