Continuing our discussion from two weeks ago with silk… Last time I talked about the sericulture (harvesting silk in a controlled environment) of silk worms. There is a more humane way of getting silk,known as “wild silks” or “peace silks.” This type of silk cocoon is gathered from the Bombyx mori silkworm that actually lives it’s full life (as opposed to the other silk worms that are boiled before they emerge from their cocoons). There are several different kinds of silks (Dupion, Shantung, Tassar…) and ways to obtain silk, but they all have the same characteristics.

I think we all know how beautiful silk is, and how it’s known for it’s lustrous and elegant finish. It is very soft, fine, and one of the best fabrics for draping. Silk is also extremely tenacious (strong), and won’t be pulled apart easily.

HOWEVER, silk does not wash well at all, and stands up poorly to any abrasion-not good for upholstery or even highly used bed covers. When using silk for window treatments you must make sure you have good lining because silk is weakened by sunlight. And, of course, silk is extremely expensive. It takes about 100 silk worms to make one silk tie. I’ll let you do the calculations for the ratio for a simple window treatment.