A touch of silk on ones skin evokes the very thread of history, a shimmering fabric of far away places. Over the centuries the undisputed queen of textiles is silk.

Silk is used on everything from silk sheets to silk-based Chinese cold creams. Damaged arteries have been replaced with a prostheses of silk and teeth have bee realigned with silk braces. Luxurious rugs, tapestries and clothes have been woven from silk ever since the second century B.C. Silk has been incorporated in tennis racket strings, flyfishing lines and parachutes. French bicycle racers love the smooth ride and better traction of silk tires. Skiers love silk socks and undergarments because they are warm and keep moisture away from the body.

This thread is lightweight yet stronger than a comparable filament of steel. Silk has been a lifesaver to surgeons who have used its easily knotted strands in sutures.

This yarn of life is extruded by the unassuming caterpillar. It is a continuos filament as long as a mile. Imagine how many silk worms it takes to make a yarn. I takes 110 cocoons to make a tie, 630 to make a blouse and a heavy silk kimono is the work of 3,000 worms who had to consume 135 pounds of mulberry leaves.

Actually it starts not from worms but from caterpillars. These caterpillars are voracious eaters that increase their body weight 10,000 times in their under 28 day life. After their final molt they begin cocooning. The liquid silk is extrude from two silk glands at the rate of about a foot a minute.

Acres of mulberry trees are needed and the leaves must be picked, chopped and almost spoon-fed to young larvae every few hours.