How is natural silk produced? Chinese silk: legends, history and production technology Obtaining silk fabric

There were legends about silk fabric in ancient times: an outlandish material from the Celestial Empire is incredibly thin and durable, shiny, beautiful and, perhaps, even healing. Now silk remains one of the most expensive fabrics, which is dictated by the peculiarities of the production process and the properties of the material. .

The source of raw materials remained unique - like thousands of years ago natural silk is made from fibers obtained by processing the cocoons of caterpillar pupae silkworm . Accordingly, the production of silk requires special weather. China still remains the main exporter of silk to the world market. , although silkworms are grown in India, Brazil and other countries with a warm climate.

Story

The silkworm was "domesticated" in China about 5,000 years ago. . This dim butterfly that feeds on mulberry leaves (mulberries) and during pupation, it spins a cocoon of very strong fibers as thick as a cobweb . According to mythological legends, the first silk thread was woven by the young Empress Xi Ling Shi, who later became known as the goddess of silk.

After 2.5 thousand years, the secret technology became known to the Arabs, then leaked to Byzantium. But Chinese silk has always been valued above the rest.

Production technology

The silkworm caterpillar spins a cocoon from a very thin and strong fiber. An oval or egg-shaped cocoon-pupa with a hole on one side serves as a home for a caterpillar, which is preparing to turn into a butterfly. Silk production technology does not allow silkworm butterflies to leave a cocoon in a natural way - d about the completion of the transformation of the insect, the pupae are doused with boiling water, and the caterpillars die . For this reason, conservationists have been fighting against the producers of natural silk for many years. But it has not yet been possible to recreate its properties in artificial conditions, so the killing of caterpillars continues.

Under the action of boiling water, the fibers become more elastic, and the adhesive solution with which the caterpillar fastens its “house” dissolves. . After heat treatment, the cocoon is easily unwound into individual fibers. The natural color of silk is white or cream. To get a silk thread, several fibers are twisted together. (up to eight). This thread is called raw silk.

Finished threads impregnate chemical compounds , which give the material water-repellent properties, prevent shrinkage and creasing of the fabric in the future.

Silk Benefits

• Air and water permeability - silk "breathes" and does not retain heat, which is very useful for summer clothes and underwear.
• Lightness and strength - the fabric is practically not felt on the body, but it is much more difficult to tear it than cotton or viscose.
• Elasticity - silk things do not deform when washed, do not stretch on the knees and elbows and do not shrink.
• Smoothness - silk not only shines excellently, due to the smooth surface it practically does not wear out and does not form ugly spools.
• It is believed that amino acids in silk have a positive effect on skin condition , accelerate cell regeneration, thereby creating a rejuvenating effect.

Weak sides

• Silk harms heat - iron and wash it with minimal heat.
• Dyes on silk fabrics fade quickly under the open sun.

Subtleties of care

You can often find silk mixed with synthetics - this is a more practical and economical option. . The label of natural silk will necessarily indicate: "100% KBT SEIDE" (sometimes "ORGANIC SEIDE"). In the latter case, the material is also organic, which means that chemicals hazardous to human health were not even used to process the mulberry leaves that the silkworms fed on. How to care for such a delicate fabric?

• Wash in water not warmer than 30 degrees manually or in "silk" mode;
• do not twist , just gently squeeze out the water;
• do not dry in the sun ;
• cannot be dried or stored silk things near heating appliances or other sources of heat;
• iron in the most gentle mode from the wrong side of the product .

Silk making is a very ancient craft, an integral part of Eastern traditions, silk in more ancient times cost more than gold in China. At present it is still profitable business and it is possible to organize both large-scale production of silk, and small, home-made, focused on small deliveries, because large-scale production is not necessary to begin with. start-up capital, which you can verify by reading .

Story

Silk production appeared more than 5000 years ago at the court of the Chinese Emperor Huang Di. According to legend, a silkworm cocoon fell into the cup of the emperor's wife, who was drinking tea in the garden, which, under the influence of hot water, immediately began to unfold and release a thin thread. The Empress liked this finest thread so much that she ordered to collect many silkworm cocoons and make imperial clothes from their threads.

Silkworm

Silk thread with scientific point vision is a product of the secretion of the silkworm glands of the silkworm caterpillar. The largest populations of this insect live, of course, in China, but it is also found in other regions. East Asia and in the southern part of Primorsky Krai Russian Federation. The silkworm, from which the coarser thread is obtained, is grown in India. Also, silk supplies are organized by Uzbekistan, Brazil, Vietnam, Thailand, Iran.

The life cycle of a silkworm consists of the following stages:

Characteristics of silk thread

Production process and necessary equipment

Silk properties

In the production and sale of silk, it is important to know and convey to consumers that silk is not only beautiful, durable and pleasant, but also a useful material.

The impact of natural silk on humans:

• Prevents the development of arthritis and rheumatism.
• Reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.
• It has a beneficial effect on the skin, normalizing its balance and preventing the development of skin diseases.
• Reflects ultraviolet rays.
• Has antibacterial properties.

Silkworm cocoons are successfully used in cosmetology, as an ingredient for scrubbing.

Silk at all times was considered an expensive, elite fabric, the use of which was the privilege of the upper strata of the population. Demand for this material is high even today, so silkworm breeding and silk production is a profitable business. However, it should be remembered that this is a very painstaking work that requires a lot of time and detailed study before starting work.

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Can't name exact date when people learned to use threads from silkworm cocoons to make fabric. ancient legend says that once a cocoon fell into the tea of ​​the Empress of China - the wife of the Yellow Emperor - and turned into a long silk thread. It is believed that it was this Empress who taught her people to breed caterpillars in order to produce a fabric that is unique in its composition. ancient technology production was strictly classified for many years, and for the disclosure of this secret, you could easily lose your head.

What is silk made from?

Several thousand years have passed, and silk products are still in demand and are also valued all over the world. Numerous artificial substitutes for silk, although they approached the original in their properties, are still inferior to natural silk in many criteria.

So, natural silk is a soft fabric made from threads extracted from the cocoon of a silkworm (read the article "?"). About 50% of the world's production of natural silk is concentrated in China, silk is also supplied from here. best quality Worldwide. Incidentally, silk production began here as early as the fifth millennium BC, so this craft in China is more than traditional.

The finest silkworms are used to create the highest quality silk. After hatching from eggs, these caterpillars immediately begin to eat. In order to start producing silk threads, silkworms increase their weight by 10 thousand times, absorbing only fresh leaves mulberries! After 40 days and 40 nights of continuous feeding, the larvae begin to weave a cocoon. The silk cocoon is made from a single strand of saliva. Each caterpillar is capable of producing almost a kilometer long silk thread! It takes 3-4 days to make a cocoon.

By the way, not only silkworms produce threads. Spiders and bees also produce silk, only silkworm silk is used in industry.

Silk production technology

The production of natural silk is a rather complex and multi-stage process. The first stage is the cleaning and sorting of silkworm cocoons. Untangling the delicate silk thread is not so easy, because it is glued together by a protein called sericin. For this purpose, cocoons are thrown into hot water to soften the sericin and clean the threads. Each thread is only a few thousandths of a millimeter wide, so to make a thread strong enough, several threads have to be interlaced. It takes about 5,000 cocoons to produce just one kilogram of silk.

After removing the sericin protein, the threads are thoroughly dried, as they are quite fragile when wet and can be easily torn. Traditionally, this is done by adding raw rice to the threads, which easily absorbs excess moisture. In automated production, the threads are also dried.

Then the dried silk thread is wound on special device, which accommodates a huge number of threads. After all these procedures, the finished silk is hung out to dry.

An undyed silk thread is a bright yellow thread. To dye it in other colors, the thread is first dipped in hydrogen peroxide to bleach it, and then dyed in desired color with the help of dyes.

Silk threads still have a long way to go to become a fabric, namely the weaving of threads on a loom. In Chinese villages, where traditional manual production flourishes, 2-3 kilograms of silk are made daily, while automatic production at the factory makes it possible to produce 100 kilograms of silk every day.

2 This is how ready-made pupated larvae hatch.

3 On such flat wicker baskets.

4 Kura wants to eat a larva or two, but they chase her)

6 When we arrived there was a lunch break, the girls ate, and we walked around the empty room, stuck our nose everywhere, shot ourselves. It’s twilight there and I stubbornly didn’t get sharp shots and I was already upset that everything was gone, but I took off the polarizer, turned up the sensitivity and everything seemed to work out more or less, cheers!

7 At first there was absolute silence and everything stood still and we could not understand what was happening. But suddenly everything around rustled, crackled, moved, spun, and the girls stood up to the machines.

8 They take a clump of cocoons with chopsticks and first put them in a pot of boiling water so that the larvae will boil and die. The smell there is a little nauseating, the smell is similar to boiled meat, only more specific. Later, when we bought scarves, they were soaked in this smell and even after I washed it, there was still a little left, buee.

9 Cocoons are boiled in such a saucepan.

10 Boiled and wet cocoons.

12 I used to think that they were looking for the very tip of the thread in the cocoon in order to unwind it. In fact, I realized that this is of course nonsense, they just pull the cobweb from the surface. Here you can see how the thread goes from each cocoon.

14 And here is the second myth. I thought that the thread from the cocoon is the final thread. This is wrong. The silk thread is twisted from several micro-threads. The number of these threads determines the thickness of the finished thread and, accordingly, the thickness of the future fabric. See the row of "dushiki"? So, these are not souls, but threads from cocoons. The girl brings a bunch of threads with her finger to these rapidly spinning pimps and the threads seem to be sucked in there and twisted.

19 Finished skeins with silk thread.

27 Barrigadir))

28 Unwound cocoons look like this.

29 I took this photo last year at the COOP market. Then I did not suspect that these were "silk" larvae. I'm not 100% sure, but they are very similar and logically fit. Otherwise, where else can they put the spent larvae?)

30 There are also some looms here, where plain cloth is woven. Above, to the left of the machine, you can see a hanging stack of punched cards.

31 These are cards in which the fabric pattern is encoded. A thread is passed through each hole and then they are cunningly shifted on the machine and a pattern is magically obtained.

36 And on this machine I make coarse silk burlap. For what we did not understand, maybe purely for decorative purposes.

37 And on this single machine, threads are made according to the same principle as the others, but only thick and with knots, boucle threads.

39 From these threads, then such scarves are obtained. Mom and I bought these for just 6 bucks, different colors. They stank of boiled larvae)

40 Dyed fabrics are drying in the yard.

41 The choice of fabrics here is quite small.

43 Here scarves are hemmed and fringes are made.

44 And here they do embroidery. But only too unpretentious at all. There is no insane beauty here. Everything is beauty at the XQ factory.

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13.06.2017

With the history of the silkworm, thanks to which such a wonderful fabric as natural silk appeared ( lat. Mulberry) is associated with a huge number of ancient fictions and legends.

This amazing quality material is produced by caterpillars that, eating mulberry leaves (for us, the name mulberry is more familiar), process them, creating a surprisingly thin and strong silk thread from which they weave their cocoons.

silkworm ( lat. bombyx mori) is a butterfly from the insect family " real silkworms", A " bombyx mori» translated from Latin literally means "death of a silkworm" or "dead silk". Such a tragic name is explained by the fact that a living butterfly is specifically not allowed to leave the cocoon, so the insect, suffocating, dies inside it (more on this sad fact a little later in the text).

Cocoons can be of various colors and shades, which depends primarily on the type of silkworm, but White color considered to be of the highest quality because it contains the highest percentage of silk protein.

Currently, silk production is most developed in China, Japan and India.

adult insect

It is assumed that the silkworm moth descended from its wild relative, which previously lived in mulberry thickets. ancient China. According to some historical data, the culture of creating silk originated about five thousand years ago, and during this time the insect was completely domesticated and even lost the ability to fly (during the mating period, only males insect).

The silkworm butterfly is a rather large insect with a wingspan of up to six centimeters. It is noteworthy that immediately before pupation, it can increase in height up to nine (!) Centimeters.

Egg

Having hatched from a cocoon, an adult female mates with a male, after which she lays eggs for four to six days, covering them with a dense shell called grenay. During this period, the moth does not eat anything, since its oral apparatus is underdeveloped.

Silkworm embryos are small and have a light yellow or milky color. Having laid from three hundred to six hundred eggs (sometimes the number of eggs in an oviposition can reach eight hundred), the silkworm butterfly dies.

Larva

After about a week, a small dark brown larva emerges from the embryo (the silkworm caterpillar is often called " silkworm”) about two to three millimeters long.

From birth, the larva has an excellent appetite, so it feeds around the clock, eating juicy mulberry leaves with pleasure.

Silkworm caterpillars are very sensitive to temperature and humidity, they are not tolerant of pungent odors and cannot stand loud sounds, but if external conditions habitats are quite favorable, the larvae are rapidly gaining weight, day by day, increasing the consumption rate plant food. In the rooms where silkworms are grown, the monotonous work of many jaws is a continuous hum, as if a fine rain is drumming on a metal roof.

It is hard to imagine that these babies have more than four thousand muscles in their crumbled body, which is eight times (!) More than a person.

During the growing season, the silkworm larva goes through four stages or phases of maturation, and the first molt occurs already on the fifth day from the date of birth, while the caterpillar stops feeding, and firmly clinging to the leaf, hibernates for a day. Waking up, the caterpillar sharply straightens its body, which is why the old skin bursts and the grown insect, freed from its former clothes, with new force pounces on food.

After four molts, the body of the caterpillar increases in size by more than thirty (!) Times and their body acquires a yellowish tint.

chrysalis

In total, the silkworm caterpillar grows and develops for about a month, and immediately before pupation, the larva loses all interest in food.

Under the lower lip of the insect there are special glands capable of producing a silky gelatinous substance, which, when hardened, turns into a thin silk thread.

Silkworm thread is ninety percent protein. In addition, it contains salts, fats, wax and a sticky substance. sericin, which prevents the threads from disintegrating tightly fastening them to each other.

When the time comes, the caterpillar fixes its body on a strong base and begins to form a frame around itself in the form of a fine mesh, and then weaves the cocoon itself, winding the thread around itself in a “figure eight”.

After three or four days, the cocoon is completely ready, and the total length of the thread in the finished cocoon can reach from three hundred meters to one and a half (!) kilometers.

It is noteworthy that male silkworms make cocoons more scrupulously, so they are somewhat denser to the touch, and the length of the silk thread in the male cocoon is longer.

After about eight to nine days, the cocoons can be collected and spun to produce a thread of unique quality. If this process is late, then an adult insect will come out of it ( imago) in the form of a butterfly, which will damage the shell of the cocoon and the thread will eventually be torn.

As mentioned earlier, the butterfly has an underdeveloped mouth apparatus, therefore it is not able to gnaw through the shell of the cocoon and, in order to fly out, it secretes a special substance with saliva that dissolves the upper part of the cocoon, damaging the threads. To avoid this, butterflies are artificially killed right in their cocoons with the help of hot air, processing the pupae for two hours. This process kills the butterfly, so that the name of this insect species (" Death of the silkworm") is fully justified.

After the thread is unwound, the dead chrysalis is eaten (typically in China and Korea) because it is rich in protein and nutrients.

The process of creating silk thread

Currently, the silkworm is grown mainly artificially.

Cocoons are collected, sorted by color, size and prepared for subsequent unwinding, for which they are dipped in boiling water. This process is still done by hand, because the thread of the cocoon is very thin and requires special care to unwind it.

To create a raw thread, when unwinding, from three to ten silk threads are connected together, and all the same natural sericin helps to carefully fasten all the ends.

Raw silk is wound into yarn and sent to a weaving factory for further processing and production of a wonderful fabric highly valued throughout the world.

Legend has it that the first person who came up with the idea of ​​weaving silk thread was the legendary Chinese Empress Lei Zu (also known as Xi Lingshi), walking in a mulberry garden with a cup of hot tea, into which a silkworm cocoon suddenly fell. Trying to get it, the empress pulled a thin thread, which caused the cocoon to unwind.

Lei Zu convinced her husband (the legendary ruler of China, Huangdi or " yellow emperor"") to provide her with a grove of mulberry trees where she could breed caterpillars that produce cocoons. She is also credited with inventing a special spool that combines thin threads into one strong thread suitable for weaving, and inventing the silk loom.

In modern China, Lei Zu is an object of worship and bears the honorary title " Mother of the Silkworm».