HISTORY OF SILK
According to Chinese legend, silk was discovered in 3,000 BC by Lady Hsi-Ling-Shi, wife of Emperor Huang Ti, when a silkworm cocoon accidentally dropped into her hot tea. Fine threads from the cocoon unraveled in the hot water and silk was discovered.
 
It was first used exclusively by the emperor, his close relations, and the very highest of his dignitaries. Even Julius Caesar restricted the wearing of silk to himself and his favoured officials. Noble and rich Roman and Greek families sought after this splendid textile. The great demand for silk from Europe created The Silk Road, built entirely to support its commerce. For centuries, silk had been as valuable as gold often use as currency in international trade.
 
For more than 2,000 years, the Chinese tightly guarded the secrets of silk. Anyone revealing the secrets of creating silk or smuggling the silk worm eggs or cocoons outside of China was punished by death. Today, silk continues to be a character of luxury and grandeur.
 
HOW SILK IS MADE
Silk farms raise cocoons through a process called sericulture. Silk producers then process the cocoon through four stages:
 
Sorting: Each cocoon is sorted according to colour, size, shape, and texture. The quality of silk depends on the combination of these attributes. Cocoon colouring can vary from white to yellow to gray.
 
Sericin Softening: Sericin or "silk gum" is the sticky substance that holds silk filaments together. The cocoons are submersed in hot and cold water to soften the sericin and silk filaments are unwound to produce a continuous thread.
 
Filament Reeling: Silk filaments are unwound in the reeling process and combined together to make a thread of raw silk. Three to ten strands of silk filament are combined for a single thread as individual filaments are too fine for commercial use.
 
Baling: Silk is reeled into skeins and then shipped to silk mills all over the world where it is woven into fabric.

Silk is produced by the Bombyx Mori Moth

Raw Mulberry Silk filaments

Skein of undyed Mulberry Silk thread