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The UK's leading Silk Wedding Flower Specialist!

Exquisite Silk wedding Flowers, Silk Bridal Flowers, Silk Posies, Silk Corsages and other Wedding Decorations. View Our Beautiful Designs Below.

  How silk is made

How silk is made

Silk has been around for many years and first appeared in China â€" some believe as far back as 6000BC, however, it had definitely been developed by 3000BC. Silk was seen as a luxurious fabric and was initially reserved for the Kings of China for personal use and gifts to others but silk rapidly became a popular fabric throughout Chinese culture and then spread to many regions in Asia. China is still the leading producer of silk in the world with Japan, Italy and India also major producers.

Silk is a natural protein fibre and when it is in the correct form can be woven into textiles. The best known type of silk is that obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the Mulberry Silk Worm Bombyx Mori and are bred in captivity for making silk. 'Wild Silks' are produced by caterpillars other than the Mulberry Silk Worm and cannot be produced in captivity; the cocoons have to be gathered from the wild. As a result the scale of production is much smaller than that of cultivated silks. They have a different and natural colour to cultivated silks. The cocoons that are gathered from the wild are usually subject to some form of damage resulting in much shorter fibres. This is what gives natural silk its texture. The shimmering effect comes from the triangular shape of the fibres which act as a prism, reflecting the light at different angles.

The silk worm feeds on mulberry leaves and form a covering around it by secreting a protein like substance through its head. This stage is called cocoon and is the point at which silk production can begin. The factory where silk is processed is called a filature, where the silk is unwound from the cocoons and the strands are collected into skeins. The cocoon must go through four different stages before it is ready to leave the factory and be shipped all over the world.

The fist stage is sorting where the cocoons are sorted according to colour, size, shape and texture. These will affect the final quality of the silk. Cocoons may range in colour from white and yellow to a greyish tone. Secondly the gummy substance, known as sericin, that holds the silk fibres together must be softened. This is done by a series of hot and cold immersions; once the sericin has been removed the silk can be unwound as one continuous thread. Once the silk filaments have been unwound from the cocoon they are then wound together to make a thread of raw silk. This is known as reeling the filament. As the filament of the cocoon is too fine for commercial use, three to ten strands are usually reeled at a time to produce the desired diameter of raw silk which is known as "reeled silk". The useable length of reeled filament is 300 to 600 m. Finally, filament is reeled into skeins, which are packed into small bundles called books, weighing 2 to 4.5 kg which are put into bales weighing about 60 kg. In this form raw silk is shipped to silk mills all over the world.

Silk can be made into many different types of fabrics by spinning with handlooms or power looms. Plain silk fabrics can be produced in a range of thicknesses on power looms; chiffon, a very thin but strong form of silk, is also produced on power looms. Dupon, a popular form of silk used for dressmaking is produced on hand looms as is charka silk, both are thicker types of silk but come in varying qualities.

Silk is a very versatile fabric and can be used for many things other than dressmaking. Silk's elegant appearance and good drape make it perfect for many furnishing applications. It is used for upholstery, wall coverings, window treatments (if blended with another fibre), rugs, bedding and wall hangings. It can also be used decoratively around the home in silk flower arrangements.

More unusually, silk can be used for parachutes, bicycle tires, comforter filling and artillery gunpowder bags. Early bulletproof vests were made from silk in the era of blackpowder weapons until roughly World War I. A special manufacturing process makes it suitable as non-absorbable surgical sutures. Chinese doctors have used it to make prosthetic arteries. Silk cloth is also used as a material on which to write.