#silkworms

Silkworms. Yamagaiko yōhō : zen. Methods for Raising Mountain Silkworms. v.1. 1873.

With the fast fashion industry… how it is… finding sustainable ways to make fabric is super important.  Fibers from synthetic fabrics make up 35% of the microplastics that make their way to the ocean.  Natural fibers sourced from plants or animals are much more environmentally sound options, including silk.

Currently, the only way to get natural silk on a large scale is to harvest it from silkworms.  You’ve probably heard about the strength and durability of spider silk (it is 6x stronger than Kevlar!) but as of yet there hasn’t been a good way of getting it.  Raising spiders the way people do silkworms isn’t really an option.  Spiders need a lot of room to build their webs compared to silkworms, and individual spiders don’t produce that much silk.  Plus, when you put a whole bunch of spiders in captivity together, they tend to start eating each other.

Attempts to artificially recreate spider silk have also been less than successful.  Spider silk has a surface layer of glycoproteins and lipids on it that works as a sort of anti-aging “skin”- allowing the silk to withstand conditions such as sunlight and humidity.  But this layer has been very tricky to reproduce.

However, as scientists in China realized, silkworms produce that same kind of layer on their silk.  So what if we just genetically modified silkworms to produce spider silk?

That is exactly what the researchers at Donghua University in Shanghai did.  A team of researchers introduced spider silk protein genes to silkworms using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing and microinjections in silkworm eggs.  In addition to this, they altered the spider silk proteins so that they would interact properly with the other proteins in silkworm glands.  And it worked!  This is the first study ever to produce full length spider silk proteins from silkworms.

It’s just funny to draw maggot-like versions of adult bugs. I mean. Silkworms as a tribe looks literally gorgeous and refers to some kind of unreal fluffy creatures from dream realm and then there’s that one smooth small ugly creamy-white maggot. What a thing.

What do you think, Ziva?

Oh yeah I think they use what's available to them in their environment and to their tiny size. Plant fibers are definitely a good resource for making textile. I mean even cotton and many other fabrics come from plants. And people used to weave straw or blades of grass, in some places they still do that.

Also since the trolls are too small to be able to raise animals like sheep, I imagine them raising woolly caterpillars or other fuzzy insects for "wool". They also herd bumble bees to meadows for honey and I think they could shear those too since they're fluffy. :P

As for silk... I think they would still make silk the way we do, it would, again, just look a lot like herding big animals. Silk comes from silkworm cocoons so they'd probably raise the larvae and then gently shear the cocoons without hurting the pupa.

I imagine the Classical Trolls would be big is the silk business.

Silkworm moths are tiny and have that "Classical" aesthetic so I think they would even keep them as pets in their moth form. Like how people used to have chickens as pets.

Also here's a cropped image of woolly bear caterpillars from a collection of drawings i'm making about the area around Les and Hed's rural hometown. That area is full of farms that raise these guys for wool and food.

Tho for some reason I imagine this species being pretty big compared to silkworms.

San Floro, Calabria, Italy

San Floro is a small village in Calabria, perched among olive groves, mulberry trees and hills overlooking the Ionian Sea. Despite its size, it holds a remarkable heritage — the ancient tradition of silk-making.

As far back as the Middle Ages, nearby Catanzaro was renowned across Europe for its fine silk fabrics. In San Floro, this art has been revived by young artisans who have brought back the cultivation of mulberry trees and the raising of silkworms, following natural and sustainable methods.

Today, the village stands as a symbol of rural revival, where silk is not just a product, but a reflection of identity, memory, and timeless beauty.

Photos by Terre Ioniche

A chrysalis needs to be perfect when a caterpillar or silkworm prepares to transform from pupae to winged adults. Since the insect can’t emerge until it has completely matured, any overlooked structural flaws or weaknesses may prove fatal for them. But just as important is a chrysalis’ ability to remain anchored in place—and according to a new study, when it comes to metamorphosis, a butterfly’s delicate silk threads are some of its strongest and most reliable tools. Researchers at China’s Southwestern University recently studied the life cycles of two butterfly species—Danaus chrysippus (plain tiger) and Papilio polytes (common Mormon)— and two silkworm species. When it came time for the butterfly and silkworm caterpillars to build their respective chrysalises and cocoons, the team watched as the insects each spun silk into net-like pads. Using an arm-like appendage called a cremaster, they then attached their chrysalis or cocoon to a branch.