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We have moved to Shopify! NATURAL SILK
Published : 09/12/2019 08:00:00
Categories : MC2patterns
Meet this cute moth - a silkworm, its caterpillars that have long dressed high society of Ancient China in expensive clothes. The silk manufacturing process was shrouded in the strictest secrecy, for the disclosure of which threatened the death penalty - this material was so dearly valued. One cocoon of such a moth contains from 300 to 1500 m of silk thread.
In all countries silk is manufactured virtually the same way:
First of all, silkworms are bred for silk production by feeding them with white mulberry leaves.
Optimal life conditions are created for adult silkworm moths. Such a moth lives only ten to fifteen days laying up to seven hundred eggs during this time.
At a certain temperature regime, silkworms hatch from the eggs after eight days;
Silkworms are given mulberry leaves providing enhanced nutrition.
The silkworms are fed for thirty days, after this time the grown caterpillars begin to weave cocoons.
Finished cocoons are treated with hot steam to kill the silkworms (sad…).
Then the free end of the cocoon thread is being carefully released and fixed to a special unwinding machine. Unwound cocoons become very thin shiny threads.
Thin and airy types of silk are made of such threads.
To manufacture a stronger silk material, several fibers are combined by twisting into one thread.
Close-Up of Silk Reeling in Factory
Silk benefits
Natural silk - one of the most noble fabrics.
Natural silk fibres have good thermoregulation - in silk clothes you will not be cold in winter and hot in the summer.
Interestingly, contact with silk tissue has a beneficial effect on dry and irritated skin. Thanks to its strength and elasticity, silk thread is still widely used in modern medicine, helping to accelerate the process of regeneration.
Silk fabric has always caught the eye with its flicker of scattering light,created by the multilayer prismatic structure of the thread.
Silk fabric is absolutely not sensitive to the effects of either alcohol or vinegar.
But silk has one negative property, due to which this strength weakens over time, namely, poor light resistance. Only 200 hours of direct sunlight will be enough to disrupt the structure of the material and weaken its strength by 2 times.
How to identify NATURAL SILK ?
You can take few threads from the material and burn it with a flame. Genuine silk burns with smell of burnt hair. When you burn the edge of real silk fabric, the flame is invisible and it will stop burning as soon as the flame is removed. The ash produced hence, is black, crispy and brittle.
More about silk you can read https://naturalsilkfactory.com/blog/
Editor's note: Feature image via Freepik.com
