"The silk craft... exalts the rich and helps the poor; and great skills are needed to ply it, since it involves an infinitude of operations; no one is to be found who is capable of doing on his own the many tasks that it involves. The first of which is to hatch the worms that make the silk, and nourish them.... Afterward there are masters and mistresses who, when the cocoons are ready, dry them under the sun for one or two days; and they put a cauldron over a fire and bring it to the boiling point, putting the cocoons inside; and with certain spindles they reel the silk, which when completed goes into the hands of the mistresses, who wind it on the reels; and then it goes to the Spinner, who spins it, and once it is spun it comes back into the hands of the mistresses, who wind it again on the reels and bring it back to the Spinner for throwing; and when the silk is thrown, and after the Merchant has checked it, it goes to the Dyer; and the Dyer first boils it in soap and water and then dyes it in any color one wishes; and it returns to the Merchant, who puts it on wooden pegs, with which he spreads it out very carefully and makes it lustrous and beautiful; then it goes to the mistresses, who wind it on certain spools, with which the Weaver prepares the warp..."
- Leonardo Fioravanti, Dello Specchio, 58v-59v. Sixteenth century Italy. (Mola, 2000)
Throwing the silk. Pen-drawing from the "Trattato del l'Arte della Lana".
Codex Riccardianus, Florence. (1490) CIBA Review #27
The procedure -
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Soak the cocoons in hot water for 30-45 minutes to soften the natural silk gum (sericin). One cocoon at a time, pull off the waste silk down to a single filament (bave).
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Gather the baves together and thread them through a guide. The guide draws the baves together, and the wet seracin glues them together into a single thread. Attach the thread end to a reel. Reels throughout the world and history have had different appearances, but their main function is to allow the cocoon to be unreeled efficiently while keeping the thread organized. You can get fancy, but a ball winder works fine. |
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I reel the length of my counter and back, by going around a bobbin on my lazy kate - which turns freely so there's no drag on the silk. With this arrrangement, I can also keep an eye on the cocoons in the pot, fixing any problems as needed. Start reeling. Continue reeling. There's a LOT of silk on each cocoon. |
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When the cocoons are spent, the filament will be much finer, and you can see the pupae inside. Sericin is a glue, and will stick the silk thread together when it dries. Before it dries completely, I like to re-reel the silk onto a fresh cardboard tube. |
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To make a thicker thread, you can take two or more reelings and twist them together (called "doubling") on a spinning wheel. "Throwing" involves taking two or more of those twisted threads, and twisting them together in the opposite direction. |
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To make the thread soft and white, the sericin needs to be removed by boiling the thread in a solution of soap and water. Alternatively, the thread can be used "raw" and the finished fabric de-gummed.
© Copyright 2007 Cindy Myers
About the Silkewoman