I have an ambitious plan (and I hope to do it) - I will run a company blog.
It will be about silk, silk painting - my work, the wings - new (and not only) designs, inspirations, about my clients.
At the beginning about silk.
Silk is a natural fiber of animal origin. It is formed from the cocoon of mulberry silkworm or, possibly, oak (silk is of inferior quality).
Silk is also the name of the fabrics produced from the yarn obtained from this fiber.
photo by Dorota Drzewiecka
For centuries, silk was the most expensive and most desirable fiber, a status symbol. Produced from about 3000 BC. in China. Already in ancient times it was the main good imported to Europe
from China on the Silk Road.
For centuries it was more valuable than gold, and the secret of its creation was closely guarded. The penalty for betrayal it, was a death sentence.
From the sixth century AD when the production secret was stolen, production started also Byzantium (there too, for betrayal of the production process, you could pay your head), gradually in Persia, Japan, Thailand, Italy, and from the seventeenth in all of Europe.
China is still the main producer (around 70% of world production) and this is one of the cases where name "made in China" is synonymous with tradition and quality.
Silkworm is a species of nocturnal butterfly domesticated around 5000 years ago in China, currently not occurring naturally.
Silk production consists of:
- growing suitable trees (mulberry or oak)
- silkworm breeding - after hatching from eggs, caterpillars for a 4-week very intensely fed on leaves (they do not even have time to breathe :) fortunately they have a body covered with a trachea) and after increasing 10,000-fold the body weight begins to wrap in a thin thread to form a cocoon (with which normally a butterfly should appear).
- obtaining fiber by throwing cocoons into boiling water and separating the beginning of the thread (with a length of up to 1500 meters).
- yarn formation, by combining several threads from cocoons, from which then various types of silk fabrics are woven (but I will write about it another time).
Photo: Armin Kübelbeck, CC-BY-SA, Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Katpatuka - Wikipedia
The advantages of silk
Silk is one of the thinnest and at the same time the most durable
natural fibers (during World War II it was used for parachutes, from which women later recovered the fabric for sewing clothes and underwear).
Silk fabric is flexible, durable and resistant to deformation.
It breaks the light like a prism, thanks to which silk shines and reflects light.
Silk is hygroscopic. Easily absorbs and releases moisture.
Silk has thermoregulatory properties - it heats in the winter and cools in the summer.
Does not cause allergy (among other things, it is why silk surgical threads are made)
Deters lice, fleas and other parasites.
Well cared for (does not like the sun) is able to survive in an unchanged shape
supposedly even 100 years !! I have my oldest hand painted blouse about 7 years old, so it's still time to check.
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