About this episode
If you want to learn about silk—raising it, processing it, or using it—sooner or later you will find yourself on Michael Cook's site devoted to silk and sericulture, wormspit.com . Raising silkworms and weaving with silk bring together two of Michael Cook's fascinations: textiles and bugs. He has tried, mastered, and teaches about every stage in the life cycle and production of silkmoths, silkworms, and silk fabric. The tongue-in-cheek title of his website, Wormspit, refers to the process that silkmoth caterpillars use to build their cocoons. The gland that produces of fibroin and sericin isn't actually salivary, but silkworms work their jaws to create a filament nearly a mile long. When their cocoons are complete, they may break the cocoon to emerge as moths, or in the case of most silk production, the cocoons are stifled so that the silk can be unwound in a single unbroken strand. Most of the silk used in textiles is from the ultradomesticated domesticated Bombyx mori silkworm, which may also be called mulberry silk or China silk. Some people are aware of a few types of wild silk, such as tussah or tasar, which are raised specifically for textile production. But the silk varieties we commonly think of represent only a tiny fraction of the moths worldwide who make some kind of silk in the wild. Michael has explored techniques from the Stone Age through contemporary tools to reel silk and create a variety of thread structures, which he uses in weaving and embroidery. Through demonstrations, classes, and his website, he makes sericulture accessible—whether you're more interested in insects or threads.