From cocoons to threads

The cocoons are harvested, their silk waste (cocoon's fixation wisps) taken off, and are « stifled » in specific driers to prevent the butterfly developement.

Cocoons are boiled a few minutes to soften the rawness (natural glue that maintain the cocoon's wisp).

The cocoon's surface is brushed (traditionally made of rice straw or in briar) to find and catch the end of the thread. A single thread is too thin, so cocoons are reeled in groups of 5 or 15, depending on the wished thread. They all join together by the rawness cooling.

Threads are winded up on spools and winded back up in hanks. This rough silk, called « raw silk », can't be used without further treatments.

The throwing means the twisting a raw silk thread. This operation makes the thread more homogeneous and resistant. The twist number can vary with the kind of thread you wish to obtain.

This operation consists in twisting several spun / thrown silk threads.

Once spun and assembled, the boiling-off consists in getting the rawness out of silk by boiling the hanks (or raw silk clothes) in a soaped water. Silk becomes glossy after this operation.

A few figures :

Each cocoon is made by a single wisp of 1500-2000 meters long and 15-30 µm across.

1 cocoon is 1 wisp. 7 or 8 wisps twisted together make a « string ». A silk thread can be made of 6 to 12 « strings », so made of 42 to 96 wisps.

To produce a kilo of silk thread, depending on the processes (more or less loss), between 7 and 10 kilos of cocoons are needed.

It can only be done once the boiling-off is done.

It's the most important operation in the dyeing process : it makes the fibres ready to fix the colour. That's how all our threads are 40°C washable without colour fading.

All our items except the Marco Polo Collection are eco dyed. We use plants or vegetal concentrates which allow more precision in proportioning. That's how we obtain a 60 shades reliable colour chart with 100% natural dye.