How Its Made

Residents of the Yellow River basin in Northern China.

Sericulture predates written history by several thousand years and I have no evidence for the following theory, but I would assume that the practice of eating larva came first, and the initial "discovery" of silk came about naturally, as a direct result of the cooking process. After that, it was probably a slow and gradual evolutionary process, with Chinese artisans gradually refining the ways in which they produced silk, and no single person figuring out more than one link in the chain (at least until the advent of silk factories).

One thing I might like to know is whether there are significant differences between silk production techniques between the world's various silk-producing regions, and what these differences might tell us about the evolution of sericulture. For example, it is generally agreed that silk production arrived in India by the second or third century CE, but was silk production more or less "modern" by that time, or were there still significant steps left to discover?

Robin Kestrel

- 2015-12-28

I fucking love How It's Made. LOVE it. That is all.

unknown_specimen

- 2015-12-28

When I was in Thailand every so often there would be a lady who would come to our town and make silk at a "culture fair" or something along those lines. She did a lot of what was in the video and, from what I can tell, that's generally the best way to make silk. This included how they took care of the silk worms, how long the silk was boiled for, how long it could sit without being dyed, ect.

My wife and I traveled around to a few silk factories and generally if they were producing silk via "the old ways" or with straight grandma wisdom the factory was successful until enough of the old ladies working there died and then a new factory filled with old ladies would be made. Whenever the factory was run by Thai men the silk was bad and the place was a mess destined for failure or to sell to nothing but idiot foreigners who didn't know what they were buying.

Interesting world the far east I can't wait to go back.

Rodents of Unusual Size

- 2015-12-28

How much more expensive is handmade silk? Is it possible for machines to do everything? These people probably deserve more than they're getting. The mastery and artistry that goes into something like this is really amazing.

garcet71283 - 2015-12-28

Willing to bet its pretty much exactly the same as they were doing it a 1000 years ago.

And by that I mean living to 30 and eating dirt while fuedal lords collect the income.

betamaxed

- 2015-12-28

"Silk comes from the butts of Chinese worms"
- Colonel Oats, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey

chumbucket

- 2015-12-29

I think the Fashion/Horror Category combinations always make for the best submissions.

	\| 73Q Music Videos \| Vote On Clips \| Submit \| Login \|
Random - Hot Videos - Rated: 7 Days \| 30 Days \| All Time - Favorited: 7 Days \| 30 Days \| All Time - Viewed: 7 Days \| 30 Days \| All Time