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The production of silk originated in China in the Neolithic period, although it would eventually reach other places of the world (Yangshao culture, 4th millennium BC). Silk production remained confined to China until the Silk Road opened at some point during the latter part of the 1st millennium BC, though China maintained its virtual monopoly over silk production for another thousand years.
Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, the caterpillar of the domestic silkmoth is the most widely used and intensively studied silkworm.
As a result of their smoothness, Inca textiles made of vicuña fiber are described as "silk" by the first Spanish explorers. The finest Inca cloth had a thread count of more than 600 threads per inch, higher than that found in contemporaneous European textiles and not excelled anywhere in the world until the industrial revolution in the 19th ...
Silk is a naturally produced fibre obtained from many species of the silk moth. In 1700 the favoured silk was produced by a moth (Bombyx mori), that spun a cocoon to protect the larvae. The larvae fed on mulberry leaves grown in Italy. Silk fibres from the Bombyx mori silkworm have a triangular cross section with rounded corners, 5–10 μm wide.
Man-made fibres (made by industrial processes) including nylon, polyester will be used in some hobbies and handicrafts and in the developed world. Almost all commercial textiles are produced by industrial methods. Textiles are still produced by pre-industrial processes in village communities in Asia, Africa and South America.
The Boxer Codex, showing the attire of a Classical period Filipino, made of silk and cotton. The classical Filipino clothing varied according to cost and current fashions and so indicated social standing. The basic garments were the bahag and the tube skirt—what the Maranao call malong—or a light blanket wrapped around instead.
Silk was a common offering by the emperor to these tribes in exchange for peace. Silk is described in a chapter of the Fan Shengzhi shu from the Western Han period (206 BC–9 AD), and a surviving calendar for silk production in an Eastern Han (25–220 AD) document. The two other known works on silk from the Han period are lost.
Silk throwing (winding). The skeins are placed on a reel in a frame with many others. The silk is wound onto spools or bobbins. Doubling and twisting. The silk is far too fine to be woven, so now it is doubled and twisted to make the warp, known as organzine, and the weft, known as tram. In organzine each single is given a few twists per inch ...