(Márcio L. Castro/)
question Robson Vilanova Island, Sao Sepe, RS
1) A BUG’S LIFE
O bugsilk (bombyx mori) it is the caterpillar of a moth. The female of the animal, domesticated more than 3 thousand years ago in China, lays up to 500 eggs. At birth, the caterpillar feeds on mulberry leaves for about 40 days, when it is ready to make the cocoon.
–2) THERE IS SPIT!
Your salivary glands secrete a fibrous fluid, rich in fibroin (75%) and sericin (22.5%), The two main protein components of silk. This substance forms a thread, with which the animal weaves the cocoon. The process takes three to eight days and a single strand can be 300 to 900 m long.
3) SILK ROUTE
The cocoons arrive at the factories, where they spend several hours in a drying process. High temperature kills the larvae. The cocoons are then cleaned and cooked in boiling water under pressure (According to a Chinese legend, the Empress Hsi-Ling-Shi discovered the silk when a cocoon fell into your cup of hot tea). This process makes the fibers of the silk become malleable and can be unwound like a thread.
4) WONDER YARN
The cocoons are transferred to spinning machines, where they are undone and transformed into threads. Afterwards, they are placed on spools, to make skeins, and are ready for making. To produce 1 kg of silkare necessary 3 thousand bugssilk (and about 104 kg of mulberry leaves)! As alternatives to silk conventional, there is the synthetic one, called rayon, and the vegetable one, made of bamboo
SOURCES Secretary of Agriculture and Supply of the State of Paraná, National Supply Company; books Chinese Silk: A Cultural Historyby Shelagh Vainker, and Consumer Textilesby Anne Fritz and Jennifer Cant