From             to Silk

Worm

Would you wear clothes made by worms? We’d say yes . . . if we could afford it! Real silk is one of the world’s costliest fabrics. In Ezekiel 16:10, God describes His love for His people by comparing them to a woman whom He covered with silk.

Silk has been made pretty much the same way over thousands of years. And that way is . . . by worms. Actually, they’re caterpillars. We just call them worms. Let’s follow the  process from  worm to wearable.

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1. A silkmoth lays tiny eggs. If you held 40,000 eggs, together they’d weigh only about as much as one AA battery.

2. Hatch time! An itty-bitty black caterpillar crawls out. We call it a silkworm.

3. The caterpillar eats mulberry leaves. It grows to about three inches.

4. The grown caterpillar spins a cocoon of silk.

5. Inside the cocoon, the caterpillar becomes a pupa.

6. The pupa turns into a silkmoth. The cycle starts again.

To make silk, people step in. Growing silkworms for silk is called sericulture. To harvest silk: 1. Soak the silk cocoon in very hot water.

2. Unwind the threads.

3. Wash the threads.

4. Twist the threads.

5. Weave the threads into cloth.

6. Soak the fabric in dye. Make any color you want.  Voila! You have silk!