Chinese Mulberry Silk
Chinese Mulberry silk is the highest quality silk you can purchase. It is made from silkworms that are raised in captivity under exacting conditions. It is also the most expensive type of silk. It is superior to other types of silk because silk worms fed on Mulberry leaves produce the finest quality silk. China produces the best Mulberry silk because of their experience, strict industry and government quality control and also because their geography and climate is ideal for both the silk worm and the Mulberry tree.
Mulberry silk is made from the silkworms of the Bombyx mori moth. The moth has one job to do and that is to lay eggs. After it lays about 500 eggs, its job is finished and it dies. The tiny pinpoint size eggs are kept at 65 degrees Fahrenheit with the temperature slowly and carefully raised to 75 degrees Fahrenheit to hatch the eggs.
The tiny silkworms that are born are then fed an exclusive diet of mulberry leaves 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (mulberry leaves are the only food the Bombyx mori moth will eat). After about a month of the constant gorging on the mulberry leaves, the silkworms will have increased their weight about 10,000 times and will have built up enough energy to start spinning their cocoon. It takes anywhere from three to as long as eight days for the silkworm to weave the cocoon.
The cocoons are then kept in a warm place for several days. Great care is taken to ensure the silkworms do not hatch into moths because that would damage the cocoon and break the silk filament it has woven. To harvest the silk from the cocoons, they are place in water to soften the filament. The softened filament is then unwound from the cocoon. One filament can be up to 1,600 yards long. It takes 4-8 of the silk filaments woven together to create one mulberry silk thread.
The resulting mulberry silk thread is the strongest natural fiber in the world, making it incredibly durable. A silk fiber the same diameter as a fiber of steel is stronger than the steel.