After visiting the Umbrella Making Centre, we visited the Silk Factory, which was nearby.
A lady explained to us in English how silk was made. In separate baskets on a shelf were silk moths, eggs, larvae (at different ages) and cocoons.
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| Silk moths and tiny white eggs |
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| These eggs hatch into tiny silkworms, who eat the mulberry leaves and grow bigger. |
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| And bigger |
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| And bigger |
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| Then each silkworm makes a cocoon. |
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| These cocoons are boiled in hot water. |
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| The thread would be unravelled from the cocoon would be made into silk cloth. |
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| Silk threads are then dyed with colour |
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| Burn test: To determine whether it is silk or not. If it is silk, it would smelt like burnt hair. If it isn't silk, it would smell like chemical. |
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| Weaving into cloth |
It was quite a sight to see all these worms, squirming and wriggling. It takes about a thousand cocoons to make a silk shirt. Although silk is very nice to touch, I chose not to buy silk since millions of lives are sacrificed in order to make these silk cloths.
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