The City of Suzhou

Tour Day 16: Sunday, May 6, 2001

#1 Silk Factory & Choyers

Girl Picks Mulberry Leaves

Silk Worms

Worm Spinning Silk

Worm Making Cocoon

The four pictures above are from the Choyers brochure included in the package with the silk comforter we had shipped to our home.

The Pupa (or cocoon) Stage Of Maturity

At this stage, the pupas are boiled to kill the moth. They try to get him just before he begins to chew his way out of the pupa to fly away. To make the fabric the silk filaments (fibers) must not be broken. If they are broken they are salvaged to be made into silk batting (filler) for the silk comforters.
Left above: There's a pupa that matured too long, and the moth chewed a hole.
Right above: The pupas are being cleaned.

The Cleaning and Sorting Process

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