Isn't it really astonishing how an ugly looking worm can produce such a versatile, smooth and shiny fiber!

The shimmering appearance for which silk is prized comes from the fiber's triangular prism-like structure which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angle.

Did you know that silk is even used to make duvet covers? Apparently these have superior thermal properties, very light weight and supple drape, and are hypoallergenic due to its natural nature!

Anyway, I decided to write this guide as I thought you might find it interesting to know how this beautiful fabric is obtained.

You may think these worms are ugly but believe me, they're not so bad, and when I stroke one of them a little I discovered that they are really soft!

The worms you see on this photo are silkworms, they are native of northern China and the only thing they eat is mulberry leaves. Nowadays they no longer live in the wild and they are reared in captivity. This practice is called sericulture.

At a certain stage of its life, the silkworm undergoes transformation into a moth. A Chrysalis is the pupal stage of butterflies.

From its salivary glands it secretes the raw silk fiber around itself as a protective covering for the pupa. this white shell is called the Cocoon.

The cocoon is made of a single continuous thread of raw silk from 300 to 900 meters (1000 to 3000 feet) long.

The fiber is very fine and lustrous.

If the animal is allowed to survive after spinning its cocoon, it will secrete a fluid that softens the cocoon, and make a hole  in it when it exits as a moth.

This would cut short the threads and ruin the silk.

Silkworm pupae are therefore killed before the adult moths emerge by dipping them in boiling water or piercing them with a needle, thus allowing the whole cocoon to be unraveled as one continuous thread.

This allows a much stronger cloth to be woven from the silk.

It is very interesting to see how the fiber is pulled out of the cocoon, it is very thin, so five of them together are joined to make one single silk filament.

The silk is then spun into continuous filaments or in elongated pieces.

The silk filaments are then coloured and woven into textiles.

There are also some varieties of wild silks, but these tend to be more difficult to dye than silk from the cultivated silkworm.