Silk ways - Ancient threads and modern networks
By Ole Zethner and Rie Koustrup
Koustrup & Co. 2007
Raw English translation of Danish text “Silkens veje – gamle tråde og nye netværk” by Ole Zethner.
Numbers placed after each chapter refer to page numbers in the book.
1 Introduction Page 5
In more than 5.000 years people have found it pleasant to wear clothes of silk. Silk is cool in the summer, warm in the winter, but always comfortable. It is light, but at the same time strong, and the skin can breathe through silk. And silk is delightful for the eye – and for the fingers.
Natural silk is spun by larvae of the silk moth. When the larva is going to pupate, is spins a case of silk around itself. Inside this case, the cocoon, the larva develops into a pupa and at last - if it is permitted to do it - into an adult moth. Often the larvae are called silk worms. However, zoologically the larvae have nothing to do with worms, as the moths are insects. Hence, we use the name silk larvae.
Apart from a short description of wild silk butterflies, this book is about the mulberry silk moth, who’s larvae feed on leaves of the mulberry tree. The nature photographer Gerth Hansen has photographed the biological development, and the most important part-processes of silk production and the particular qualities of silk are accounted for.
The WAYS OF SILK tells about the geographical silk roads, along which the silk was dispersed. Also, the importance of silk in the history of civilisation is treated.
It is well-known, that silk fabrics originally came to us from China along the silk roads through Asia. Less known may be the great importance of silk and silk trade in Europe. The South-European sericulture has during long periods been quite considerable. Even in Denmark we have used Silk in about 1.000 years, and numerous Danes have since the time of King Christian 4. attempted to cultivate silk larvae and to spin and weave the silken thread.
Silk clothes and trade with silk was through millennia been reserved for the rulers and their families. The silk larvae were cultivated by peasants, who by careful work improved their standard of living.
The mechanised silk production was organised in the 1700 and1800s. Just as in other textile industries, the working days were hard and long, resulting in wearing-down and serious diseases of workers, of whom many were children and very young people.
Old threads and new networks are knitted:
From the empress of China, who had a cocoon dropping into her tea cup, to present days Chinese large-scale silk industries. From the rulers in the Byzantine and Ottoman empires to the cultivators of larvae and business people in present Greece. From the dominance of French sericulture and silk production in the 1700s till the mid-1800s, when a disease of the larvae caused a great decline. From the leadership of Japan of silk production and export until the 1970s, when China took over, a country which may be soon to be overtaken by others.
The entry of artificial silk has gradually reduced the market share of natural silk to very little. However, lately the natural silk has entered a renaissance, supported by the organic “wave”
2 and quality-conscious suppliers. The increasing use of natural silk to other purposes than silk fabrics, for instance medicine and cosmetic products, has contributed supporting the position of silk.
Hindmost in this book instructions are given to how to cultivate silk larvae. The e-mail address [email protected] may supply addresses of suppliers of silk moth eggs, information on mulberry trees and links to European silk museums and institutes.
The Silk Butterflies Pages 6-8
The domesticated silk moth has two pairs of well developed wings, though it cannot longer fly, only flap a little on the surface. Even the larvae of silk moths are not among the world’s race champions. It moves slowly around on the mulberry leaves, when they feed.
______
The mulberry silk moth (Bombyx mori) originates in China. It does not longer live wild in nature, but was tamed about 5.000 years ago. A near relation (Bombyx mandarina) is still found living wild on white mulberry in China.
There are also other silk butterflies, that spin silk threads. Most belong to the family Saturnidae, which includes some of the largest species of butterflies found. They live wild on leaves of oak trees and other deciduous trees in Africa, Latin-America, Australia and Asia, where people throughout millennia have used the silk from the big cocoons.
In a 2-3.000 year old grave in border areas between Siberia and China was found - seven meters down in the frozen soil under the remains of six horses – a wooden chamber, in which a distinguished “ice queen” was buried. She was wearing a blouse made from silk of saturnid butterflies, as shown in dna-analyses.
In India and other Southeast Asian countries tribal people have taken care of saturnids several hundreds of years. This takes place in forest areas, where the larvae feed on leaves especially of oak. The adult butterflies are placed in baskets, where they lay eggs. After hatching from the eggs, the larvae are put on trees in the forest. In the beginning the larvae are kept under constant surveillance and covered with a net to prevent predators and parasitic wasps eating eggs and larvae. The larvae spin their cocoons in the tree canopies, from where they are collected. In India, silk from these cocoons have different names such as tasar, tussah, eri, fagara and muga silk
In China, most of the wild silk derives from the Shantung province and is therefore called shantung silk. It is spun by the Chinese oak silk moth.
3 Even in Africa, people use the silk of wild silk butterflies, for instance in Acacia-forests of Botswana. The quality of the this shashe-silk is so good that French tailors have shown their interest. Presently, a project in East-Africa is ongoing, supporting the cultivation of both mulberry silk moth and saturnids, and creating better marketing conditions for the silk.
Insects as domestic animals
The mulberry silk moth and the honey bee are the only domestic animals among the insects. However, many other insects are useful for human beings. This is the case with numerous insects, which, together with the bees, take care of the pollination of many cultivated plants. Other examples are the Asiatic scale insects, which are cultivated for the manufacture of shellac, and parasitic wasps, to be released in glass houses for the control of insect pests on tomato and cucumber.
Sericulture – a Chinese secret Page 8
In China, the skill to cultivate silk has probably been known before the mulberry silk moth was used as a domestic animal. People have collected cocoons in the nature, as is presently done with wild silk butterflies in parts of Asia and Africa.
Following an old Chinese legend empress Li Ling-Shi sat under a mulberry tree about 4.500 years ago, when a cocoon dropped into her cup med hot tea. When she fished up the cocoon, a thin thread was un-winded around her finger. That became the start of women keeping silk larva as domestic animals. Since then, the empress has been called “Lady of the silk larva”.
The silk fabric was highly valued because of its beauty. It was not only used for making fine clothes and banners, but also as “blotting pad” for documents. More than 200 different characters in the Chinese alphabet have connection to sericulture, mulberry or silk.
Most of the silk was produced in the imperial silk factories. The manufacture, taking place outside the emperor’s direct control, was taxed to be paid in silk fabrics. Heavy taxes could also be put on looms. This happened in the old silk city Suzhou, which made thousands of silk weavers strike. It is said that five learned men, who took the side of the striking weavers, were decapitated. One may assume that even many of the strikers suffered the same fate.
The Chinese emperor monopolised all trade with silk fabrics and eggs, larvae and pupae of the silk moth. Breach of this monopoly was punished with death. The emperor’s officials gave criminals a silk string, in which they could hang themselves. The ban was enforced so strict that sericulture remained a secret for the surrounding world for more the 3.000 years.
Only in the 200s A.D. the Koreans and 100 years later the Japanese and Indians learned to cultivate silk larvae and cocoons. In the 400s the skill reached the city Khotan, which then was situated on the silk road west of the Chinese Empire. It is told that a Chinese princess
4 was to marry the ruler of Khotan. In order to be able to continue wearing silk dresses, the princess smuggled silk moth eggs and seeds of the mulberry tree into Khotan in her great hair.
The Mulberry Tree Pages 9-11 ______
Black mulberry is indigenous to western Asia, while white mulberry grows naturally only in China. Both species have been planted in many countries and were introduced into Europe more than 1.500 years ago.
There may be 68 different species of mulberry on the Earth. Two species have been specifically important for sericulture: White mulberry (Morus alba) and black mulberry (Morus nigra). Both species can be used as feed for silk larvae, but white mulberry gives the finest silk.
Mulberry trees belong to the same family as figs. In China, white mulberry probably was growing in a kind of light, open stands, where the canopy had space to develop. White mulberry was already planted in great numbers approximately 700 B.C. The cultivated mulberry tree thrived best in the delta of the Yangtse River and in the Shantung province, where large areas were planted with mulberry, that could supply the imperial factories in Xian with silk.
Most mulberry trees was planted in farmers’ own fields, within a short distance from where the silk larvae were cultivated. The majority of mulberry trees were probably planted in rows between fields and irrigation tanks, but also in cool mulberry groves, as indicated in romantic poems about lovers dating in such places. Other texts tell about the different yearly activities, for instance pollarding of mulberry trees in “the month of the silk larva”.
Today mulberry trees are still being grown in large areas in China (see page 52).
The mulberry species have their names after the colour of the fruits, which in shape resemble big, elongated blackberries and can be eaten fresh or in form of marmalade or liqueur. The fruits and leaves of mulberry are also used in the health food branch (tea) and for medicinal remedies. The bark of the mulberry tree may be used for manufacture of paper, and the wood is well suited, for instance to musical instruments. The leaves are used as feed not only for the silk larvae but is very good as feed for livestock, too.
In Europe, mulberry trees for sericulture were planted either singly in gardens, as road side trees, in hedges between fields or in plantations.
The trees may grow 15-16 meter tall. However, to be good for sericulture a mulberry tree must not be taller, than it can be easily pollarded. And the tree should have many large leaves, that may be plucked rapidly without causing damage to the shoot.
Several mulberry growing areas, f. ex in northern Greece and in Bulgaria, have very low winter temperatures, which do not harm the growth of trees.
5 Mulberry trees can reproduce by branches, touching the ground, by sowing, and by using grafting or inoculation.
In research stations in Europe and Asia varieties of mulberry have been bred, which contain much protein, and therefore are well suited as feed for silk larvae.
Mulberry in the Nordic countries Page 11 ______
In Denmark - from Skagen in north to Als in south, and from Skærbæk in west til Bornholm in east - quite a few older mulberry trees are found, mostly black mulberry. The oldest existing mulberry tree is found at the eastern end of Proviantgården in Copenhagen. It is at least 350 years old.
Mulberry trees are most frequently found on the smaller islands, where average temperatures are a little higher and the growth season a bit longer than in most of Denmark: Bornholm, Lolland-Falster, the small islands in Smålandshavet, Langeland and Samsø. The trunks of older trees are often split caused by frost damages during especially cold winters. This risk may be reduced by using more frost resistant varieties of white mulberry, for instance Morus alba tatarica.
On the island of Bornholm, in particular, people have a special affinity to mulberry trees, which are allowed to survive almost until they rot away. It seems like the Bornholmers earlier had competitions making the best mulberry marmalade.
On the islands of Lolland-Falster many mulberry trees were planted in the gardens of vicarages from the mid-1800s. The islands’ bishop, D.G. Monrad, appreciated very much mulberry marmalade to the steak, during his yearly visitations to the priests.
Denmark is not the northernmost limit of mulberry trees in the Nordic countries. In Stockholm, Sweden, two trees of white mulberry are found at the K.A.Almgren weaving museum and the species is even found on the island of Visingsø in lake Vättern and on the island of Gotland. Earlier there had been large plantations in eastern Skåne.
The Lifecycle of the Silk Moth Pages 12-17
The silk moth undergoes a “complete metamorphosis”. Through the instars egg, larva and pupa the adult moth emerges from its cocoon.
After mating, the female lays 400-500 eggs side by side on a mat of paper. The egg is not bigger than a poppy seed or a small pinhead. In the beginning, the eggs are yellow, later to become slightly brown and finally greyish.
6
Under Danish conditions the eggs hatch after some eight months after having laid egg. In practice one can manage the situation by keeping the eggs in a cool place and finally in a fridge until one wish to use them.
Under southern skies the silk moth may complete two or more generations per year.
The black, hairy larvae are only 2 mm long, when hatching from the eggs. These first instar larvae may only survive a short period on the nutrition, they bring with them from the eggs. If they are not fed with mulberry leaves they will die.
When the larva has been eating mulberry leaves about four days they stop eating, changes skin (moults) and enters into the second larval instar. The larva is now about 8 mm long with short hairs. The abdomen has a brownish colour, while head and thorax are light greyish.
After having fed four-five days the larva again moults and enters into the third larval instar. It is now about 16 mm long with a big head. The colour of the abdomen has changed to light grey. Certain varieties of the silk moth may have black stripes across the abdomen, which are kept until pupation.
Fourth larval instar is reached after yet five days feeding on mulberry leaves. After moulting it is almost 3 cm long and assumes a typical feeding position with raised head. It has a ravenous appetite and eats much more than earlier.
After having moulted for the last time the larva reaches its final and fifth instar. The now whitish larva is 4-5 cm long and reaches its maximal length of 8-9 cm after an enormous feast on mulberry leaves.
After about a week the larva looses its appetite and moves searching around. Simultaneously, the larva changes colour to yellowish and almost transparent.
A larva increases its length almost 50 times and its weight almost 10.000 times during the larval development.
Now, the larva finds a place where it, with eight-figure formed movements, spins a silken net, to which the cocoon will be attached. Then the larva spins its cocoon, which may take a couple of days. The cocoon, which may be white, yellow or pink, depending on silk moth race, is 3-4 cm long and about 2 cm broad.
The larva pupates inside the cocoon. At first the pupa is white, then light brown and finally dark brown.
In the course of a couple of weeks the pupa undergoes the transformation to adult moth. At the one end of the cocoon one can see a wet, yellowish spot, where the threads of the cocoon is corroded into pieces by a kind of acid, excreted by the moth. The moth then presses its way through the hole and soon starts unfolding its wings.
The moths mate immediately after they have escaped the cocoons, and the mating may take several days. The maladies soon after mating, while the female lay 400-500 eggs, often nicely side by side.
7 After having laid its eggs the female dies.
The short life cycle of the silk moth is over.
Read more about cultivation page 70.
Table Larvae and cocoons from a box with 20.000 eggs
Larval instar length mm weight kg Weight eaten leaves kg l. instar 2-7 0,017-0.2 2,5 2. instar 8-15 0,2-1,6 7,5 3. instar 16-28 1,6-6,8 25 4. instar 29-45 6,8-27,6 115 5. instar 45-85 27,6-161,5 350
Total 500
Cocoons, fresh 60-70 kg Cocoons, dry 20-30 kg Silken thread 3-4 kg
Lengths and weights are from the beginning and end of each larval instar, as the larvae grow between each moult (after Soufli – Land and People).
The Silk Thread Pages 18-19
Silk is formed in a couple of silk glands, that open on the under-lope of the larval mouth. The quality and thickness of the thread vary according to from where in the cocoon it derives.
When the approximately 0,015 mm (15 micrometer) thick silken thread is formed, it is liquid, but hardens when it is exposed to the air.
The silken thread consists of two proteins: Innermost the strong and elastic fibroin, that contains most of the amino acids, also found in human hair, and outermost, the glueish sericin, that keeps the silken treads together in the cocoon. The sericin is formed by acids, that are found in great amounts in mulberry leaves, and which may be dissolved in hot water.
8 In the cocoon the outermost silk is found in small pieces because of the stitching of the cocoon to the surface. This is the silk that is brushed-off the cocoon before the reeling- process. It is called floss silk and is used in the manufacture of yarns.
A little deeper inside the cocoon one finds the finest, unbroken silken thread, that may be more than one km long. To obtain a silken thread, that can be spun and woven, threads from at least seven cocoons must be twisted together. This is called raw silk or grège silk.
Yet further inside the cocoon is found a more coarse silken thread. And innermost in the cocoon one finds fibre materials, that cannot be reeled, but is used for making yarns. These fibres, called waste silk (bourette and schappe silk) are of very different lengths and have to be spun together on spinning machines.
The total length of all silken treads in a cocoon may be up to 3-4 km.
Box Other natural silk threads Page 19 ______
Many other insects and spiders spin silken threads.
The larvae of bees close their cells with silk, before they pupate.
Some larvae of butterflies sew leaves together with silken thread, thus making a “pipe” in which the larvae can remain safely and eat the leaf from the inside.
The larvae of cabbage moths glue a silken ladder to a leaf, allowing the larva to walk on the smooth surface of the leaf.
The newly hatched larvae of the nun moth disperse in the tree canopies by the help of “flying threads” of silk.
Spider silk, which is formed in spinning glands at the back of the abdomen, is the strongest silk known. So strong, that a wheel-formed web, made by a particular big spider species, was used as fishing net by the natives of New Guinea.
9 Manufacture Pages 20-25
When the larva has completed its work comes the turn of the human…
After grading and cleaning the cocoons for impurities, the pupae are killed by heating in ovens. Then the cocoons are placed in hot water, whereby the silk glue (the sericin), which keeps the threads together in the cocoon, is partly dissolved. The loose, outermost layer of the cocoons is removed with a brush. Only then, one may reach the end of the coherent cocoon thread, the raw silk.
The thread is reeled of the cocoons on a reeling machine. At least seven cocoons are reeled to one thread, as the single silken thread from one cocoon is too thin for further manufacture. The reeled, twisted threads are gathered in bundles.
Before the silken threads are ready for weaving they have to pass through a number of processes:
The bundles are quality graded, after which the silk glue is removed by heating in oily-water.
The dried bundles are placed on swifts, where the tread is cleaned for knots, before it is transferred to pulleys. This is done by letting the thread pass an eye of a needle. The thread breaks, if the knot is too big to pass the eye and have to be put together again. This was earlier done by children’s’ small and quick fingers.
Then follows the spinning, which is done on spinning machines, where the un-broken thread is twisted. 2, 3 or 4 threads are spun together.
Before the threads are ready to be used in the weaving process, they have to be twisted into a rope- like thread, that is both strong and elastic This tíme the twisting takes place in the opposite directíon and not as hard as the first twisting.
Today, machines with high velocity execute all the processes and transfer the finished silk thread to pulleys and further to the shuttle of the loom.
Waste silk
The short threads (bourette and schappe) are spun together by high velocity, in the same way as cotton, flax and wool are spun.
The manufacture of the waste silk has been important for the silk industry, not least because waste silk was used to the manufacture of velvet and plush. Waste silk is also mixed with other animal fibres such as mohair and alpaca.
10 Dyeing Page 24
Dyeing of the silk may be done by dipping the bundles of thread in a container with dye. Hereby a more uniform dyeing is achieved than if one dyes the finished silk fabric. It is important that the colours used are safe-health wise and environmentally.
Weighting
To counterbalance the loss of weight by removing the silk glue and to make the silk fabric more smooth the fabric was – especially earlier – treated with a solution of tin. This is called weighting of the silk. However, as the silk fabric looses part of its strength by this treatment and many people wish the pure silk, weighting is fairly rare today.
Printing
The block print technique (by hand) was invented in India and from the mid 1600s used and further developed in France and other European countries. Today, screen print, which is quick and precise, is the most commonly used technique.
Box The looms
Earlier silk was woven to fabrics on hand looms, as is still the case for instance in Thailand and India. Today, most fabrics are woven on mechanises looms.
Hand woven silk fabrics can be distinguished from machine woven on the small irregularities in the weaving. Some irregularities are due to the personality of the weaver, for example in Thai silk, while others may be caused by daily variations in humidity of the air.
The Chinese looms were developed from simple tablet-looms to types such as the treadle- looms and the draw-loom. A similar development took place in Europe, where in the beginning one was only capable of weaving narrow silk ribbons. In a Dutch hand-driven weaving machine 12 bands could be woven simultaneously.
The draw looms have not changed significantly throughout times. They may produce finely patterned silk fabrics, but are slow to operate and not particularly exact. The successor of those looms, the pedal driven Jacquard-loom, meant very great progress for weaving (see pages 26 and 41).
The early mechanical looms were - like the hand-looms – made from wood. In the beginning of the 1800s one changed to heavy iron frames, which better could stand the heavy vibration caused by faster speed. Those looms speeded-up production, but more speed was a disadvantage in the production of fine silk qualities. This problem was solved with the construction of the rapier-loom, where the yarns were forwarded by a kind of rapiers (swords). This type is still the most preferred loom for broad silk fabrics.
11 The Hard Life of the Silk Worker Page 26-27 ______
We spin silk to your bed sheet You have never had better clothes But we are hungry all day long Always poor and without joys (The silk spinners’ song, France)
Silk is commonly being related to something beautiful and lovely. However, many of those women, who worked in the silk industry, saw silk in a quite different light. Silk was their livelihood, and not least the weavers made it a point of honour to make a good and beautiful product. Male weaving journeymen were often organised in gilds and to a certain degree able to avoid being exploited too much. But many un-organised female silk spinners worked under horrible conditions. .
The life was hard for the draw boys, too. They sat on the top of the draw looms, from where they had to lift the heavy weight of the many threads, drawn by the shuttle, in order to create the patterns, ordered by the weaver. The work of the draw boys was rendered superfluous, when the Frenchman Joseph-Marie Jacquard in 1803 invented a loom, where the treads formed patterns mechanically by being lead through punched cards.
In England and other European countries the silk industries used children even late in the 1800s. The small fingers of the children were good at twisting threads together, when they broke.
In the reeling halls in Bursa and Thessaloniki in the Ottoman Empire working days were long in the mid-1800s: 13-14 hours in summer and 7-8 hours in winter.
In the mid-1900s the work conditions were still very bad for workers in certain European silk industries. In the Greek silk town of Soufli, elderly silk spinner Fanni Koutsi told, that many of the young girls succumbed to lung diseases caused by the fine silk dust combined high air humidity in the reeling halls. The girls, many still children, worked 8 hours daily, often seven days a week, all year around.
Miserable conditions are still found in some developing countries, for instance in the Indian silk state Karnataka, where the majority of the reeling is done by children between 10 and 15 years. Many of the children are almost slaves, who work-off the debt of their parents. Their health deteriorates quickly.
India and other Asiatic countries are known for the hundred thousands of children, engaged in carpet making. The childrens’ small fingers are said to be more smart than adults’ to do this work. The carpet industries maintain that the children work under good conditions, reports tell about slavery and maltreatment of the child workers. There are situations, where the children work 18 hours and only get two meals of food per day. The children often cut themselves during work, but the wounds are not treated properly. And the children work in badly lighted rooms, in bad work positions, that hamper their physical development.
12 Child labour is counteracted by boycott goods produced by factory owners, who violate United Nations’ Child Convention.
In Cambodia there are examples of how improved possibilities for sale of silk fabrics woven at village level have counteracted child labour. Significantly improved incomes of female weavers have made it possible for their children to attend school instead of having to work in factories in the capital Phnom Penh.
Even in China there is need for improvements. This appears in an account from a visit to a modern silk factory in Suzhou. Here, young women were standing at reeling machines with their hands in very hot water, day long, at high working speed, heat, stench and loud noise from the machines.
The Qualities of Natural Silk Pages 28-29
The threads of natural silk are strong and elastic as compared with other natural textiles. Only fibres of glass, nylon and spider-silk are equally strong or stronger.
Natural silk does not shrink and attracts filth only to less extent.
Natural silk can absorb much water or sweat without being sensed as humid.
Clothes made by natural silk are sensed as cool in warm weather and warm in cool weather. The skin is breathing better through natural silk.
Some people are allergic or hypersensitive to certain artificial silks. They get skin rashes. Natural silk does not give rashes, unless it has become weighted with certain metal salts.
Natural is not attacked by cloth moths.
The quality, that has made natural silk to something quite special, is its beautiful sheen and the very comfortable feeling from touching the silk. In comparison, artificial silks for instance viscose/rayon made from plant fibres and nylon and polyester based on mineral oil, are “dead”, both visually and to touch.
Hence natural silk compares well in the competition with other textiles such as artificial silks. However, the amount of natural silk in the market is very small as compared to the amount of artificial silks. This is because artificial silks are much cheaper to produce.
Box Fineness Page 28
The fineness or thickness of the silken thread is expressed in denier, that is defined as the weight in grams of 9 km cocoon thread.
13
The thinner thread, the smaller denier-number.
For instance, a 9 km long thread of the fineness 2 denier is 0,015 mm thick and weighs 2 g.
How to recognise Natural silk? Page 28
It may be difficult to determine whether a piece of silk is made from natural or artificial silk. The question can be solved through various colour tests, examinations in a microscope or by dna-tests.
However, the “man in the street” may determine whether silk is pure natural silk or not by setting on fire a small piece of silk fabric or tread.
Natural silk consists of animal fibres, that burns slowly and sizzling and shrinks. It smells of burned hair and leaves behind a crisp slag.
Cotton and viscose consist of plant fibres, that burn quickly with after-embers. They smell like burning paper and leave behind a light, light greyish ash.
Nylon and polyester consist of synthetic fibres, that shrink when ignited and smelt as dripping threads and burn with a special smell. After chilling, the remains settle as a hard, round, light brown ash.
Stands Stands Shrinks Resists Absorbs Isolates wear and tear sunlight dirt humidity
Bomuld well well some much some some Silke some some little much much much Viskose some much some some some little Polyester much much little some little little
14 Silk fabrics and silk types Page 29 ______
One finds many types of silk, as seen in the list below, that is based on information from Åse Høeg, Bjæverskov:
Bourette silk is a silk, spun of relatively coarse, irregular yarns of waste from the reeling process. The yarns fibres are less than 5 cm long.
Chiffon is characterized by its transparency, lightness and romantic fluttering, that makes it much sought after for example to wedding dresses (in several layers).
Crêpe de chine-silk is woven in a way that makes the fabric fall heavily and softly. It is well-suited to bodily-close and draped robes. Thinner robes (crêpe georgette) is used for lighter, half- transparent robes, while more heavy silks (double crêpe) are more suited to great robes.
Crêpe satin is woven by using a special technique, which makes the fabric glossy and shining on the one side, and dim or dull on the other. Crêpe satin falls so heavily, that only vertical folds are seen, when the person is standing. Hence, this crêpe satin is often used for slender, body-close robes. Crêpe satin is also woven in the cheaper polyester-artificial silk, which however, is not so comfortable to wear.
Damask is a fabric, where the patterns are woven into the fabric. Best known from uniformed table cloths where the pattern stand out as tone in tone. Damask is rather heavy and is well suited for corsages or to full robes in simple cuts, where the pattern comes to its right. The Venetian Marco Polo brought home the damask fabric from China in the 1200s.via Damascus, therefore the name damask.
Duchesse satin is a weaving, which is more “fat” and stiff than crepe satin. It is therefore used for wedding robes with a great skirt, as for example crown princess Mary’s bridal robe.
Floss silk is a silk made from the silken tread, which are brushed from the cocoons. ?? Flok silk is used for making yearns.
Grège or greige silk is another word for raw silk, which is the unbroken silken tread in the cocoon.
Half silk is a woven fabric, where the longitudinal tread system consists of natural silk, while the transverse thread system consists of for example wool, cotton or synthetic fibres.
Matawa silk is obtained, when the silk cocoon is drawn out to a plate, from where one may spin a tread of a wished thickness. One may use cocoons, where the pupae are killed or cocoons, from where the adult silk moths have emerged (see also page 74)..
Organza is a very thin and stiff silk fabric, that is used to sub-line other silk fabrics, thus making them present more beautiful and not to crease much. Organza may also be placed above the robe as a floating layer.
15 Raw silk is normally defined as the unbroken tread in the cocoon. Even the silk sold in the world market – before manufacture – is called raw silk. Some persons also use the word raw silk about hand woven silken types with very visible, heavy threads.
Schappe silk is spun silk, made from waste from the reeling process. The best waste is sorted, washed and spun to high quality yarns. The fibres of the yarn are between 5-30 cm long.
Taft, earlier used for the great robes of the royal court and the nobility, was always woven from silken threads. Taft is stiff and crackling.
Thai silk is completely “handmade”: from sericulture, over spinning and dyeing to the weaving, which often takes place on hand made looms (see page ??).
Tulle, which is used for bridal veils and draped fabrics, is either produced of silk, cotton or nylon. Tulle is a very delicate and porous fabric, that can easily be torn.
Velvet or velour is a more heavy fabric, which earlier was made exclusively from silk. Today it is also produced from viscose and cotton. Velour has a long and soft nap.
Box Thai silk ______
The Thai silk is often soft, in spite of a rather coarse weaving with irregular, lightly knotty threads. Its special gloss derives from the different colours in the longitudinal and transverse threads. Each piece of Thai silk is unique and impossible to imitate.
Thai silk presents an example of a silk product, which is promoted because of the unique qualities.
After the 2. World War the traditional natural silk in Thailand was threatened to be out competed by cheap machine produced silk fabric. It was only produced by very few families in one part of Bangkok.
The original weaving was “saved” by the American Jim Thompson, who had settled in Bangkok. After having found that the Thai silk was well received in the market of New York, he founded the Thai Silk Company, based on old weaving methods and modern colours an designs. Amongst others, by marketing the silk in theatrical performances and movies the silk soon became known as an attractive luxury product.
Thompson himself disappeared under mystical circumstances during a holiday stay in Malaysia. His house at the Klong, filled with Southeast- Asiatic artefacts, still remains one of tourist attractions of Bangkok.
Now hundreds of independent silk companies exist in Thailand, and the silk has become a significant export article and maybe the most famous product of the country.
16 The Silk Roads Page 30-47
The more than 8.000 km long road net from China to the Mediterranean was only fully passable around year 200 B.C. At the beginning of our calendar the silk roads – commercially - connected the two world powers, China and the Roman Empire.
From about 2.000 B.C. the Chinese emperors started exporting silk fabrics with caravans along a net of trade roads across Asia, the so-called silk road. The roads started from Xian, went westwards through Central Asia and though present Iran and Baghdad in Iraq to Aleppo in Syria or Constantinople (Istanbul) in Turkey, from where there was ship connection to Rome, Alexandria and other port cities in the Roman Empire.
Cities arose along the silk roads, where traders and their camels could take rest and fill up, and where goods frequently changed hands. Those were oasis towns such as Khotan, Turfan and Kashgar in the outskirts of the Taklamakan desert (now in the Chinese Sinkiang region) and in the cities of Samarkand and Buchara (in Uzbekistan).
In many towns the military garrisons could protect the caravans against bandits. This was for instance the case by the end of the 1200s, when Marco Polo from Venice, as one of the first Europeans, travelled all the way along the silk roads, and later made them known in Europe. The roads were then controlled by the Mongol nomadic people under Djengis Khan, who had conquered several urban and rural agricultural societies along the western part of the silk roads (Samarkand, Buchara and Baghdad, already then a city of one million inhabitants).
When the road towards the west were too dangerous, the caravans used the southerly silk road to Indian ports, from where the treasures could be shipped – with Arabic boats- to Basra in Iraq or to Egyptian harbours.
In the beginning of the 1400s big Chinese ships brought – for a short period – silk and other precious goods directly to the Middle-east and to East-Africa. This way of transportation was - after the discovery of the sea route south of Africa - soon taken over by the Portugal and other West- European countries.
Silk was only one of the many luxury goods, that were transported along the silk roads. Jade, shellac, porcelain and spices came from China, while coloured glass, purple and in particular gold and silver passed in the opposite direction from Europe. Trade with fruits, vegetables and flowering plants went both ways.
The most important, however, being moved along the silk roads were probably not goods, but ideas, not least religions, spreading with monks on foot. In the 300s and 400s A, D. Buddhism from western Pakistan, Manichaeism from Iran and Christianity from the Byzantine Empire reached Central Asia and China. From the 700s Islam followed from Arabia.
The silk roads are, due to the beauty of the silk fabric and the exotic travels, often connected with a certain romance. For the travellers, however, the realities were quite different. The caravans
17 travelled through some of the most difficult accessible areas of the Earth with unbearable heat and drought in summers and extreme cold in winters.
What attracted Chinese, Persians and Europeans was the possibility of becoming rich on the precious objects, which increased in value each time they changed hands. Silk was so precious that it during long periods was preferred as means of payment rather than other goods.
Box Persian weaving mills ______
In some towns along the silk roads weaving mills arose. This was the case in the area, which today is covered by parts of Iran and Iraq. During a Persian dynasty from 200-600 A.D. carpets and other silken masterpieces were produced, often with animal and plant motives, that were the objects of great admiration.
This tradition was continued during the following Arabian dynasties, where men’s dresses increasingly reflected their social status. For one ruler, Hisham, who during the 700s undertook a pilgrimage, it was necessary to have 700 camels only to carry his personal silk dresses.
The silk reaches the Mediterranean
Silk was an extremely valuable fabric in the antique Rome in the beginning of our calendar; so valuable that one kg silk was worth its weight in gold.
The Emperor Gajus Julius Caesar (102-44 B.C.) prohibited everyone except himself and a few of his officials to wear clothes of silk. The senators, who were seated in Rome’s senate, were only allowed to wear a purple coloured edge of silk on the upper part of their togas.
Soon also the Roman upper class was allowed to buy all the silk and other Chinese luxury goods, they wished to buy.
This caused Pliny the Elder and some economists to blame the rich families for their luxurious living, which they claimed did cost the Roman Empire too much. The almost transparent female silk dresses did not reduce the outrage. Pliny believed that the silk derived from downs on Chinese forest trees, and that the downs were washed away from the leaves with water.
In 542 A.D. two Christian (Nestorian) monks succeeded in smuggling eggs of the silk moth from the oasis town Khotan along the silk roads to Constantinople (Istanbul) in their hollow walking sticks. This account was written by the imperial history writer Prokopius, who tells that the monks were engaged by Emperor Justinian 1. The eggs survived, thus opening the passage for sericulture and silk production to the eastern Mediterranean area.
18 The Byzantine silk
Imperial silk weaving mills, where fine clothes, silk brocades, embroidered bed covers and cushions were created, sprouted up in the area south west of Constantinople and other towns in Greece (i.e. Theben, Syria (Damascus) and in Egypt.
In the beginning the weavers were fetched in Iran or Syria. The silk fabrics were characterized by having woven gold and silver threads, most with animal or plant motives, inspired by Persian silks. The Episcopal chasuble had, however, religious motives.
A great part of the silk was used by the emperors, their families and people of the ruling class. The splendid silks served to maintain the reputation and political credibility of the Byzantine Empire. The silk was a powerful economical and political weapon, that was used for military banners and uniforms, as imperial gifts to foreign princes and bribes of enemies. The silk was also an inseparable part of religious rituals. By help of precious gifts of silk the emperors strengthened the bands to leaders of the Orthodox church.
As in China, silk was a forcible means. The emperors collected taxes from private weaving mills in the form of silk rolls and decided who could wear silk clothes. Sometimes officials and other employees were paid in silk.
There were, however, reverses to silken clothes. Female weavers in the Byzantine Empire were adscripted to the imperial weaving mills and lived as a kind of slaves.
Box The silk roads of the Vikings
The Vikings knew about silk. This is seen in the findings of finely woven silken bands and remains of pattern-woven silk fabrics and silk belts in Danish graves.
The almost 1.000 year old Mammen grave near Bjerringbro, Viborg, where a chief was buried, is the most famous Danish Viking grave with finds of silk. In English and Irish Viking graves special female silk caps are found.
The trade with silk to the north was an extension of the silk roads from the Byzantine Empire along the river systems from the Baltic Sea via Kiev (Ukraine) and Novgorod to the Viking town Staraja at Lake Ladoga (Russia) and further crossing the Baltic Sea to the Swedish Viking town Birka, west of Stockholm.
Some of the traders were Vikings employed in the imperial guard in Constantinople, which the Vikings called Miklagaard (The big town). The Vikings contact with the Byzantine emperor gave them the right to buy and export a limited amount of silk. Traces from these Nordic “Vaeringer” may be seen in the Hagia-Sophia Cathedral (now Mosque) in Constantinople, where the names Halfdan and Are are carved with runes, as a kind of graffiti of that time.
19 Silken bands and remains of whole silk clothes are found in two graves in Birka, which was a centre for trade with East-Europe and Constantinople.
Silks of the Caliphate
At the time of Emperor Justinian 1. the Byzantine Empire covered almost all the eastern Mediterranean area, but about 630 A.D. Syria and Egypt were conquered by Arabs from the Caliphate in Baghdad.
In Syria, the development of silk production continued, not least after the battle of Talas in Kyrgizistan in the year 751. Here, the Arabs and Tibetans inflicted a crushing defeat on the Chinese army and took lots of Chinese prisoners of war, some of whom in their civil life had been silk craftsmen. They taught, amongst others, Syrian colleagues to kill the pupae inside the cocoons before reeling, thus enabling them to get hold of the long, unbroken silken threads, that were necessary for production of silk of high quality.
The result was that Syria with its fine damask patterns soon became able to compete with the silk both from China and Byzans.
In the Caliphate, silk was so costly that only high officials were allowed to wear inscriptions made from silk as embroideries around the sleeve of their dress. Certain rulers, among those the Caliph Sulaiman, however, always wore silk clothes himself and demanded that family members, friends and even servants should do the same, when they shared room with him.
In step with their conquests the Arabs brought sericulture with them to Sicily in the 880s, where the centre for cultivation of silk larvae was placed at Palermo. When the Normans, who were descendents of Vikings, during a period in the 1100s ruled Sicily, they kidnapped silk weavers from Theben in Greece in order to improve the quality of silk fabrics.
After the 700s the Moors, which Arabs and Berbers were called, brought sericulture and silk production in Granada in southern Spain. Sericulture was strongly supported by the king of Alhambra, Muhamed Abu Alahmar, and the silk fabrics from Granada ended up surpassing the products from Damascus in beauty. Many of the silk fabrics, of which other kings later became proud, had their origin in the Moorish Spain.
The Ottoman Empire
The tribal chief Oman of a small state in the north-western part of Asia Minor and his descendents, who became sultans in the Ottoman Empire, became the Byzantine Empire’s worst rivals and finally their conquerors. From the beginning of the 1300s and through the next 150 years they conquered the Byzantine Empire including Greece and large parts of Balkan.
The silk plaid a great role as source of income for the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Bursa, Edirne and Istanbul in the north-western part of Turkey were all towns with a substantial silk industry and with surrounding areas, where peasants cultivated great amounts of silk larvae. The Byzantine
20 tradition of weavings with beautiful gold and silver threads was continued, but silk fabrics with Islamic motives and Arabic inscriptions became common. These products were sold, even to other countries in the Islamic world.
The silk bazaar Koza Han in the carpet city Bursa continued until recently to be a buying place for silk cocoons cultivated in the areas around Marmara Sea. Bursa, which became the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, had since the 1400s a large number of weaving mills and cottage industries, where both reeling and weaving took place with hand-driven equipment. Besides carpets, silk fabrics for clothes and grave textiles, to be put above the bodies when buried, were woven.
Upon demand from European silk industries, which during the first half of the 1800s imported raw silk from the Ottoman Empire, mechanised reeling was introduced, resulting in a better silk quality. However, disease in the larvae gradually hit the cultivators so hard that by the end of the 1800s there were no silks for export.
When the silk industry again started to thrive in the beginning of the 1900s the European markets had been taken over by the Japanese. The locally produced silk fabrics were therefore almost exclusively sold on the home market.
There was, however, still produced large amounts of silk in Bursa and Lebanon, the two most important areas in the Ottoman Empire. In 1914, about 300.000 people worked with silk; most people cultivating cocoons, at least 36.000 with reeling and a bit fewer were weavers. Even after mechanical looms had been introduced, the sultans seemed to be more interested in getting taxes on silk and in supporting their own power than in modernizing agriculture and industry. This was contributory to the Empire’s final collapse in 1923.
Italian sericulture, industry and trade
The Byzantine Empire was also pressed from west by the city state of Venice, which after the fourth crusade in 1204 had become a Great Power. During long periods Venice controlled the Adriatic Sea and large parts of the Mediterranean Sea with its navy, and assumed control of the trade between Europe and Asia. In this city, the “Queen of the Adriatic” incomes from import from the East, production of silk and export of textiles in the 1400s and 1500s created a great part of the enormous riches, that still may be seen in the form of magnificent palaces both in Venice itself and in Croatian sea ports.
The sericulture had in the 1200s been introduced from Byzans to Catanzaro at the “sole” of the Italian “boot” and in the middle of the 1200s the cities of Lucca and Venice became independent centres of silk production.
The cultivation of silk larvae and mulberry trees was spread in large parts of northern Italy, in particular on the plains of River Po. Other silk industries sprouted up in Verona, Vicenta, Sienna and Bologna. In the beginning the peasants cultivated black mulberry, which after about 300 years was replaced by white mulberry, resulting in a finer silk. The peasants produced cocoons not only to Italian, but also to Swiss industries.
21 The silk industry became of special importance for Bologna, that had great water resources and housed the oldest university in Europe. Here, the weaving journeymen received in-service training, allowing the city to better compete with the silk fabrics from Byzantine, Spain and China. Another result of the good education was the invention of the water-driven spinning machine in 1232, which meant a breakthrough for the production of silk. Several hundred spinning mills gave work to 30.000 men, women and children. Until the 1500s it was forbidden to export spinning machines out of Bologna, and there were heavy penalties, if the prohibition was violated.
The Italian production of velvet and draperies blossomed without much competition from outside, and silk became still more valued in the higher social layers. The silk was used for upholstery fabrics, tapestries, gobelins, festive dresses for the court and nobility, and to altar cloths in churches.
The golden age for Italian production of silk fabrics with admirable patterns and colours was in the 14-1500s. It was Venice, that earned most on the production of silk fabrics. The quality control was very strict, as in China and Byzans, and took place on a market place near the Rialto-bridge, where the discarded fabrics were burned. The approved silk was exported.
In the course of the 1900s sericulture almost disappeared. The last area was Como with a relative young silk industry (starting in 1861). Here, sericulture continued till the Second World War. Today, Como is the most important Italian silk city with numerous silk industries, that are “fed” with raw silk and cocoons imported from Asia and South America. Silk fabrics from Como are of high quality and remain competitive on the world market.
France takes over
Many Christian warriors and crusaders brought silk fabrics back to their countries in West and North Europe, where they created interest for cultivating and producing the precious silk.
As a start of a French silk industry King Louis 11. in 1470 invited Italian silk producers to the city of Tours. 70 years after the city of Lyon was given monopoly on production of silk fabrics in France. Approximately at the same time the peasants started growing mulberry trees and cultivating silk larvae in so-called magnaneries south and southeast of Lyon, in particular in Ardèche, Gard, Drome and Vaucluse. The development was so fast that there in Lyon in 1660 were more than 3.000 master artisans, who employed 10.000 silk spinners, weavers and other silk artisans.
Under the “sun king” Louis 14. (1643-1715) and his descendents Lyon developed magnificent rococo- silk fabrics, amongst others brocade fabrics. In spite of persecution and deportation of protestant textile artisans (Huguenots) the industries were able to increase production considerably. The invention of the mechanical loom, which could be worked by one instead of two weavers, increased the productivity.
The 1700s became the great period for French silk production. The French revolution in 1789 resulted in a temporary recess, as the revolutionary considered silk as a symbol of the luxurious living by the royal family and the nobility, at the expense of the poor population. Even when a recovery took place in the Empire-period, the recess resulted in the growth of textile industries in other countries, for instance Austria.
22 The Jacquard loom was decisive for the continued development of the silk industry in silk producing countries. It meant greater accuracy, fewer human mistakes, greater productivity and less child labour.
In the last part of the 1800s, designers started to create tailor-made fashion clothes (haut couture) for the upper-class. In the mid-1800s, almost 350.000 people were employed in the French silk industry, which besides luxury items also had started to produce silken goods, that a greater part of the population could afford. From the end of the 1800s department stores were shooting up in Paris, where the women of the middleclass could satisfy their need for luxury and prestige.
From about 1860 the cocoon-producing peasants in France – and later also in other European countries – started to suffer serious losses, because the silk larvae were attacked by pebrine, an infectious, deadly disease. About 1870 the famous French scientist Louis Pasteur succeeded finding a method to prevent the disease´. The method, that still is used, is based on examination of the silk moth eggs for the diseases-causing organism and only to use healthy egg to sericulture. The invention, however, came too late to hinder a serious decrease of the number of larva cultivators. The silk industries have - for lack for French cocoons - started to import cocoons from other European countries and in particular from Japan, where the disease was not found.
Japans export of cocoons increased much from the 1890s till 1930, simultaneous with the entry into the market of the artificial silks viscose/rayon, both based on cellulose after the First World War. The artificial silks could be produced much cheaper than natural silk.
The great economic depression in 1929, which by one stroke reduced significantly the number of people, who could afford to buy luxury goods, was probably the main reason for the decrease of the use of natural silk.
Other European countries
In the mid-1600s, when China started to close itself from the outside world, Chinese trade with silk almost stopped, simultaneous with a steep increase of the sericulture in Europe.
In most North European countries it was attempted to cultivate silk larvae, as a basis for an independent local silk production. The rulers supported these attempts in order to avoid to pay for the expensive, imported silk fabrics.
Even if some for a short period of time succeeded cultivating silk larvae, these attempts never lead to any large scale sericulture, that could supply silk industries with raw materials. A part of the reason for this may be found in low prices of imported cocoons.
There were established very big silk industries, in particular in Switzerland, England and Germany, based on import of cocoons from Italy, France and other countries with sericulture.
In Switzerland, big silk industries were established in the course of the 1600s, especially in Zürich, with raw materials from northern Italy and with new professional working capacity in the form of French protestant textile workers, who had fled after the lifting of religious liberty by King Louis 14.
23 in 1685. They brought with them the knowledge of techniques for the production of new silk goods, such as damask, scarves and stockings made of silk and half silk. In Switzerland they were only allowed to work as journeymen and apprentices, and could not settle as weaving masters. They were expelled when the Swiss did not longer need them.
Zürich had in the mid-1800s become a very important centre of silk industry in Europe with 65 factories with more than 11.000 artisans and 15.000 mechanical looms, which could compete with Lyon, Krefeld and Vienna.
Basel became known for its production of silk bands.
Today, Switzerland together with Italy, France and Great Brittany are still among those countries in Europe with the largest number of production- and trade companies of the silk branch.
In Bavaria sericulture made it possible to begin the first manufacture of silk fabrics in Germany. The first silk factories were established in Berlin and Krefeld, where members of the religious Mennonites from the Netherlands helped the manufacture well in way.
The Prussian King Friedrich the Great had, at the time of his accession to the throne in 1740, presented his valet Michael Gabriel Fredersdorff with the Zernikow estate in Brandenburg. Here 8.000 mulberry trees were planted, some of those in the 2.5 km long avenue, connecting the villages Zernikow and Burow. He hired Huguenots from France to establish sericulture and silk industry, which annually yielded up to 42 tons of reeled silk. The silk production stopped when Fredersdorff died.
Nowadays a mulberry festival is held in Zernikow each summer, where the participants in “ the mulberry museum under the open sky” may enjoy drinking mulberry liqueur, listen to stories about cultivation of silk larvae or may be recitations from Alessandro Baricco’s charming novel “The silk”.
The production of silk fabrics in Krefeld continued up through the 1900s, which amongst others included clothes for bishops and other clergymen. Today, Krefeld is still called “A city of velvet and silk” and the majority of ties carried by German men are said to be made in the city.
Many mulberry trees were planted in the 1600s and 1700s England. The cultivation of silk cocoons, however, was not very successful. One reason may have been that black and not white mulberry had been planted.
Weaving of silk fabrics was introduced by Flemish refugees in the 1500s and quickly developed, when Huguenots from France settled in London from 1685.
The silk industry was based on imports of cocoons and silken threads. It is said the weaving mills in London during the 1700s were capable of weaving fabrics of such fine quality that they became serious competitors to the weaving mills in Lyon.
24 The industrial revolution, that started in England by the end of the 1700s, contributed during a period in sending Great Britain to the top as the most important country of silk fabrics. The number of factories topped with about 700 during the period 1870-1885, simultaneously with a decrease in the number of employees from 130.000 to 40.000, because of increasing mechanisation. Most of the workers were women.
In The Netherlands persons tried to get permission to plant 50.000 mulberry trees on the isle of Walcheren. The powerful Dutch United Ost-Indian Company, that imported silk fabrics from Bengal and Persia, was afraid of the competition from new Dutch silk producers and hindered the plantations. First in the 1700s a limited commercial sericulture.
Box Swedish Silk ______
The Vikings had imported silk fabrics from Byzans to Sweden. Import of silk fabrics and clothes continued in the Early Middle Ages, now from France in particular.
In Uppsala Cathedral is found a very big collection of silks of highest quality from 1270 to present day. One of the finest pieces is a robe, which belonged to queen Margrete 1., Queen of the Nordic countries. The robe, that is the only preserved female fashion dress from the Middle Ages, is sewn from purple coloured silk fabric with embroideries of gold and silver.
Later during king Gustav Vasa’ reign from 1523 there were imported great amount of silk, and Swedish artisans early made embroideries on imported silk fabrics.
The first attempts cultivating silk larvae in Sweden took place in the 1740s at Kungsholmen near Stockholm. The larvae were fed with leaves of white mulberry trees, planted in areas near Stockholm, Ystad and Malmø.
By the end of the 1700s, Queen Lovisa Ulrika supported sericulture in the town district of Kanton near the royal castle Drottningsholm. Soon there were so many people engaged with sericulture that medals were given away to especially good cultivators, spinners and factory owners.
After a recess a new attempt to large scale cultivation of silk larvae was made in the 1820s, this time supported by Crown Princess Josefina. There was established a society for home sericulture and new plantations of white mulberry were planted near Stockholm and on the island Visingsø in lake Vättern. The sericulture, however, soon terminated.
Silk weaving had already started in the 1600s, when Sweden expanded its land areas considerably (Skåne, Halland and Blekinge and a large bite of Norway). Because imported silk wares were expensive, more silk weaving mills were established, often with help from foreign master weavers.
After the foundation in 1732 of the Swedish East-Indian Company, that amongst other activities imported Chinese and Indian silks, the Swedish silk factories got a serious competitor and most factories ceased production. The last silk weaving mill was K.A.Almgren in Stockholm, which
25 today is a working museum. The owner had done a great effort to preserve the ability to use the old looms. For example, new silk tapestries are woven for the repair of tapestries in Drottningsholm Cattle.
Eastern Europe
Over time, sericulture has taken place in eastern European countries, amongst others Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine, which especially during the communist regimes aimed at sericulture and silk production.
In Bulgaria sericulture remained a family affair, where the owner was paid for the silk. This meant that there still is a small family-based production of cocoons in the country.
It was different in Romania, where sericulture was carried out in collectives, which should forward the profit to the state, that expanded the areas with mulberry trees. The then dictator of Romania Ceausescu demanded, that all school children should be taught to cultivate silk larvae and cocoons. Today almost all sericulture has ceased to exist.
Common for all three countries is the presence of well developed silk research institutes, where researchers have developed hundreds of new mulberry varieties and races of silk moths. The results are ready to be applied, if and when someone wishes to produce improved silk in Europe.
Already in the 300s B.C. the Greeks had been acquainted with silk, thanks to Alexander the Great’s campaign to West-Asia and India.
The sericulture in Greece began in the Byzantine period and was strongly extended from the 1500s and continued both under the Ottoman Empire and after the independence of Greece in 1830.
Greek silk garments and other silken goods for local use were manufactured and great amounts of cocoons were exported to France, in particular after that disease had started to ravage French – but not yet Greek – silk larvae.
The “Silken age” of Greece continued after the breakdown of the Ottoman Empire in 1923 and lasted until the beginning of World War 2. At that time there were approximately 50 Greek silk factories.
26 Soufli – a Greek Silk Town Pages 48-51 ______
In the small town of Soufli at the border to Turkey one can –today- experience sericulture live and production of silk and lots of evidence of a blossoming silken past.
Soufli was by the end of the 1800s the administrative centre of the fertile western and eastern Thrace region of the Ottoman Empire, with 80 villages and a population of 55-60.000 people.
The strong economic position was mainly due to sericulture. So big amounts of cocoons were delivered to Istanbul and Bursa (in present Turkey) and to export to foreign countries, that the area around Soufli during many decennia was called the “financial lung” of Thrace.
By the peace treaty after World War 1, the western Thrace with Soufli became a part of Greece, while the eastern Thrace became a part of the new Turkey. The five silk industries, that since 1908 had been established in Soufli, lost a large part of its supply of cocoons. In the 1920s and 1930s, however, the situation was still good enough to employ about 1.000 workers (many of whom were young girls) alone in the biggest silk industry Tzivre.
This factory closed in 1942, as the owner was Jewish and had to flee the country. After the war the manufacture was taken up again, but stopped finally in 1962.
Others of the old fabrics have been used until recently.
A totally new silk factory has been raised. Here, silk fabrics are woven, dyed and printed, mainly based on imported silk from China.
The yearly production of fresh silk cocoons, which in 1908 was 800 tons is less than 10 tons in 2005. Even when the sericulture has been much reduced, Soufli is still much influenced by silk.
The main street is flanked with pollarded mulberry trees, the leaves of which earlier served as feed for the silk larvae. One can find at least 16 shops almost exclusively dealing with shawls, table cloths, robes, underwear, and other silk wares.
In Nikos and Eleni Bourouliti’s shop is placed a silk-folklore-museum. The women in villages in the surroundings of Soufli are embroidering traditional Byzantine motives on the silk fabric. And silk is part of many Greeks girls’ trousseau.
Even the architecture in Soufli is stamped by sericulture. Many houses - the so-called cocoon houses – have heavy plinths of granite boulders, wall of red bricks and highly placed shutters made of wood. This creates ideal temperature- and light conditions for the cultivation of silk larvae. In a few houses sericulture still takes place, but most cocoon hoses are now used for other purposes. For example, one cocoon house is converted into an “organic” hotel, while another, lavish cocoon house functions as a course centre. There is also a very well-arranged silk museum telling the town’s and country’s story of sericulture and silk production.
27 In the ecological educational centre in Soufli, school pupils, teachers and others from all Greece are trained in sericulture, amongst other subjects.
An old married couple, Georg and Melpomaeni Dulias live in their old cocoon house at the outskirts of the town, where they from the mid 1930s till 1982 lived from producing silk cocoons and wine. In May and June, Georg pollarded the mulberry trees to ensure that the silk larvae had fresh leaves. He examined the eggs for the disease pebrine in his old microscope, made from brass.
Melpoemaeni “incubated” the eggs, which they had received from Japan or China, in her cleavage, until they the hatched, and took care of the larvae, placed on large “bed” of linen. It was almost as having babies; the large larvae had to be fed every two hours.
The shoe dealer on the central square in Soufli can still remember how he as a boy, after having cleaned the shelves in the cocoon house, fell a sleep at the munching sound of the larvae. And his grand father had during the River Evros’s great flooding in 1954 assisted collecting mulberry branches by boat; the water stood half a meter in the main street.
It may soon be possible to increase the Greek-produced silk considerably in Soufli, because new forms of sericulture are underway A private production-cooperative of 10 persons has recently started cultivation of silk larvae in an old, renovated cocoon house.
Another new development is a Greek-Italian-Spanish consortium, which with support from the EU is preparing for building up a new production. With help of a machine, where the mulberry leaves are hacked to a suitable size, first and second instars larvae are fed on a type of “assembly line”. The last three larval instars are fed by hands on whole mulberry leaves.
One year’s production of cocoons is stored in a container, ready the be reeled in a new reeling hall, to be completed in the autumn of 2006. And a new factory building to produce Greek-grown silk is under construction. More plantations with young mulberry trees have since the last few years been planted in the surroundings of Soufli.
So, the silk production in Soufli has started again, but the old fashioned family-based way of sericulture won’t last long.
Box Japans role ______
Japans production of cocoons increased from 50.000 tons in 1893 to 389.000 tons in 1930, and the country became the worlds biggest exporter of silk – not only to Europe but also to USA and other countries. A great part of the Japanese households - about 5 millions – were engaged in sericulture and weaving.
However, already before the Second World War the silk production had fallen dramatically because of the competition with artificial silks.
28 Parachutes were sewn of silk fabrics. When Japan entered into the War on the side of Germany and almost made England’s import of silk cocoons from South Asia almost impossible, the British industries were forced to use the new artificial silk nylon as a substitute.
This product was after the War of enormous importance for the textile industry as a whole, and had catastrophic consequences for natural silk.
Silk Production in China Pages 52-54
Today about 20 millions farm families cultivate silk larvae, which are fed on leaves from 6.000 km2 plantations of mulberry trees. This area equals that of the Danish island Zealand.
The most important silk producing areas in China have traditionally been in River Yangtse’s delta in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, respectively south and north of Shanghai; in the Pearl River’s delta in Guangdong province; and in the Sichuan basin towards west. Here, almost two-third of China’s silk cocoons are produced. The remaining one third is cultivated in Shandong, Chongqing, Anhui, Guangxi, Hebei and Shanxi provinces.
The Chinese have over time been breeding lots of races of silk moths and varieties of mulberry tres, in accordance with the many different climatic conditions and soil types, existing in China.
Mulberry trees are planted in plantations, close to watering tank for agricultural crops and as hedges between fields. In its most developed form sericulture has in more than 1.000 years been an important part of the Chinese agricultural poly-cultures. Here, killed pupae from the cocoons serve as feed for breeding of fish in rice fields, irrigated with water, in which faeces of silk larvae have been diluted, and is a valuable manure rice and mulberry, both.
In the Chinese provinces the yield of cocoons per hectare varies between 350 and 1.200 kg. The highest yields are obtained in the provinces around Shanghai and in the Guangdong province. In most of the country there are two annual cultivations of silk moths, which result in the best quality of silk fabrics. In the southern, subtropical part of the country one may have three cultivations per year.
Production and export of silk wares
China is not only the world’s largest producer of raw silk, but also the world’s leading exporter of silk, with more than half of its production (25.00 tons in 1999). Today, China produces more than 50.000 tons silken tread, silk fabrics and manufactured goods. It may also play a role, that China has been selling the silk to very low prices. The price of Chinese raw silk has been halved during the decennium 1990-2000.
29 From being a supplier of raw silk and yarns China has in only 15 years with great success developed its industry and export of manufactured goods. Now only one third of the silk is exported as raw silk and yarns; the remaining two thirds are woven fabrics (most not dyed, some printed or dyed) and finished clothes.
At the same time, the country is the world’s larges producer of silk of wild butterflies (shantung), which, however, only constitute 1.000 tons annually and mainly come from the northern province of Liaoning.
Until the 1990s Hongkong played a great role as producer and exporter of silk goods based on cocoons from mainland China. With exception of high quality and fashionable clothes most of the production of fabrics and clothes today takes place on the Chinese mainland.
Half a million people are employed in the country’s 600 reeling and weaving mills. Among China’s new silk products are knitted wares, sweaters in particular, often mixed with other textile fibres such as cotton, flax and “oriental flax (ramie).
The imports of silken thread, silk fabrics and ready-made clothes into EU- countries were relatively stable in the 1990s; around 10.000 tons annually. Italy has counted for 80-90% of the import of silk treads and 45-70% of the silk fabrics. 85-90% of silk threads have come from China, and even most imported silk fabrics and clothes are of Chinese origin.
The silk and the environment
Chinese growing industrial development has a negative impact of sericulture and silk production, in particular in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, where the best qualities traditionally of silk have been made.
Some of the areas with mulberry trees have been swallowed up by industries, motor ways and housing. Some cultivation of silk larvae has been changed to localities, where there are less good conditions for producing silk of high quality.
New development in China?
The new generation of Chinese will probably demand a higher payment for cultivating silk larvae and produce silk clothes. This will make silk more expensive on the world market and, therefore, less competitive.
Because of the quickly raising living standard in China, more and more Chinese can afford to buy the country’s own silk. And if both production of cocoons and cultivation of mulberry trees are on the decrease, there will be less silk for export. This will give other countries better chances to increase their export.
30 What Silk is used for Today? Pages 56-58
Based on silk’s special qualities a number of new uses of silk have been developed, amongst others, within the fields of medicine and cosmetics. The finer silk fabrics are, however, still used for robes, scarves and other dresses used at festive occasions. This has always been the case and will probably remain the case – both here and in the countries, where silk is produced.
The waste silk from the inner part of the cocoons is used for cheaper blouses, shirts, curtain fabrics and is sometimes woven from mixtures of silk and cotton, wool or flax.
Precious bridal robes of silk are not only a phenomenon in the western world. At weddings in India well-to-do women wear colourful silk saris, often with gold- and silver threads.
In Europe, silk has in newer time been worn by women, while well-to-do men only to a limited degree have used silk, for instance as lining in jackets and coats. The dinner jacket, which again has become a very popular festive man-dress, must have a silken lapel to be “in”. Men have long been wearing a tie made from silk
In the 1980s, in the USA someone invented a process to wash cheaper silk qualities in machines with sand, small stones or even tennis balls. Sand washing made silks popular with large groups of men. The sand washed silk was crease-proof, shrink-proof, machine-washable and cheaper, but without having the glow, which makes natural silk to something special. Now, sand washed silk seems to be “out”.
Today, most Danes can afford to buy silk night dresses, bed sheets and sleeping bags, which have the strength to resist prolonged wear and tear. And feathery sleeping quilts filled with matawa- silken plates drawn out of the cocoons are imported from China.
Silk caps are sold for babies; these are claimed to reduce the loss of heat and to provide massage of the head, in the same way in the uterus of the mother before. Thereby the baby is stimulated and soothed. Playing-tents made from silk should have the same effect on restless children.
Silk yarns are still used as sewing silk or knitting yarn and to embroidering of patterns.
Silk threads, which earlier were used for fishing lines, strings in electrical instruments and to isolation of electrical wires, are still used to sewing of wounds after surgical operations.
Large silk larvae are sold fresh or canned as human foods in South-East- and East Asia and in several other countries with a large Chinese population. This is not the case in Denmark, where large larvae, however, are sold as feed for reptiles, for instance lizards in vivaria,
31 New uses
Now-a-days silk products are manufactured to hair- and skin care, which is a further development of old customs. This happens for instance in Japan, where the women earlier dried the faces and body with silk thus keeping their skin soft by rubbing it with small silk bags, filled with rice-kernels.
The silk protein fibroin contains 17 of the 19 amino acids, found in the human hair. This silk protein protects the hair against ultra violet light and pollution and gives the hair more fullness, and makes dyeing of the hair more durable. Hence, the hairdressing branch increasingly uses biological silk products as alternatives to chemical hairdressing products, that may cause skin diseases and allergies- both with the clients and the hair dresser. The silk is found in the form of powder in alternative cosmetic means for skin care and eye shade.
Scientists are increasingly doing research in how to use silk and silk larvae within medicine. It is known that food stays fresh longer and is less attacked by bacteria, if covered with silken paper. This has lead to the development of silk plasters, which not only give good protection against infections, but also bring about that wounds are healing more rapidly.
Researchers at the Hiroshima University in Japan have induced gene-modified collagen protein in silk larvae. Collagen is active at the production of artificial skin and at healing of wounds.
Silk larvae, infected with the white muscadin-fungus, are used, in a crushed from, in medicine against inflammations, poisonings and certain other diseases.
Another fungus, (Cordyceps) harvested from the pupae of silk moths, is claimed to prevent the development of cancer cells and to revive the strength of the body after overstrain.
As ingredient of health products the silk proteins reduce kolesterol- and blood sugar figures of diabetes patients. There are also found reports that a stimulating sexual hormone for men “Silkwormagra” has been extracted from un-mated silk moth males.
32 Global Silk Production Page 55
Data for the world production since 1938 are summarized in the table. It is seen that China in the late 1970s took over the leading place from Japan and now has more than 70% of world production of silk.
Today Japan imports most of its raw silk from China. India takes a clear second place, but does not play a great role in the world market, because most of the Indian production is used for saris.
Other Asiatic countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Uzbekistan increase their production and export of both raw silk and silk fabrics. The same is the case for Brazil.
Average yearly world production of mulberry-based raw silk (in 1.000 tons).
Country/year 1938 1978 1985 1989-91 1992-96 1997-2000
------China 5 19 32 45 64 54
India 1 3 7 11 13 14
Japan 43 16 10 6 4 1
Uzbekistan 2 3 4 4 2 3
Brazil 0,04 1 1 2 2 2
Korea 2 2 0,1
Other countries 4 2 3 2 2 1
Total 55 45 59 72 90 75 thousand tons
(Summarised from Silk Review 2001) ------
33 The Future of Sericulture Page 59-61
If sericulture shall survive in the long term it is necessary to increase the use of the natural silk and raise the quality of the silk fabrics. Furthermore, that the price of silk cocoons must become high enough to allow the cultivators to live from their work This is attempted by promoting a number of local and international networks.
Because of small earning opportunities most young people in many countries are not interested in taking part in the cultivation of silk cocoons. Even old sericulturalists are becoming extinct without being able to act as teachers for the youth, as is happens right now in Turkey. If one wishes to stop the ongoing exodus by young people from the countryside it is necessary, that they can earn at least the same that they can earn in the towns.
Sericulture, research and training
There exist a number of more and less developed professional networks, wishing to promote the use of natural silk.
The cultivators of silk larvae and cocoons are united in the International Sericultural Commission (ISC), with about 50 countries as members. In most member countries one produces only small amounts of cocoons, which in particular are used for arts and crafts. The Commission publishes a journal and organise international workshops.
United Nations’ agricultural organisation (FAO) since the mid-1980s trained sericulture to peasants in several developing countries in Africa, using Korean silk consultants in countries like Ghana, Uganda and Malawi where no local trainers were found.
It is obvious that developing countries, due to their relative low wages, exactly now are in a very good position to take up sericulture. Especially it is important to train women as cultivators, as women throughout history have proved to be the best and most considerate in rearing larvae.
The new silk networks
The International Silk Association (ISA), which was a very important network for silk industry and trade, came to an end in 2004. Besides being a centre for producers of silk fabrics, the ISA had collected and published global statistics for production and export. Many national silk associations, however, are still in good health and new networks are being established.
Use of natural silk can be increased within the “old” uses for clothes, bed linen and similar uses. The may take place by making designs, which can be paid by customers with great purchasing power. This is not least the case for the young generation, who may not share the elder generation’s
34 taste. There is need for more textile designers and artisans, who by using national, regional and international experiences and ideas may find how a renewal best can take place in their country.
The role of “organics”
It has competitive importance to market sericulture and production of silk fabrics as activities, that comply with organic principles. It is necessary to introduce certification of the products according to rules, that already exist for other organic agricultural produces. A Swedish firm for organic certification KRAV has put forward preliminary criteria for such certification.
Renewal and development
The network includes even research, in particular in Japan and Korea. This has led to new uses of the natural silk to medicinal and cosmetic products. Some people cultivate silk larvae for medicinal purposes and “harvest” the larvae, before they start spinning silk. Others remain cultivators of cocoons, but sell the raw silk to cosmetic industry. It seems highly probable that many new products will be developed in the future, as a result of continued research.
New renaissance of silk in Europe?
At present, a very limited cultivation of silk larvae takes place in Europe – only two per mille of the world production of silk fabrics.
Within EU, sericulture is found in Greece, Italy. Spain and France. Among the other countries in Europe one finds Bulgaria, Ukraine and the western part of Turkey, but also in other countries very small-scale sericulture exists.
To secure the cultivators a reasonable standard of living, EU has, since 1972, supported cultivators in member countries in form of gratis eggs, partly imported from China. Among the justifications to give this support has been improvement of the environment by planting mulberry trees and preservation of an old European type of agriculture, which will cease to exist, when the old cultivators disappear.
The new and less human work-demanding machines to feed the small larvae, that now are tested in Greece, may perhaps give Europe greater possibilities to compete.
A higher market price for cocoons and for the silk fabrics would probably be most important for the survival of European sericulture. To obtain the highest price, the cultivators may aim at feeding the larvae with leaves of organically certified mulberry trees, and silk factory owners must manufacture silk of the highest quality and design without the use of dangerous chemicals.
It is of greatest importance that the different interest groups: cultivators, producers, researchers, ecologists and teacher get together in interdisciplinary networks, in which competent
35 communicators may promote products made from natural silk to the increasing number of relevant buyers.
New designs make silk more attractive
In Japan, the textile artist Akihiko Izukura has started a renewal based on the traditional silk craft. His art is developed in an ecological balance, where the products of natural silk is manufactured by help of the nature’s own strengths and dyes. Izukura deals directly with the individual customer, thereby eliminating middlemen.
Some of his modern kimonos, robes and other silk-works were shown in an exhibition in Rundetårn 2001 with the title “Zero emission”, which means that nothing must be spoiled and that no waste be left.
Even Danish textile artists , f. ex Tove Barker, Copenhagen, Bente Hammer, Bornholm, and Grete Rolle, Vendsyssel, experiment with new designs on silk fabrics.
Silk and Cultivation of Silk Larvae in Denmark Pages 62-69
With support from kings, funds, stocks subscription, sericultural societies and engaged individuals ILDSJÆLE one has throughout centuries been trying to establish a commercial sericulture in Denmark. And the Danes’ had a need for silk…
The Vikings introduced silk to Denmark. The silk was greatly appreciated by Danish kings. Besides using silk fabrics for clothes, the kings used silk fabrics as gifts to influential persons, whom the kings wished to attach to them. King Canute of Great of Denmark and England (1014-1035) gave for example a complete silk dress with in-woven golden eagles to an English abbot and a precious cloak to the Augustine monastery in Canterbury.
The “Eagle carpet” from around year 1100, in red and black-bluish colours, is found in a crypt of Saint Canute Cathedral in the city of Odense. The carpet is a copy of a Byzantine imperial motive and may have been made in Apulia in southern Italy, where Ethele, the widow of King Canute the Holy, had been re-married to a prince.
The silk was also used to make the perhaps first Danish flag, the “Raven banner”, which on the bunting had one of God Odin’s holy ravens. When the wind blew, the raven “flew” and told of victory. If the banner limped it meant defeat. King Canute the Great won the battle of Ashington in England in 1016 under a white, silken banner with a black raven.
36 Medieval sumptuousness
Frescos in Danish churches show that colourful clothes of silk, in particular with in-woven golden threads were popular in the well-to-do part of the population. Silk is mentioned in the oldest written Danish song with nodes from the 1200s. The tune was over many years used as interval signal in the Danish State Radio (“To night I dreamed of silk and beautiful clothes”).
This exorbitant luxury became too much for King Erik Klipping, who in beginning of the 1200s issued an order against exaggerated use of silken clothes. However, the import of velvet, silk brocades and other precious fabrics dresses of the upper class grew anyway throughout the Middle Ages.
Silken goods were expensive in Denmark, the newest fashion, in particular. This is illustrated by a pair of white stockings in the town of Elsinore, which by the end of the 1200s costed half the price of an oxen. Purple or yellow stocking were even more expensive. It were men, who used the stockings, but women who knitted them after Queen Elizabeth 1.of England had made knitting of stocking a woman trade.
Great amounts of money were also used to silken bed linen, grave clothes and – caps made from silk-embroidered fabric, enabling people to show their status to the very last…
The kings fight for self sufficiency with silk
To avoid paying the outrageous prices for imported silk goods the royal power wished to support sericulture in Denmark.
Cultivation of silk larvae was initiated in the 1600s under the reign of King Christian 4., who arranged the planting of mulberry trees and in 1620 established silk weaving mills in Silkegade in Copenhagen. Called in Flemish silk artisans trained spinners and weavers among those orphans from Tugt og Børnehuset.(“Discipline and Children House”).
Even when one did not succeed implementing sericulture or to establish large scale production of silk fabrics, very fine silk weavings were made, amongst those a fabric with navigation and horsemen, which the king gave to the Russian tsar.
Chritian 4.’s daughter, Leonora Christina was allowed to cultivate silk larvae, when she after her fathers’ death was imprisoned in Blåtårn for having taken part in her husbands treason. She fed the larvae with leaves from Denmark’s presently oldest mulberry tree placed at Proviantgården in Copenhagen.
After having lost Skåne, Halland and Blekinge to Sweden in 1660, the now autocratic King Frederik 3. wished to save money and therefore in 1688 forbade the import of silk fabrics and other textiles. But prohibition did not apply for silken goods imported from China by the Asiatic Company (later The Ost-Indian Company).
37 The production of silk fabrics in Denmark, that had stopped in 1629, was resumed in a weaving mill in 1680 by King Christian 5. Fine silk fabrics were woven, amongst those a red, silver in woven threads, that may be seen on the Rosenborg collections. When the Netherlands after a few years forced the Danish king to lift the import prohibition, the weaving in the Danish mill ceased.
Clothes create people
In Denmark there were during long periods of time severe rules for wearing clothes made from silk fabrics. For instance, people were not allowed to wear silks, when being in the same room as Sofie Amalie, Queen of Frederik 3. Even the silken threads, which Leonora Christine reeled from the cocoons, she had cultivated, had to be handed over to the queen.
The following repetitions of the so-called “sumptuousness prohibitions” throughout the 1700s may indicate that, that they hardly have been observed by the population. In spite of heavy punishments for smuggling over land and sea.
The pietistic religious King Christian 6.was especially eager ordering his subjects to abstain from enjoying wearing silken clothes from the south. Simultaneously, he helped him self with silk fabrics from merchants in Hamburg in Germany.
The establishment of a ware house “General Country Economy and Commerce College” in 1735, which could purchase both raw- and finished goods, meant the start of more silk weaving mills in Denmark.
The most successful was the “Royal Silk Factory”, which was managed by N.L.Reiersen. His weaving mill was able to survive both competition with silk fabrics imported by the Ost-Indian Company and Struense’s closure of the warehouse in 1771.
The expensive silk was reserved for the kings, the nobility and clergy and to lesser extent townsmen (and women) who had to prove (by a stamp or similar), that their clothes were made in Denmark The peasants, who were far the most numerous, had no right to wear silken clothes except for caps. They had to do with the home made clothings made from flax and wool.
Silk bands for high – and especially for low
The high status of silk in all spheres of the society lead to a situation where also common people wished to wear silk. Foreign factory owners, from Switzerland in particular obtained, together with economic remuneration from the king, the right to make silk bands for sewing on caps, robes, Christening bags and other “Christ clothes”.
Women of the nobility had long decorated their robes with imported silk bands. Now also less well- to-do townswomen could afford to smarten up their robes and hats with cheaper Danish silk band.
In 1776 there were five silk band factories in Copenhagen and more followed in other towns, where the work power was cheaper. Soon the factory owners gave work to several hundreds of “native”
38 Danish spinners and weavers, whom the owners had trained by the help of foreign journeymen. About the same time the Christian community in Christiansfeld (the Herrnhutters) got support from King Frederik 5. to start fabrication of band made of half silk. This drew many good artisans to the town.
The silk bands could only be sold in the towns, not in the countryside. Nevertheless, they were sold by travelling pedlars, who obtained their goods through smuggling, that was very difficult to control for the king.
Towards the end of the 1700s the protection of the Danish silk band production ended, when it again was allowed to import silk goods. Half of the factory owners had to give up in competition with the more effective factories in Basel in Switzerland, where band production had started, and in Krefeld in Germany.
Today only one Danish textile industry produces silk goods (Skive Garn ApS), according to Danish Textile & Clothing.
New attempts to sericulture
From the mid 1800s there attempts were made to take up again cultivation of silk larvae in Denmark.
After invitation from the newspaper Berlingske Tidende “The Danish Silk Society” was started in 1841, with the purpose “to encourage to sericulture with advice and deed” About 200 people subscribed stocks. There were planted mulberry trees in various parts of Copenhagen area and a few people started cultivating silk larvae in small apartments in Strandstræde and in Østerbro in Copenhagen. The cocoons were sold to a manufacturer in France.
Both sericulture and the joint stock company ceased to exist already in 1847, probably due to lack of knowledge to the subject.
The silk road in Vridsløselille
From the end of the 1800s and till today a small number of very enthusiastic people have made a great work to introduce cultivation of silk larvae in Denmark.
In 1897, pastor emeritus Sommerfeldt in Roskilde fed silk larvae on leaves of scorsonera (Scorsonéra sp.)in the absence of mulberry leaves. It succeeded so well that he could send a large number of cocoons to be reeled in France. Sommerfeldt published a leaflet “Instructions to Sericulture” and was permitted to cultivate scorsonera on a piece of land belonging to the prison of Vridsløselille. The larvae fed on scorsonera, however, soon stopped spinning cocoons.
Fortunately, there were about one hundred mulberry trees in prison inspector Frederik Ammitzbøll’s garden, who’s leaves turned up to be fine feed for the silk larvae.
39 In 1905, Sommerfeldt and Ammintzbøll took initiative to establish a new “Society for Sericulture and Mulberry Bush Cultivation in Denmark”, which gradually had 30-40 members. The collaboration resulted in 1909 in the building of a wooden pavilion in Chinese style for sericulture, which continued until 1938. Hanne Fritze, daughter of the last female silk larvae breeder, who was married to a prison guard, still remembers the loud chewing of the larvae.
Ammitzbøll believed that sericulture could become of great importance for poor wives of small- holder farmers, thereby earning extra incomes by doing a relatively easy work. Hence, young girls from small farm homes received training in the pavilion, and mulberry seedlings, free of charge, were distributed to possible cultivators of silk larvae. By the end of 1922 there were distributed 67.000 plants mulberry plants, hereof many to be planted in small farmers’ gardens.
Cultivation of silk larvae reached its peak during First World War (1914-1918), when the pavilion became a well-visited attraction for people from Copenhagen, who could see 70.000 larvae.
Even when Ammitzbøll was right that sericulture is possible in Denmark, one did not succeed in promoting wives of small farmers to cultivate silk larvae. The main reason may have been, that the growth season of silk larvae in June and July coincided with their very busy work, weeding the agricultural fields.
The Zealand silk adventure
The Society for Sericulture and Mulberry Bush Cultivation continued its work until 1943 and was succeeded by a new society “Danish Sericulture”. However, because the direction of the society could not agree on Ammitzbøll’s suggestion that factory owner A.P. Andersen, Gadstrup south of Roskilde, officially should supervise the society, Andersen in 1945 initiated “Copenhagen County’ Sericultural Society” to continue sericulture in Denmark.
In order to push the work the society decided to donate King Christian 10. a national flag woven from Danish produced silk. The king was very interested but died in 1947, before the plans could be realised.
The Society created new cultivations of larvae around Roskilde, Lille Skensved, Haslev and Gadstup being inspired by Andersen and his wife Mary. Reeling of the cocoons was arranged at Lullingstone Silk Farm in England and the silk was woven into stockings in a factory in Copenhagen. The sericultural society, however, never made any great impact.
Self-sufficiency and ecology
In the 1970s the “organic wave” started. Many people became aware of the importance of a sound environment, health organic food and sustainable clothes. More people started to grow crops themselves and to manufacture the products at home.
40 This was also the case with sericulture. A small group of weavers headed by Agnete Vester and her husband Frank from Sindal in Vendsyssel did, from the end of the 1970s, advocate cultivation of the mulberry based silk moth and various wild saturnids, and the treatment and weaving of their silks.
This became an exciting hobby and instructions of how to cultivate the mulberry -based silkmoth a (Agnete and Frank Vester) and the Chinese oak spinner (Tove Sommer) were written.
In Denmark today, mulberry -based silk larvae may be seen in “Bornholm Butterfly Park and Tropical Land” in Nexø. We, ourselves have experienced that cultivation of silk larvae at school level has stimulated the interest by pupils intensively, which could be a good introduction to wish learning more about the biology of butterflies.
Why it went wrong in Denmark?
In spite of support from kings, funds, stock subscription, societies and engaged , very enthusiastic people one was never successful in establishing a commercially viable Danish sericulture. The climatic conditions for cultivating silk larvae and growing mulberry trees are present in Denmark, if one chooses a variety of mulberry that can tolerate frost. The main reason why it did not succeed may, however, have been economic. One did not realise that it had be worth while to cultivate silk larvae. The cultivators earned too little for this time consuming work.
Box The town of Silkeborg ______
There has not yet been produced silk in Silkeborg. So, why did the town get its name Silkeborg?
One explanation is found in “Danish Folk Legends” from 1843. It is told that “about 25 miles from Aarhus, near the River God, the old estate Silkeborg was placed in a beautiful part of the country, surrounded by forests and lakes. It should have obtained its name from a bishop , Mr. Peder, who wanted to build a farm, but for a long time did not know where to build it. Once he sailed on the River God, he removed the silken cap from his head and let it float on the water, just as he said that where the cap landed, he who build the farm. In this way he found the place, and when the farm was built, he named it Silkeborg”.
41 Silk for ”Household use” Pages 70-74 ______
It is great fun to cultivate silk larva. Here is presented a guide to those who want to try.
______
First comes the egg…
A cultivator of silkmoths must start with eggs. Very often the eggs are bought from specials centres of egg production, where good breeding moths have been selected over several years. And where the eggs are not infected by disease. If one wishes to breed eggs every year, ones own eggs must be kept in a cool place (They must not be exposed to frost).
The eggs are placed at room temperature 10 days before the mulberry leaves have grown big enough to be usable as feed. In Denmark, mulberry trees in the free spout late May or early June. Leaves have a suitable size in the middle of June.
White mulberry is preferred, but the black mulberry, which is the most common in Denmark, may easily be used (and its leaves last longer in the fridge).
Do not place more eggs out for hatching than you are able to feed. About 20 mulberry leaves are required for each larva before its reaches the time for spinning its cocoon. Especially towards the end larvae are very hungry.
The eggs may be put on a piece of paper in the bottom of a small box of cardboard or plastic with a good bottom-cover of kitchen roll.
______Information about where one may buy eggs of silk moths, and where to find mulberry trees with many leaves can be obtained on the e-mail address: [email protected] One may furthermore find much information about sericulture and silk production on the internet wormspit.com
“Child nursing”
One morning, the first, tiny, black “threads” crawl around on the bottom-cover. Now it is time to chop finely a couple of mulberry leaves and carefully scatter the pieces out upon the fine, small, hairy larvae, that at once start feeding. An easy way to “catch” them is to place small pieces of leaves beside the larvae, that immediately enter on the top of them. The mulberry leaves must never be wet.
It is important to have sufficient feed available. The leaves can be kept fresh in a plastic bag in a fridge over many days.
42
When the larvae are a few days old, they may be fed with fully-grown leaves.
Larvae are fed according to needs. One the larvae are fed plentiful with leaves late in the evening, it may not necessary to feed until the next morning.
Keep, indeed, the box clean for larval faeces- clean every second or third day. This is easily done by changing the bottom-paper and removing the old pieces of leaves. One shall not touch the small larvae too much, but instead tempt them with a fresh leaf and then to move the leaf to the clean place. When the larvae have grown a bit, they may carefully be lifted with two fingers.
As the larvae increase their weight almost 10.000 times it is necessary at a certain time to move them to a tray or bigger box. We have good experiences with boxes about 24 x 18 x 42 cm, they may be spread to several boxes.
When the larvae are reaching their maximal size, one may hear them chewing, noisily, when they feed.
In the fifth larval stage, when the larvae are almost nine cm long, one has to find a material, where they larvae will spin their cocoons. A mulberry branch with leaves, a bunch of broom, juniper or birch. The larvae like to climb the branches. The material must, however, not be too smooth and it must be placed in the bottom of the box. Now the larva will seek the best place - maybe prefer the corner of the box – in any case it must find such a place itself. One shall take care that the larvae do not disappear from the box, while seeking its right place. A few larvae are not capable of spinning and then die.
The larvae will - at the end - only consume very little feed and gradually totally stop feeding.
Preparation for a new life
Then the spinning starts. First the larva spins a suspended net, in which the cocoon can be fixed. It moves the head in 8-figure-formed movements from a fixed point to another, and at the same time glue its spin firmly. This may take a couple of days.
When the larva finds that the net is durable it begins a new form for slow motion movements. It spins the cocoon by making forward rolls - as though it is spinning itself into its own world. When the cocoon is finished after a coupe of days, it may be placed on a tray.
At this time one must decide whether the cocoon shall be used to make silk or whether one will let it develop to an adult silkmoth, which can lay eggs.
If one wishes to make an un-broken silk tread, the cocoons must be killed in a 70 degree hot oven, during one hour.
43 The short life of the silkmoth
If one wishes the females in the cocoons to lay eggs, it is necessary to keep an eye on the cocoons 10-14 days. One morning, at dawn, a wet spot will appear at the end of a cocoon. After a couple of minutes, the cocoon bursts and a tousled, whitish moth will crawl out.
After having collected it self and become dry it slowly stretches the wings. The adult mot does not eat.
The young males arrive first, and it looks like they just sit waiting for a female. At some point, when the more plumb female shows up from her cocoon, the males fall on her with buzzing wings. The male, that first succeed to fix itself to her, has won.
The hatching of the day arrives every morning within an hour, almost exactly at dawn. The cocoons, which are not hatched the first day, may come the next morning - or the following morning.
In the case, that there are more males than females, the males remain nicely waiting for the next morning, when the next virgin will burst out. Then they will mate the next many days.
At this time it is practical to move each pair to an independent room, thereby avoiding that the females lay eggs on the cocoons, they just have escaped.
In fruit markets, peaches and nectarines are often placed in boxes of cardboard, where the greaseproof paper have the shape of small paper bowls, with a fruit placed in each “bowl”. These greaseproof paper are excellent for mating and egg laying – and provide a room for each pair.
The mating has now begun in earnest. He and she hang together, while they buzz violently with the wings. They sound like small machines, though stopping occasionally, when the females lay their small, poppy-like eggs, side by side.
After a few days their surroundings are dusty – the moths have lost so many of their paper-thin scales, that they almost become bold.
After the mating the exhausted male starts dying, while the female carefully lay the last of her eggs, in millimetres’ accuracy, often in a beautiful patterns, before also she dies.
The new generation
The eggs may be kept till next year, if they are placed in a room with a temperature of 5-10 degrees. Before the room starts to heat up during spring, they must be placed in the vegetable container in the fridge. 10 days before, one wishes the eggs to hatch, they are removed from the fridge.
If one wishes many batches of larvae one may split up the collection of eggs and for instance take out a new batch every 14 days.
44 This is the way to make Japanese Matawa silk
Agnete Vester, who has many years experience cultivating silk larvae, proposes the following application of the cocoons for house hold uses:
To unwind about 30 cocoons one must use a cooking pot with 3-4 litre water. A tea-spoon soda and a tea-spoon brown soap (not fluid) is diluted in the water. The killed cocoons are placed in a small bag of linen, which is tied so tight that the cocoons can not move. The bag is placed in the soap water, which is then brought to boil softly. A flat dish is placed on the top of the cocoons, bottom up, keeping the cocoons under water. The water must boil softly for one hour and a half. Now, the cocoons are rinsed with warm water.
Silk must be warmed and cooled slowly and must not be moved in the water, if the temperature is above 45 degree warm.
The cocoons are opened from one end, then the pupae and the last moults are removed, after which the silk from the cocoons are spread evenly over a 25 x 25 cm piece of wood with a nail in each corner. When the matawa-layers are dry, one removes a couple of layers or three from the nails, place them between the thumbs and forefingers of both hands and draw the silk out through a ring of the size, one wishes. The ring is broken on its thinnest part, and after this the silk can be spun.
45