Cocoon to Cloth

Visitors from all over the country and world including Texas, the Netherlands, and nearby Leyden, Massachusetts have been fascinated to learn about the origins of silk. It is surprising to many people that the cocoons made by silk caterpillars are the source for beautiful silk cloth.

In this video, a visitor named Alyssa from Littleton, MA is trying the reproduction silk reeler, on loan to us from Historic Northampton. The reeler was made in 2003 by Smith College students for a Silk Symposium held at the college.  It is a reproduction of a Piedmont Reeler that would have been used in the mid-nineteenth  century.

A reeler would have been an important piece of equipment, necessary to transform the egg-shaped cocoons into long silken fibers. First, the protein sericin that binds the cocoon together must be dissolved by putting the cocoons in boiling water. Then, the fibers are drawn off the cocoons and attached to the reeler which gradually unwinds the cocoons.  After it is reeled, silk thread can be dyed and woven. Silk’s sheen and ability to take color make it a beautiful, luxurious textile with many uses.

With one week to go, we hope many more visitors will find their way to Historic Deerfield to experience our program which teaches about the lifecycle of the silk caterpillar as well as the process by which silk is transformed from insect cocoon to fiber and introduces visitors to our wonderful collection of silk textiles.