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Silk is well-known as the queen of fabrics. It has many fairytale stories on the silk with its early development possibly by 6000 BC. More fabulous features of silk are disclosed by the research which tells people why. Some of them are so interesting that you have probably never heard that.
Silk Production Life cycle
Silk can be produced by wild caterpillars or mulberry silkworm. Compared to the wild silks, the scale of cultured silks is far larger and the quality of silks is more controllable. The most popular type of silk is produced from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm. The whole life cycle of silkworm has four stages: egg, larva, cocoon (pupa), and moth. The commercial silk production happens at the third stage: cocoon or pupa before the pupae make damage by the emerging moth. It takes around 30 days to become mature silkworm from larva with enough food – mulberry leaves. It spins and makes cocoons, then turns into pupa. The pupa becomes a moth in about 10 days and a moth comes out the cocoon shell. The female moth dies almost immediately after the egg depositing. The male lives only a short time after. The silkworm contributes one of the most luxurious fabrics within a short time life cycle.
Uses
Silk has a wide application in a clothing industry such as formal dresses, fashion clothes, bathrobes, pajamas, scarves, cufflinks, and underwear. It is a perfect all season fabric. In summer silk makes it comfortable to wear in warm weather because of its good absorbency for moisture and its low conductivity keeps warm air close to the skin during winter season. Also the silk fabric can be transformed with a cashmere-like soft touch through napping so it brings warmer with this kind of silk scarves and clothes. People love the shimmering appearance of silk but few know the reason. The shimmering comes from the fibers' triangular prism-like structure which allows incoming light to refract at different angles.
Beside clothing industry, silk has many uses in other fields such as home decor, military, medical. A piece of hand painted silk scarf can be framed to decorate your home if art is your favorite. The soft appearance disguise one important feature of silk: silk is the strongest natural fiber, even stronger than a steel filament of the same diameter as silk. That is why early bulletproof vests were made from silk until about World War I. Surgical sutures are another application in medical.
Production
Most of silk production countries are from Asia and China is the largest provider around 80%. Brazil is the only non-Asian country that is on the top ten list. USA is the largest consumer country of silk in the world.
Interesting Number
Some numbers are interesting and few people know that. One cocoon can unravel a continuous thread of1000 meter long. Silk fiber is one of the finest fibers, about 10 nm (1 / 1,000,000 cm) in diameter. A single kimono takes silk from over 2000 cocoons.
The above information presents you why it has that good reputation in the fabrics world. Silk is definitely one of the top choices for people who love natural and quality fabrics.
