spiders, silkworms, or polyester? which is most often sold to the public in the form of ties, shirts, linens?
Real silk is the thread that silkworms spin, however polyester can be made smooth and thin like silk as a look alike. I have some polyester silky sleep pants that I originally thought were silk, however it's actually polyester. From what I've noticed most things that seem silk are usually polyester, and what is actually silk, isn't always silky.
In India, In Thailand, In Japan. I am from India. Silks are woven and used in period Before Christ. It is part of our culture. Knowledge of Silk worm breeding, spinning silk thread and weaving them into fine clothes are known to Indian very long back. As far as I know there are Silks clothes from parts of India like Kanchipuram, Mysore, Banares and Bengal. Each has its own style and pattern. Silk in India is auspicious and often associated with religious ceremonies and marriages. It consider as pure. I think Japanese Kimono is silk cloth. I have seen films on Thailand Silk and also Vietnam Silk.
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity (sericulture). The shimmering appearance for which silk is prized comes from the fibers' triangular prism-like structure which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angles. Wild silks are produced by caterpillars other than the mulberry silkworm and cannot be artificially cultivated. A variety of wild silks have been known and used in China, South Asia, and Europe since early times, but the scale of production was always far smaller than that of cultivated silks. They differ from the domesticated varieties in color and texture, and cocoons gathered in the wild usually have been damaged by the emerging moth before the cocoons are gathered, so the silk thread that makes up the cocoon has been torn into shorter lengths. Commercially reared silkworm pupae are killed by dipping them in boiling water before the adult moths emerge, or by piercing them with a needle, allowing the whole cocoon to be unraveled as one continuous thread. This permits a much stronger cloth to be woven from the silk. Wild silks also tend to be more difficult to dye than silk from the cultivated silkworm.
