silkworm and cocoon

Silk is a pure and natural fibre, and is made by silkworms.

The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of the domesticated silkmoth, Bombyx mori (Latin: “silkworm of the mulberry tree”)……….A silkworm’s preferred food is white mulberry leaves ……..

After molting, the instar phase of the silkworm emerges white, naked, and with little horns on their backs.

After they have molted four times, their bodies become slightly yellow and the skin becomes tighter. The larvae then enter the pupal phase of their lifecycle and enclose themselves in a cocoon made up of raw silk produced by the salivary glands. 

The cocoon is made of a thread of raw silk from 300 to about 900 m (1,000 to 3,000 ft) long. The fibers are very fine and lustrous, about 10 μm (0.0004 in) in diameter. About 2,000 to 3,000 cocoons are required to make a pound of silk (0.4 kg). At least 70 million pounds of raw silk are produced each year, requiring nearly 10 billion pounds of cocoons. (source: Wikipedia)

Maybe that was too much information – smile – but not everyone is aware of where silk comes from and why its has always been so expensive.  (19 May – See also ‘SILK’ – a re-blog of a post about the history of silk in China)

Silk comes in all ‘shapes & sizes’ – some of it is horrendously expensive, and if you buy a silk dress in an upmarket shop, I’m sure your credit card will know about it – smile.

However, not all silk products will break the bank, and I do love silk, so I have quite a variety of silk fibres, silk yarns and some stunning new pieces of hand dyed silk lap – as well as the pure white undyed lap, and silk ‘hankies’ – in stock at the moment, for you to play with!

(I’m currently experimenting with weaving silk, and if I like what I make, I will put a photo of it up on the Gallery of Your Work – & mine!  Please do contribute s picture to the Gallery – any photo you send in will be published – information for contributors is here.)

Below is a selection of pictures of the silks in stock now – you can buy silk noil fibres from as little as £2.99.  You will find my current listings for these in my etsy shop – julz craft supplies – and on julzweaving (ebay).

You can spin, weave, felt and make some beautiful textile art with these different types of silk!

Hover over the pictures to see what they are, or click on them to see a slide show of the full size pictures.

purple/blue hand dyed silk lap

mulberry reds hand dyed silk lap

yellow.gold hand dyed silk lap

silver grey hand dyed silk lap

gold/brown hand dyed silk lap

creamy tussah silk tops

blend of merino wool & mulberry silk roving

‘brick’ of top quality mulberry silk

silk hankies

mulberry silk noil

100 gm cone of thick wild tussah silk

90% mulberry silk mixed with cashmere & cotton

merino/silk tops for spinning/felting

tussah silk noil

hanks of white sari silk

hank of yellow sari silk

white silk lap