Exquisite and luxurious silk fabrics for fashion and homeware can be created from fine, intensely colored silk yarns using various textile techniques.
Mulberry silk is considered the finest type of silk. It is obtained from the cocoons of the mulberry moth, which feeds on the leaves of the mulberry tree. During its metamorphosis, the silkworm pupates a cocoon with its extremely fine and uniform silk thread. This results in a cocoon thread of 1,000 to 4,000 m in length – a natural endless thread of which around 500 – 1,000 m can be unreeled.
Tussah silk, also called wild silk, is also a silk filament. It is obtained from the cocoons of wild butterflies, the oak silk moth or Atlas moth. Unlike with mulberry silk, the butterfly hatches first, before the raw silk is reeled off from the broken cocoons. The relatively shorter silk thread has natural irregularities in its structure, is somewhat coarser and stronger than mulberry silk and has a matt golden-yellow hue.