Silken Words

As we have worked on Moth to Cloth this summer we have discoverd there are many unique words connected with silk production. We have been using some of these word in our Blog Posts and thought this would be a good time to pause and define some of these terms.

Sericulture - The process of creating cloth from cocoons spun by silkworms is called sericulture.  People involved in this process are called sericulturists.  Today, over 500 countries produce silk.  Sericulturists in China and India produce most of the world’s silk

Cocoonery- When silk worms are ready to spin their cocoons they must have a structure  to attach the first filments of silk.  These structures, or cases, are called cocooneries. Traditionally they  were made of twigs and straw.  In Thailand woven baskets are used as cocooneries. In New England’s 19th century silk industry, multi-framed wooden boxes were used.

Reeling Silk - The process of un-winding the silk from a cocoon is known as reeling. When a cocoon is heated in water one end of the filament can be found by brushing the cocoon. Once this reelable end is found, the cocoon will unravel easily. There are many types of silk reelers. We are exhibiting a model of a hand operated reeler used in New England in the 1840s.   Hand reeling is still practiced in some countries but most reeling is done by large mechanized machines.

Silk Twist- Once silk is reeled, the individual, mile-long filaments must be twisted together to make a thicker, smoother thread. One of the first twisting machines for making silk into sewing thread was invented in Northampton, Massachusetts in the mid 1800s.

We hope this short glossary of silk terms has been helpful to you. In our next Blog we will include the latest silk bookmark designs, and give you an update on the cocoons in our cocoonery. We peredict that by July 30th we will be able to post some photographs of newly emerged silk moths!