The legend of Silk
According to the legend, it is the Chinese empress Si Ling Chi which discovered silk in 2640 front. J.-C.
One day when it took a cup of tea under a mulberry tree it noticed a cocoon and while wanting to take down it, it unrolled a long wire of a great softness very resistant.
It lengthily studied the various stages of the production of silk and was the first to teach art to raise the caterpillars and to reel the cocoons.
It developed a true industry under the seal of the Emperor and deserved to be placed by its grateful subjects with the row of divinity of the Chinese celestial Empire.

life and died of the caterpillar with silk
The silkworm is not in fact not a worm but the caterpillar of the butterfly Bombyx mori. This butterfly is originating in the countries of Asia where pushes the white mulberry tree, such China, Thailand, or Laos. It is high today successfully under various latitudes.
The female of the butterfly Bombyx mori lays from 300 to 500 eggs, then dies little afterwards. At the end of a few days, the caterpillars leave their?uf. They are then less than one centimetre long and 2 millimetres in diameter. The caterpillars nourish sheets of mulberry trees. On average, a caterpillar consumes 26 grams of sheets of mulberry tree during its life. Its size increases more than 400 times in less than 20 days!
The caterpillar grows so quickly that its skin cannot lengthen as quickly as its body does not grow bigger. It thus moults 4 times before weaving its cocoon. It is for this period which the caterpillars store in their abdomen the liquid that they will use to weave their silk cocoon.
The last stage of the life of a caterpillar is the weaving of the cocoon. When the caterpillars are about to weave their cocoon, they are placed in a round basket covered with a fabric to protect them from the insects. With rapids movements of the head, the caterpillar weaves its cocoon then in secreting a liquid by its lower lip. In contact with the air, the liquid hardens and forms the silk wire. The weaving of the cocoon hard between 4 and 5 days and a caterpillar can produce up to 4 000 meters of wire.

cocoon with the silk wire
One prevents the chrysales from transforming oneself into butterfly, bus while leaving the cocoon, the butterfly would break the wire. The cocoons are thus plunged in hot water to reel the wire of silk and to roll up it using a wheel "With the naturalness", the silk wire of color yellow is gilded.

cleaning and colour of silk wire
The silk wire is then washed several times until one obtains a fibre of color cream-coloured white. Naturally, the wire are covered with a glutinous substance. Thus, if the wire were tinted without being cleaned beforehand, the dyeing could not be uniformly and durably absorbed by fibre.
The dyeing is carried out then by immersion of wire in ebullient baths of colors.

preparation of wire
The wire, a liver dried, are rolled up on reels to prepare the chain (wire deposited in the length of the fabric part on the weaving loom) and weaves it (the wire which passed in the chain using a shuttle).
To return the thicker and more resistant silk wire, several wire can be joined one to the other by torsion. The term "fold" is often used to qualify the number of natural wire used to form the silk wire used at the time of weaving.
More the number of folds is high (1 fold, 2 folds, 4 folds or 6 folds), more the silk fabric will be thick and resistant. Thus, fabrics 1 fold and 2 folds are generally used for the light scarves and clothing, the fabrics 4 folds and 6 folds for hot clothing and furnishing.

weaving of silk wire
Weaving starts with the preparation of wire of chain on the weaving loom (wire tended in the length of the fabric part). The wire of screen then passed between weft threads and regularly packed using a comb.
The manual weaving of silk is a long and difficult activity which is controlled only after several years of practices. An experienced weaver can weave to the maximum 80 centimetres of fabric per day, if it acts of a relatively simple reason.