Natural Mulberry Silk: a gift from nature

In the Tang Dynasty, the famous line of the poet Li Shangyin: “The spring silkworm will not be finished until it dies, and the wax torch will be dried up when it becomes ashes”, sings a spirit of survival and struggle. From a biological point of view, when the spring silkworm spits out its silk, it has only completed its larval stage and is about to become a silkworm pupa. 

Silkworms like to eat mulberry leaves; a silkworm can eat 20-30 mulberry leaves.

Under normal feeding conditions, the larval stage takes 20-28 days from hatching and eating mulberry leaves to spitting silk for cocooning; 3 days for spitting and cocooning; 1-2 days for pupation; and 10 to 15 days for the pupal stage to become a moth.

Do you know the benefits of mulberry silk?

Silk is a gift from nature to humanity. Silk has a 97% animal protein content and is rich in 18 amino acids, known as the “Queen of Fibers” and “the second skin of the human body”. According to the traditional Chinese medical book “Qian Jin Fang” and “Compendium of Materia Medica”, silk can promote skin cell vitality, delay ageing, wrinkle removal, nourishing and whitening, and has the magical effect of preventing vascular sclerosis.

Cocoon selection 

After the mulberry silkworm cocoons, sericulturists will send the cocoons to the silkworm station centre or directly purchased by silk reeling and mulberry silk quilt factories. Workers select high-quality cocoons to eliminate defective cocoons.

Cocoon drying

The cocoon will be dried so that the moisture inside the silk can be removed; the silk is not easy to turn yellow while avoiding the silk oil content exceeding the standard.

Boiling cocoon

Dry cocoon layer on the cocoon silk adhesive force between the larger and reeling silk strip extraction speed is faster; the tension is greater, very easy to break the silk. Cooking cocoons can be properly inflated and dissolved silk glue, enhancing the strength of cocoon silk to ensure that the cocoon silk can be continuously dissociated.

Silk is a natural filamentous animal fibre that can be produced in large quantities, crystal clear, soft and delicate, with good moisture absorption and breathability. The cocoon can be divided into raw silk and cooked silk after a series of processes, which can be used for weaving silk, a mulberry silk duvet, silk non-woven fabric, etc.